Talk:The Sword of Shannara

Paragraph removal
Hi, I've removed the following paragraph from the article's "Literary significance" section, partly because of WP:NOR concerns, and partly because similar material from secondary sources have been found and incorporated into the section. However, I think some of this paragraph's material may be of use in the future, so I've left it here. Tolkien's series, which predates the first Shannara novel by roughly thirty years, also revolves around an unlikely hero from a small, quiet community who is drawn into a quest by a tall, magic-bearing man in order to destroy a distant Dark Lord. Precious magical artifacts are entrusted to the young hero who must flee, accompanied by his oldest friend and cousins from a neighboring land (or, in the case of Shannara, his mundane brother and a friend who is nobility from a neighboring land), when terrifying, demonic, bestial minions of the Dark Lord begin to stalk him and can sense when he uses his talisman. Eventually, a council decides the young hero will have to penetrate the center of the Dark Lord's realm in order to stop his armies, aided by a multi-racial group of companions. The heroes are unable to travel the way they wish, and are forced to follow a mysterious and foreboding underground passage to cut underneath the land. Along the way, their tall wizard leader fights a seemingly invincible foe, and falls with it into a pit of fire to his supposed demise, only to meet up with the main characters later. In addition, some names sound similar, such as Elessedil, which sounds somewhat like a combination of the Tolkien names Elessar and Elendil. These and many other similarities, combined with the common every-day language that Brooks uses in The Sword of Shannara, give some justification for calling it "Tolkien Lite" or "Tolkien For Dummies".

--DanDs (talk) 20:39, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Reviews
The following is a list of reviews by notable commentators. As I am unable to access these reviews, future editors are welcome to do so and update this article's reception section with relevant material. In accordance with WP:NPOV, please do not rely on blurbs or other promotional material for their selective quotations of these reviews. * More info. Other reviews in relevant genre magazines include: --DanDs (talk) 05:51, 28 June 2008 (UTC)
 * More info.
 * More info.
 * More info.
 * More info.
 * More info.
 * More info.


 * A few more:
 * "THE SWORD OF SHANNARA (Book)". Atlantic Monthly (May 1977), Vol. 239 Issue 5, p100
 * "The Sword Of Shannara.(Book Review)". The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

(July 1977): p103.
 * "The Sword Of Shannara.(Book Review)". Publishers Weekly (Jan 24, 1977): p328.
 *  -talk- the_ed  17  -contribs-  01:57, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Defenders
Hi, I've removed the following material because they are based on self-published sources by non-notable writers. However, I've also managed to replace them with alternative material from Gene Wolfe and David Pringle.

and his supporters, such as Laurie Thayer, point out that many of the similarities are broad concepts common in modern day fantasy literature.

It has been said that The Sword of Shannara is just a cheap rip-off of [J.R.R.] Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. However, one might just as well say that The Lord of the Rings is just a cheap rip-off of the northern mythologies from which Tolkien garnered the seeds of his great saga. Both are tales that take great mythological themes and transplant them into a fantasy setting. Shea Ohmsford, like Frodo Baggins -- or Luke Skywalker -- is an incarnation of the Hero With a Thousand Faces, to borrow a phrase from Joseph Campbell. During the course of his journey, which he begins as a parochial boy (no matter his age), he goes through fear, danger and sorrow to become savior of the world. Shea does face down the Dark Lord, not because he is brave, but simply because he must. There is no one else who can. The great warrior Balinor, stalwart Hendel, the mystic Allanon -- all have their place on the journey and in the story, but in the end, it is Shea who must face the Dark Lord and win or lose according to his own virtue.

Additionally, the plot of Brooks' subsequent novels bear little resemblance to Tolkien's works (apart from elements shared by many novels in the genre). "There's no doubt Sword borrows heavily from LOTR, but Brooks has proved his originality and versatility in his later novels." References: --DanDs (talk) 08:02, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Images
I've just discovered a problem with these three images: They are not official book illustrations, but non-official fan art which has been copyrighted and whose creator has prohibited non-personal usage. If images are required for fair-use commentary, it might be better to replace them with relevant selections from the official Hildebrandt Brothers book illustrations instead. Although they are also copyrighted, they are officially "part" of the novel, so it would be a) easier to justify their inclusion for fair-use commentary, and b) more accurate as a reflection of the novel's original content. --DanDs (talk) 08:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Image:Allanon and Flick.jpg
 * Image:Leah.jpg
 * Image:Kern (Shannara).jpg


 * I e-mailed the creator, and he would not release the images into the public domain (understandably). So, I tagged them as fair-use due to my belief that they are not replaceable by even the Hildebrandt illustrations--they would be black and white and not up to the quality of the images listed above...also, they are official--the top of the page reads thusly: "This gallery is dedicated to the works of author Terry Brooks (with permission), I have tried to capture some of the imagery inspired by the first series of Shannara books." (bolding added). I believe this means that Terry Brooks endorses them, making them quite "accurate as a reflection of the novel's original content".  the_ed 17  20:28, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Query re: Third introductory paragraph
Is 'critical acclaim' or 'critical disdain' of a living author's work equivalent to a 'biographical claim'? If so, then the paragraph, The novel has received derision from critics who believe that Brooks derived too much of the novel from The Lord of the Rings. Some have accused him of lifting the entire plot and many of his characters directly from Lord of the Rings; others have regarded the book more favorably, and say that new writers, including Brooks, often start by copying the style of established writers. while adhering to the WP:NPOV, seems like a candidate for Am I off base? Tyllannon (talk) 02:25, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Blanking
Who is routinely blanking this stuff? Is this constructive? Enthdegree (talk) 02:09, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Sources for claims in the plot summaries
Per WP:BRD, I have Reverted the Bold removal of a number of requests for citations from the article by User:The ed17. Let's start the discussion.

WP:V is core policy, and neither plot summaries nor any other part of the encyclopedia get a pass from verifiability policy. Moreover, the part of WP:V that relates to original research does not condone editors writing up such summaries on their own. Attention to reliable secondary sources is as important for WP:Plot summaries as it is for other content in the mainspace.

In this case, someone has challenged a number of claims in the article, and the requests for sources for those claims should not be removed without the sources being added. N2e (talk) 02:18, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi. I am impressed by the number of polices that you can link to, but if you could read Manual of Style (writing about fiction) and How to write a plot summary, I'd be much obliged. As per that link, and long-standing convention in novel and film articles, I have removed your cns yet again, and I would ask you to consider previous consensus in readding them to any plot summary. I will be happy to start an RfC on the matter at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Writing about fiction if you do not recognize this (and I have left a message there, to be sure), but I believe consensus will be against you. Thanks, Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 03:51, 15 January 2013 (UTC)


 * See WP:PSTS: "A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the source but without further, specialized knowledge. For example, an article about a novel may cite passages to describe the plot, but any interpretation needs a secondary source." --  Wikipedical (talk) 05:22, 15 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Hey Wikipedical. The problem here is that those sections that had been challenged have no citation support whatsoever, not even a primary source citation is given.  N2e (talk) 05:36, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * They don't need a source; it is presumed that they are from the work itself. If we go beyond that, interpreting the plot rather than summarizing it, we would need a source. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 05:40, 16 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I would tend to side with Ed here. See the plot summary of Featured Article To Kill a Mockingbird.  A straightforward description of plot is presumed to come from the primary source itself.  I will agree, however, that inline citations noting the chapter/page number is still preferable.  --  Wikipedical (talk) 05:47, 16 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Been asked to comment here, and while its been a loooooong time since I read this book and I can't commentary directly on the plot, what ed17 and Wikipedical say is true: unless there's novel interpretation of the work's plot, we assume that the work itself is implicitly the source for plot summaries. There's no need for citations here (though, optionally, they can help, but are definitely not required). --M ASEM (t) 05:49, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, it seems odd that plot summaries would get a pass and somehow not be covered by WP:OR and WP:V. That being said, I agree with TheEd17 that, with a consensus to leave citations off of plot summaries here on this article Talk page, the place to resolve that issue will be elsewhere, and not on this Talk page.

I do, however, think that the tags should have been left in the article, per WP:BRD, during the discussion and consensus building on this Talk page, and that it was an act of not assuming good faith for the editor who continued to revert back to his quite-recent changes while the consensus was being built.

But for my part, with respect to plot summaries on this article, I will yield to the consensus. Cheers. N2e (talk) 05:52, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, I'd argue that you've been told that citations are not needed for plot summaries anywhere on Wikipedia, not just on this article, but I'm not going to get into another debate. :-) Also, I realize that I could have been much less aggressive here. My apologies. Ed [talk] [majestic titan]

Good Article reassessment
I have requested a community-based reassessment of the Good Article quality rating given to this article in 2008. The discussion is here: Good article reassessment/The Sword of Shannara/1. Cheers. N2e (talk) 04:28, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Allanon source
Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 01:37, 21 May 2015 (UTC)


 * I don't get it. I am reading the book now. I remember that I gave up on it the first time, when it came out, because it was so bad. I still think it's bad, but I have vowed to finish it. I had to encounter the name Allanon a few times before I realized that it was Al-Anon (Alcoholics Anonymous) and got a chuckle. Two names at least are words with a "m" replaced by an "n": "Paranor" is "paramour" (sp.) and "Eventine" is "eventime." "Durin" is a complete rip-off. "Mermidon" is "Myrmidon". The name of the Elf-King's boyhood friend and second-in-command, Jon Lin Sandor, is reminiscent of Tam Lin. Other names are just silly: Shea, Flick, Charnel Mountains, etc. These absurdities are distracting, but perhaps they can be explained by the background point that this is a post-apocalyptic world. (-: Wastrel Way (talk) Eric

"two major plots"
I just finished TSoS and I disagree that the story about Balinor being ousted by his insane brother is a major plot. A sub-plot at best (and one that left me distinctly skeptical of Balinor's intelligence - who abandons his old father to a crazy younger brother [with a Wormtongue-ish advisor] who wants to replace you?) It only appears late in the story. --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 14:55, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

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