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I've read a few of the Shannara books. I read the first 2 when I was younger after reading LOTR. Sword of Shannara is LOTR with the names changed, but I enjoyed Elfstones of Shannara. Many, many years later, after having purchased the next 4 novels and never finding time to read them, I re-visited Elfstones and didn't enjoy it much at all. Then I read the rest of the books I'd bought, and pretty much hated them all. Each book has a new lead male character. His name is (Fill in the blank) Ohmsford. He is from the Shannara lineage. He is the same character that was the lead in the last book, though his name has changed and some amount of time has passed since the last book (maybe a few years, maybe 500). But each time, it's the same guy living in the same house with the same friend from Leah. Sometimes he has a brother, sometimes he has a sister, but he is always the same guy. Other important things to note: the good guys shoot blue fire (that's basically just the druid Allanon), and the evil guys all shoot red fire (otherwise known as regular fire). And nearly every chapter ends with the sentence "Swiftly they disappeared into the night."

I read the first one when I was in fourth grade or so. I've forgotten pretty much everything about it.

I only remember a couple of scenes from book 1, but I read some recaps and it is more an LOTR clone than I remembered, down to a Gollum-type character who leads the 2 leads towards the Sword of Shannara.

I knew I'd bought books through The Elf Queen (meaning I had Wishsong, Scions, Druid and Elf Queen), but couldn't remember what happened in that last book. I read recaps, and all the awful, awful stuff I remember reading last came from The Druid of Shannara, so that must mean I'd reached my capacity to read any more Terry Brooks crap and got rid of the last book (for some reason I think I kept the others, apparently because I'd actually read the crap, now I felt I must keep the crap). Anyway, I was kind of excited to read Druid because there finally wasn't going to be a (fill in the blank) Ohmsford at the center of the story, but then the story focused on the friend from Leah, who basically turned into the generic Ohmsford character. Plus they had the most ludicrously dumb names I'd ever read in a book. Everything had two names, and Brooks insisted on printing both names every time. The bad guy's name was Rimmer Dall. The monster they were seeking was called the Maw Grint. Some evil assassin named Pe Ell hung out with them. They passed through a town called Rampling Steep and met a guy named Horner Dees, who joined their group, and from thenceforth they were known as the Company from Rampling Steep. There was a type of spirt lady in the group whose name was Quickening. She didn't have two names, but I'm guessing that's because her name was so stupid by itself, adding another stupid name to hers would've broken something in the universe. Since then, I've refused to become excited about reading a book prior to reading it. It's just not worth the pain.

 "On MTV" is the key part of this, isn't it?

Also, "creators of Smallville."

I've been reading through the wikipedia recaps of the remaining books in the Shannara series (there's a billion). Anyway, it's worth reading just to see the fucking names this guy comes up with. These are actual character names: Tiger Ty, Aphasia Wye, Iridiea Eleri, Pyson Wence, Gar Hatch, Truls Rohk, Morgawr, Redden Alt Mer, Hunter Predd, Po Kelles, Eowen, Cogline, Weka Dart, and Cinnaminson.

 I haven't been able to read anything since I went to a talk by Terry Brooks and discovered he pronounces it "SHAN-na-ra" and not "Sha-NAR-ra." 

Well, that and they weren't very good.

 I haven't been able to read anything since I went to a talk by Terry Brooks and discovered he pronounces it "SHAN-na-ra" and not "Sha-NAR-ra." 

Well, that and they weren't very good.

Jubbers and I had the "Shannara" pronunciation discussion just the other day. We're on your side.

For the most part, I'm annoyed in general by fans and creators being pissily insistent on certain pronunciations for fantasy terms. If you want us all to come together and agree on a pronunciation, give us the IPA for the word in an index or something. Acknowledge that people all over the world are going to pronounce your made-up bullshit in a way that seems right to them. Don't expect us to read your blogs or listen to your podcasts, fantasy writers.

I've always pronouced it Neg's way also. Haven't read them in many years. Think I still have them in a box or drawer somewhere in my house.

Wasn't all that impressed by them but I still remember the finale of the first novel when the protaganist realizes the power of the sword reveals the ultimate truth of a person. Don't know why it stuck with me.

I always liked Brooks' Magic Kingdom for Sale book although I never read any other books in the series.