I finished Chamber of Secrets this weekend, and I have to admit that I did enjoy it. Fortunately I didn’t remember the endgame from the movie, so the mystery was just that for me. I'm still not entirely sold on the series, but I'm definitely primed for Azkaban to sweep me off my feet.
Three of the books I had on hold at the library came in; I picked them up and will be working my way through them. Equal Rites (The third book in the Discworld series), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and The Sword of Shannara (the first in a fantasy series recommended to me by Scott). Two of these three books have hold queues, which means no renewals… So the clock is ticking, I better get to work!
Shannara? Really? Ugh. I read Sword of Shannara and was completely unimpressed. It a blatant Tolkien rip-off. Not in the way that all modern fantasy owes a debt to Tolkien, but in an every-element-of-this-story-is-stolen-from-Tolkien kind of way. My memory is thankfully hazy on the details, but I recall that a band of little people who normally keep to themselves are swept onto the world stage by the reemergence of a long-gone Dark Lord. With the help of a powerful wizard and hearty ranger-type they must leave their quite corner of the world to infiltrate the Dark Lord's territory and evade his minions to find the one weapon which can destroy him.
Sound familiar?
Well, Peter. I guess I have to "defend" my recommendation.
First: In part, I will agree with you. It is somewhat of a rip-off of the illustrious JRR Tolkien. However, as I will also agree with you that this large series owes it's "life-blood" to him, it does not diminnish the writting style, or the plot as many fantasy writers have used similar antagonist vs. protagonist plots. (It's in the writting styles and the world)
Second: I must correct you. It is not a band of little people. There are no such people resembling Hobbits in the Shannara series.
Third: The writter, Terry Brooks, comes into his own as the trillogy progresses. The large series is actually 13 soon to be 14 books. Some are better than others, but I feel he has done an excellent job in continuing to sepparate the Shannara series more and more from Tolkien's.
Bottom line: We will probably agree to disagree as it's all about what type of writting style you like, and whether or not you are willing to forgive Brook's initial transgression onto Tolkien's turf. Either way, I was entertained, and continue to be so as each book comes out. They are all great rainyday/weekend reads.
Those of you interested in samples can click here.
don't forget that they don't charge you fines for overdue kids books though.... so you have all the time in the world...
Rad! It's always good to know the weakness of the system so that you can exploit it to the fullest!