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When I was a kid I really did not liked the Sword of Shannara - complete LOTR rip off and overall a boring read. However, later I read the Elfstones and The Wishsong and I really like and remembered them. When I first heard that MTV are going to make the Elfstones into a TV serious I was sceptic, thinking that next to GoT it will be a complete gak. However the latest trailer/teaser and screenshots revelaed by MTV really gives me the inpression that the filmmakers manage to capture the spirit of the books: a postapocaliptic Earth, so transformed that it takes the shape of a fantasy realm.

You can check the vide here:
http://io9.com/first-breathtaking-look-at-mtvs-new-shannara-chronicles-1717112666

Some of the scenes are really good, but I can't say anything about the story. Let's hope that the script won't be a complete gak.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this! Like you, I was kind of put off by the genericness of Sword, but this trailer looks very promising, and with any luck it'll fill a slot that is currently empty; a Fantasy series that's not completely overloaded with nudity, gore and such. The last series like that was BBC's Merlin, so if this is anything like that I'll be very pleased indeed!

The production values are certainly there from the trailer, and I agree that the tone certainly feels right. The script will be the deciding factor, but I'm not going to be put off unless it's utterly terrible; so long as it's watchable, entertaining, coherent and has the right feel, it should be good.

Manu Bennet in a lead role should also be good, he was great in Arrow and does have an excellent presence and range.


Bring on the swordfights and spells!

Considering what TV did to the Sword of Truth series, I'm not looking forward to this at all

Cool the elfstones of Shannara is probably my favorite book of that series as a kid.

That said I didn't know that the universe is supposed to be post apocalyptic earth, I guess flew right over my head when I was a kid.

 Blood Hawk wrote:
Cool the elfstones of Shannara is probably my favorite book of that series as a kid.

That said I didn't know that the universe is supposed to be post apocalyptic earth, I guess flew right over my head when I was a kid.

I think it was only ever hinted at until the Genesis of Shanarra trilogy that actually covers it.

 Paradigm wrote:

 Blood Hawk wrote:
Cool the elfstones of Shannara is probably my favorite book of that series as a kid.

That said I didn't know that the universe is supposed to be post apocalyptic earth, I guess flew right over my head when I was a kid.

I think it was only ever hinted at until the Genesis of Shanarra trilogy that actually covers it.

As far as I remember, there are small hints since book 1. A giant robot-like creature haunts the main characters in some forest. Allanon barley manges to kill it in a place depicted as rofftops of metal buildings emerging from the earth (probably the rooftops оf skyscrapers burried in the ground). Also there was this old magician/keeper of the rivers or something that used a simple flashlight to banish some ghosts. There are way too hints and I even remember there was evil computer that was operating from a locked up tower - I dont remember the exact book of series, they are way too many books :( .

WrentheFaceless wrote:
Considering what TV did to the Sword of Truth series, I'm not looking forward to this at all

It can be no worse than what Terry Goodkind did to it.

TV did a very good job popularising Game of Thrones. Just saying.

 DalinCriid wrote:
TV did a very good job popularising Game of Thrones. Just saying.

Yea but Game of Thrones is MUCH higher production value than the typical television show.

 Blood Hawk wrote:

 DalinCriid wrote:
TV did a very good job popularising Game of Thrones. Just saying.

Yea but Game of Thrones is MUCH higher production value than the typical television show.

I'm not familiar with HBO budgets, but if you don't count the last season, GoT is really on the ToP. For now Shannara really got the looks, but we wait and see. I have no Idea how good MTV are in TV shows, but afak they did a good job with their Teen Wolf stuff, or something.

It might be good if it isn't over the top MTV'd with teen angst and all the other trash that channel puts into it's shows.

 DalinCriid wrote:

 Blood Hawk wrote:

 DalinCriid wrote:
TV did a very good job popularising Game of Thrones. Just saying.

Yea but Game of Thrones is MUCH higher production value than the typical television show.

I'm not familiar with HBO budgets, but if you don't count the last season, GoT is really on the ToP. For now Shannara really got the looks, but we wait and see. I have no Idea how good MTV are in TV shows, but afak they did a good job with their Teen Wolf stuff, or something.

Game of thrones costs somewhere between 5-10 million dollars per episode. That makes it one of the most expensive TV shows ever made but not the most expensive. Larger budgets don't always equal better quality with TV but there are a lot of things you can't do or have a difficult time doing with a smaller budget.

I loved these books as a kid, and I've been reading them with my daughter who is super pumped! Can't wait for January.

In addition to the thread:
Manu Bennett is going to be the Druid. Yay or nay?

http://beta.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/ustv/news/a666206/see-the-magical-and-majestic-world-of-the-shannara-chronicles-come-to-life-in-new-trailer/

huh, I never could get into these books as a kid. Might have to give them another try, and I'll definitely give the show a try.

Well its one fantasy adaption that can actually be improved by digressing from the plot.

It could therefore go anywhere.

 DalinCriid wrote:
When I was a kid I really did not liked the Sword of Shannara - complete LOTR rip off and overall a boring read. However, later I read the Elfstones and The Wishsong and I really like and remembered them. When I first heard that MTV are going to make the Elfstones into a TV serious I was sceptic, thinking that next to GoT it will be a complete gak. However the latest trailer/teaser and screenshots revelaed by MTV really gives me the inpression that the filmmakers manage to capture the spirit of the books: a postapocaliptic Earth, so transformed that it takes the shape of a fantasy realm.

You can check the vide here:
http://io9.com/first-breathtaking-look-at-mtvs-new-shannara-chronicles-1717112666

Some of the scenes are really good, but I can't say anything about the story. Let's hope that the script won't be a complete gak.

I made it about 1/2 through Sword and thought it was one of the worst I'd ever read. I made it to halfway because Dune started slow, but nope just crap. Quit after that.

I always found Terry Brooks to be a highly generic fantasy writer with absolutely nothing whatsoever to make him discernible from the flock bar his vast back-catalogue (he churns out books like Stephen King). His writing style was tedious, his characters shallow, and his timeskips annoying.

I rarely say this, but hopefully they'll manage to make a TV series nothing like the insipid book series.

Ok it has been like 15+ years since I read the first trilogy and prequel by terry brooks, but I don't remember them being THAT bad.

Think I stopped at Elf Stone of Shannara or something....2nd book

I tried reading the books when I was a much more voracious reader of epic fantasy as a kid, but could never really get into it for whatever reason. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the Sword of Truth series though. That might be one of the few occasions where I would condone book burning. Not having read past even half the first book, I can't have an opinion on the series as whole, but this TV-show looks interesting. I'll give it a go methinks.

....

I'm slowly getting back to trying to embark on the grand sweeping "rise and fall of empires' type of fantasy, but I was soured on it for quite a while after Jordan's 9th or so Wheel of Time book ended with the plot not having advanced a single step from book 8.

I still much prefer well-written scifi and single-novel fantasy of the more personal kind. The weirder the better.

The Shannara book series suffers from plot rehashing in a few parts, where the events of one book are basically re-told (with a different McGuffin) than previously, and character names are swapped... but it is otherwise an identical book.

The Sword of Truth series suffers from Terry Goodkind becoming ultra-libertarian and crawling up his own butt.

One I'd like to see made into a series/movie would be Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

 Ketara wrote:
One I'd like to see made into a series/movie would be Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

YES! Urviles to the left of me. Cavewights to the right of me. Onward onward rode the mighty Mhorham!

Not sure they could do a series on the Covenant books though. It would make LOTR look like a Sunday school picnic