The Sword of Shannara

I've seen books in the Shannara series around in bookshops and libraries for many years, but they never seemed to have the first book so I always gave it a miss. Then I found this one in the library, and I thought it might be worth a look to see what it was about, quite soon after reading Stephen King's comment that if [b:The Lord of the Rights|21377203|A Lord's Rights|Simone Holloway|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394316207l/21377203.SY75.jpg|40676966] had been written in "sword and sorcery" style, Sauron would have been the hero.

This one wasn't quite as bad as that, but it wasn't very good either. I've read a couple of others in the genre -- [b:Pawn of Prophecy|44659|Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391346857l/44659.SX50.jpg|2558293] by [a:David Eddings|8732|David Eddings|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223870462p2/8732.jpg] is one, but this one was a bit better than that.

I suppose the point of comparison with [b:The Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547450792l/33.SY75.jpg|3462456] is that this is a quest novel -- a group of people are assembled by a mysterious figure (A Druid called Allanon in this case) to go on a long journey with many adventures on the way try to get hold of a mysterious talisman (the eponymous Sword of Shannara) before the bad guy does.

The world in which the story takes place is both over-described and under-described. Desolate places are described rather unconvincingly at great length -- marshes and dry places in which nothing lives. But it is not until page 512 (of 664 in my edition) that there is any inkling that this world has horses, cavalry and wheeled vehicles. Until that point all travel seems to be on foot.

There are other odd inconsistencies -- when those on the quest come to the Druid castle, which has just been captured by hostile gnomes, they find all the empty underground passages conveniently lighted by torches, and one wonders who lit them and replaced the torches when they burnt out. In the land there are four races, Men, Trolls, Gnomes and Dwarfs, but in various places they are all described as men or as human beings.

Not a very bad read, but not a very good one either. I don't think I'll be looking for the rest of the trilogy.