"Terry Brooks Shannara Novels to Be Adapted for MTV" Topic

"MTV announced that's working with Jon Favreau and Smallville co-creators Al Gough and Miles Millar to develop a series based on Shannara, the bestselling fantasy series by Terry Brooks. They're serious about it, too: apparently the deal involves a straight-to-series commitment, bypassing the pilot stage altogether.

Shannara makes sense — MTV is clearly out to duplicate the success of fellow fantasy series Game of Thrones, and, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Brooks' 25-volume saga is the world's best-selling un-adapted fantasy book series…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Brooks' 25-volume saga . . .

Good lord, I had no idea he'd written so many Shannara books!

It's all down hill after the first book***. And even that is a completre Tolkien steal, with a slight sprinkling of Gamma World/Metamorphis Alpha.

*** Disclaimer – I haven't read all 25, but based on it taking me more than a year to drag through "First King of…" I'm guessing I haven't missed much.

I read these when I was younger, was ecstatic to find them on audible, so I bought the first three, and for some reason found it a chore to get through. I really can't place my finger on what it was.

Oh dear. Well if I had to choose a network to adapt the first book…

Still with 25 volumes they can't all be LOTR lite can they?

He must have developed his own voice at some point.

I read the first few when I was much younger. To my teenage mind, the best one was Elfstones of Shannara… I seem to remember an awful lot of elves get killed in it!

Never read the books as I saw it as a baldfaced ripoff of Tolkien. I did love the Hilderbrant art covers however. Now I hear some of you saying, "Well all fantasy is a ripoff of Tolkien." Yes and no, there have been a number of fantasy series that diverged from the norm and frankly were more engaging than Tolkien, Michael Moorcock comes to mind as does Robert Jordan. Regardless, it may be fun to see this on the small screen.

I remember a particularly heroic Troll-don't bleep this- in the first one, but also how derivative it was. I didn't touch the others. I'm sirprised they went on so long.

I preferred the Landowner series over Shannara. It had better characters, plot lines and story. I read the first five Shannara but it got repetitive and I haven't gone back since.
Larry

I only ever read the first one when I was a kid. If it hadn't been illustrated by the Brothers Hildebrandt I would have burned the piece of dreck after I finished it. He is a bad, BAD writer!

I know I read at least the first one in high school, and maybe a couple of more. I had no idea there were 25. Even as a teenager, I saw it as LotR-light for the junior high set. Thinking about it, that makes it perfect for MTV.

Doug

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I would have been happy to give MTV some suggestions for book series they could have adapated. My memories of this series (I think I maybe did 3-4 books) are in line with most of the rest of you.

As I recall though, the series has dwarves and halflings just like LOTR – how is MTV going to handle that without Peter Jackson-like levels of cash and technical staff? Are we looking at Sharknado-esque fantasy?

Snookie and The Situation are out of work, and looking for some gigs to show off their acting chops.

Snookie can be a dwarf woman. Can she grow a beard?

Oh ye Gods, Shannara was the biggest load of drivel written. OK, I only read Sword & Elfstones, not 25, but "we hates it, my precious."
There are so many other much better fantasy series that they could film.

In other news, I hear the "Silver Chair" is going to be made into a movie. The need to hurry up and do "The Last Battle" before the principles are two old (and it may already be too late…)

I'd also like to see "A Horse and His Boy", my personal favourite.

Sword of Shannara was the first book ever stopped reading because of how awful it was.
I'd just finished reading LOTR and wanted to read more fantasy… but I did not want to read an ersatz version of what I'd just read.

Ought to do the First Law series By Joe Abercrombie.

I've read almost every book in the series and have enjoyed them very much. I don't find them to be Tolkien derivatives except in the broadest 'both have elves' sense. What I was unable to get through was 'Game of Thrones'. Half way through the first book and I was done.

I enjoyed the first three books in the series as a kid desperately looking for more Lord of the Rings after reading Tolkien. They filled the hole and I was happy about it. I tried reading one of his later novels as an adult and didn't really care for it.

Ditto

Even in junior high, my friends and I were struck by how obvious Brooks was ripping off LOTR with "Sword". It was like, well, the bad fiction we were coming up with. *shudder*

To my teenage mind, the best one was Elfstones of Shannara… I seem to remember an awful lot of elves get killed in it!

I enjoyed that book, especially the part about the Free Corps and their heroic last stand at Rybeck. It wasn't until years later that I learned that this story was entirely the story of the FFL at Camerone, with "Rybeck" replacing "Camerone" and "Gnome" replacing "Mexican." :)

"Free Corps" is such an inspired choice of names.

Snookie can be a dwarf woman. Can she grow a beard?

Only if she doesn't wax for about a week.

I enjoyed the books as a kid. They were part of the pulp fantasy phase I was in from middle school through college. The series satisfied my escapist needs from Physics, Political Science, and Western Civ. Having said that, however, I am not sure how well Shannara will play as a mini-series/television serial. It will require a lot of creative editing/re-writing(in the vein of Peter Jackson).

I am willing to give it a shot. My going in thought is that it cannot possibly be worse than the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" derivative pile called Game of Thrones.

Now, if they would just use the Black Company by Glen Cook! That would be something worthwhile…and especially different from LOTR. Even Malazan: Book of the Fallen by Stephen Erikson would be a better choice than Shannara.

(Note: LOTR was a "ripoff"/retelling of many popular and historical myths. It was not new in and of itself…it was the story telling that made it subjectively good and unique for its time. Even the battle of Pelenor Fields felt more like the "Charge of the Light Brigade" -with an alternate ending and Nazgul- than something entirely new. I still like Tolkien and LOTR but choose to see beyond claims of it being the source of fantasy literature. La Chanson de Roland, Morte D'Arthur, The Castle of Otranto, The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel and a host of writings/oral traditions/stories probably have better claim to that title.)

I never finished the first one. I found it worse than Lord Foul's Bane. At least I finished that one…

Never gonna stop, give it up
Such a dirty mind, always get it up
For the touch of the younger kind
My my my i yi woo
My my my my Shannara

I read the first three books many years ago. The first one is fun: a blatant rip-off of LOTR… but so blatant that it was at least honest about it. The second two were not quite as good, although slightly more original (as far as this sort of thing can be). None of them were great literature, but they never claimed to be. I am certain it is all downhill from there, like most series that refuse to die ($$$$$)…

That having been said, I think the books/concept COULD be made into a good TV series, etc… However, given the quality of writing and thematic content in contemporary TV and movies, I expect any attempt to create another 'fantasy epic' to resemble all the others: garbage.

I enjoyed it as a kid, and read at least two more back then. These days I'm not drawn to Brooks's work.
But I'm willing to say that his stuff might indeed make for an enjoyable television series; in fact, perhaps ideally suited for it. So I'd be interested in what they come up with. Even if I don't want to spend days to read Brooks, I could be entertained for a couple of hours by a nicely condensed production.
Some books need to remain books, but some might be made better as movies.

EDIT: @ billthecat: Looks like great minds think alike…

As a series, comparing it to Games of Thrones is a problem. For one, I doubt there are going to be quite so many boobies on MTV! It will be more "Twilight", I suspect.

Probably more like The Real World: Shannara.