They could have taken it in a different direction than the books, I suppose, but in them the post-apocalyptic setting is clear pretty much immediately.
Yeah, I think I mentioned it above, but finding out about the post apocalyptic thing was very much a cool discovery in the later books, as there are very few hints early on.
These books are not as well written (sorry terry) than the Game of Thrones books, but they are far less dense and more enjoyable “summer reads” type books.
I wouldn’t call the first book straight up saying so immediately and confronting the hero with a giant cyborg spider thing in the first few chapters “very few hints”. Like, it’s not a secret at all.
Question for anyone who has watched this already: Would it be appropriate for my 12 year-old daughter to watch? She likes to watch Atlantis (on BBCA) with me, and we both enjoy Doctor Who together. With both of those shows she can handle the occasional violence, monsters, etc., so that’s not a concern with Shannara. My real concern is “adult situations” (sex and sexual themes). I wouldn’t think these would be a part of a Shannara series, but it is cable and they have a young and attractive cast…
There is no sex in what Ive seen, only beautiful MTV young people in slightly revealing dresses, but nothing untoward for a 12 year old. There is one scene though, where the show took a strangely gory route. Its short though, but still rather crazy , considering the rest of the show.
I didn’t watch much, but I did see one rather “showy” moment with a newly formed (quite literally) character taking the shape of a mostly nude woman.
Pretty family-friendly, IMO. In the first two-parter, the sexiest it got was when a fully clothed female character began to seduce a nude male character (only chest exposed to viewers) but didn’t follow through because SPOILER. There’s a fair amount of romantic and sexual subtext peppered throughout, but so far that’s as far as it seems to go. I’d say it’s safe.
Brooks seems to want to avoid the Game of Thrones kind of adult stuff. From an interview:
EW: Is the series a straight adaptation of Elfstones, similar to how Game of Thrones is adapted?
TB: Don’t mention Game of Thrones to me. We were saying, “We don’t want to go that route.” That’s not what the Shannara books are. They’re a family-oriented fantasy and always have been. That’s been one of the strong selling points. Anyone from 10 years of age up that has the reading skills can read these books. We’ve always talked about it as a family drama that anyone can watch. I thought of it as a straight adaptation. I told Al and Miles early on, “I know you’re going to have to make changes. Just hold the bones of the story together.”
Edit: Oh, I forgot about the woman Dan mentioned. Yeah, she’s pretty much nude and has fairly passionate embrace with another character, but that’s as far as that scene goes.
What book was that? I remember Sword of Shannara being pretty much regular tolkien style fantasy.
Elfstones has quite a bit of violent and gruesome murder in it thanks to a certain antagonist but was not big on the sexytimes that I recall.
Then you are misremembering. The post-apocalyptic nature of the setting is very explicit from the start of Sword onwards. It isn’t a major part of the plot itself, but it’s explicitly clear.
Cool, thanks all. Guess we will watch it together (got it on the DVR) and see what we think!
Back when I read it, and keep in mind this was when I was like 10 or 11, I thought the post-apocalyptic stuff was still in a fantasy world - not Earth. For example, nothing about the mech-spider lead me to believe it was something we made in our future.
Yea, I read the first three books in college and I either missed the post-setting or I just didn’t remember it.
Also I really don’t remember any sex in the books. Just good quick reading summer type fun.
Yeah, I remember the technology stuff coming up in some of the Jerle Shannara series, but the original books had nothing more than small hints that now I think are only clear in hindsight. I also read those books as a pre-teen… so I probably missed the subtle hints.
Ditto. Read the original trilogy when I was youngish and had no idea it was post-apocalyptic.
Maybe I’m dense.
Yeah, subtle hints.
Sword of Shannara text
"“A very long time ago,” he began finally, still considering his explanation as he spoke, “before the Great Wars, before the existence of the races as we know them today, the land was—or was thought to be—populated only by Man. Civilization had developed even before then for many thousands of years—years of hard toil and learning that brought Man to a point where he was on the verge of mastering the secrets of life itself. It was a fabulous, exciting time to live in, so expansive that much of it would be totally beyond your comprehension were I empowered to draw you the most perfect picture. But while Man worked all those years to discover the secrets of life, he never managed to escape his overpowering fascination for death. It was a constant alternative, even in the most civilized of the nations. Strangely enough, the catalyst of each new discovery was the same endless pursuit—the study of science. Not the science the races know today—not the study of animal life, plant life, the earth and the simple arts. This was a science of machines and power, one that divided itself into infinite fields of exploration, all of which worked toward the same two ends—discovering better ways to live or quicker ways to kill.”
He paused and laughed grimly to himself, cocking his head in the direction of the attentive Balinor.
“Very strange indeed, when you think about it—that Man should spend so much time working toward two such obviously different goals. Even now nothing has changed—even after all these years.…”
His voice trailed off for a moment and Shea risked a brief look at the others, but their eyes were fixed on the speaker.
“Sciences of physical power!” Allanon’s sudden exclamation brought Shea’s head around with a snap. “These were the means to all the ends of that era. Two thousand years ago the achievements of the human race were unparalleled in earth’s history. Man’s age-old enemy, Death, could now claim only those who had lived out their natural lifetime. Sickness was virtually eliminated and, given a bit more time, Man would even have found a way to prolong life. Some philosophers claimed that the secrets of life were forbidden to mortals. No one had ever proved otherwise. They might have done so, but their time ran out and the same elements of power that had made life free from sickness and infirmity nearly destroyed it altogether. The Great Wars began, building gradually from smaller disputes between a few peoples and spreading steadily, despite the realization of what was happening—spreading from little matters into basic hatreds: race, nationality, boundaries, creeds*…*in the end, everything. Then suddenly, so suddenly that few knew what happened, the entire world was enveloped in a series of retaliatory attacks by the different countries, all very scientifically planned and executed. In a matter of minutes, the science of thousands of years, the learning of centuries, culminated in an almost total destruction of life.
“The Great Wars.” The deep voice was grim, the glint of the dark eyes watching carefully the faces of his listeners. “Very apt name. The power expended in those few minutes of battle not only succeeded in wiping out those thousands of years of human growth, but it also began a series of explosions and upheavals that completely altered the surface of the land. The initial force did most of the damage, killing every living thing over ninety percent of the face of the earth, but the aftereffects carried on the alteration and extinction, breaking the continents apart, drying up oceans, making lands and seas uninhabitable for several hundred years. It should have been the end of all life, perhaps the end of the world itself. Only a miracle prevented that end.”
“I can’t believe it.” The words slipped out before Shea could catch himself, and Allanon looked toward him, the familiar mocking smile spreading over his lips.
“That’s your history of civilized man, Shea,” he murmured darkly. “But what happened thereafter concerns us more directly. Remnants of the race of Man managed to survive during the terrible period following the holocaust, living in isolated sectors of the globe, fighting the elements for survival. This was the beginning of the development of the races as they are today—Men, Dwarfs, Gnomes, Trolls, and some say the Elves—but they were always there and that’s another story for another time.”
Or
more Sword
After a short time of traveling across the valley floor, the party caught sight of an unusual structure that rose through the trees like a huge framework. It seemed a part of the forest about it, save for the unusual straightness of its limbs, and within moments they were close enough to see that it was a series of giant girders, covered with rust and framing square portions of the open sky. The company slowed automatically, looking cautiously about to be certain that this was not some kind of trap prepared for unwary travelers. But nothing moved, so they continued their approach, intrigued by the structure that waited silently ahead.
Suddenly the road ended and the strange framework stood completely revealed, the great metal beams decaying with age, but still straight and seemingly as sturdy as they had been in ages past. They were part of what had once been a large city built so long ago that no one recalled its existence, a city forgotten like the valley and the mountains in which it rested—a final monument to a civilization of vanished beings. The metal framework was securely set in huge foundations of something like stone, now crumbling and chipped by the weather and time. In places, remnants of what had once been walls were visible. A large number of these dying buildings were clustered together, pushing out for several hundred yards beyond the travelers and ending where the wall of the forests marked the end of man’s feeble invasion into an indestructible nature. Within the structures, and through the foundation and framework, grew brush and small trees in such abundance that the city appeared to be choking to death rather than crumbling with time. The party stood in mute silence at this strange testimonial to another era, the accomplishment of people like themselves, so many years before. Shea felt an undeniable sense of futility at the sight of the grim frames, rusting their weary lives away.
(and then, shortly thereafter)
The jungle behind the stocky Valeman burst apart with a thunderous thrashing of limbs and brush. Forth from its place of concealment emerged a grayish, multilegged horror of monstrous size. A nightmare mutation of living flesh and machine, its crooked legs balanced a body formed half of metal plating, half of coarse-haired flesh. An insect-like head bobbed fitfully on a neck of metal. Tentacles tipped with stingers dipped slightly above two glowing eyes and savage jaws that snapped with hunger. Bred by the men of another time to serve the needs of its masters, it had survived the holocaust that had destroyed them, but in surviving and in preserving its centuries-old existence with bits of metal grafted to its decaying form, it had evolved into a misshapen freak—and worse, an eater of flesh.
Mind you, I don’t recall that stuff coming up much after the first book, so if you skipped Sword it would be easy to miss. But it’s straight up full screen shown in Sword.
Edit: I thought there was a prologue that told that stuff right at the beginning, which there is not, but Allanon gives a sanitized version of the history in the first couple chapters that still makes it fairly clear it’s supposed to be a post-apocalypse, if perhaps a fantasy one. The above bits come more like the middle. But close enough!
Did the Sword of Shannara inspire Bakshi’s Wizards movie?
A little googling tells me they both came out in 1977.
It’s been a LONG time since I read a Shannara book. Is there supernatural magic in the setting or is magic just science/technology beyond the ken of the natives? I seem to vaguely recall that the druidic order was basically a group that had access to past knowledge.
Most of the druid stuff is tech, IIRC. But I believe there’s also actual supernatural magic and the elves and demons are related to it.
FWIW, apparently the urban fantasy Knight of the Word trilogy Brooks wrote is actually the same setting as Shannara, pre-apocalypse. I never drew that particular connection myself but I don’t think I read past the first two trilogies of the Shannara series proper.
I’m pretty sure that book has provided very little inspiration to anyone.