Tags
childhood joy, fangirling, fantasy, Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara, The Shannara Chronicles, thoughts
So last Tuesday night you might have heard screaming. Because MTV aired the first of what I HOPE will be many shows of …
Based on the book…
Published in 1982 by Ballantine Books.
I am a Terry Brooks fan. I was introduced to the trilogoy…The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara in high school and LOVED THEM.
Since then I have acquired every book in the Shannara world, a future Earth. Terry Brooks has written stories of what happened after the original trilogy to what took place before. He even went back to explain how the world we know became the world in his books.
When the TV show was announced, I was VERY excited.
When it aired last Tuesday, I watched with a great hope in my heart that all the characters I love would be there, that the adventure would come to life.
When the show began, the elves took the screen and I gasped. Arborlon appeared before me and my heart stuttered.
OMG AMBERLE! The Elven princess.
OMG THE ELLCRYS! The legendary tree.
When the scene switched to a man waking on a stone slab…
OMG ALLANON…OMG THE DRUID SLEEP! He’s a Druid… only hundreds of years old. AND COMPLETELY FABUTASTIC!
I cried. I CRIED.
Suddenly we meet Wil Ohmsford! I cried again. And his Uncle Flick! FLICK! I might have cried again.
And the DEMONS! Whoa. They were awesome.
Allanon and Wil traveled to the Druid’s Keep in Paranor… OMG.
Anyway, there is a story in all my gasping and squealing and crying. The Ellcrys is dying. And if you don’t believe the legends that it holds back a horde of demons bent on destroying the world, THEN WAKE UP! The demons are coming. The demon leader, the Dagda Mor, is not going to let anyone keep him from returning to power.
But have no fear, there is hope. The Elfstones have surfaced, a power that Wil can wield to help save the world. But using magic comes with a price, a price his father Shea paid when he destroyed the Warlock Lord with the Sword of Shannara.
And Wil had the Elfstones…until they were taken.
Amberle has earned a spot in the Chosen, those worthy to guard the Ellcrys. And the tree is talking to her, warning her.
The tree is dying.
I am ready. Let’s go! Time for a quest. Time to journey across the lands to save the world. Time to fight demons.
The visuals of The Shannara Chronicles are beautiful. The way they woven in the crumbled buildings of our present Earth, the make-up, the costumes.
What the show missed was the journeying, the long days and nights on the road. One moment they were in Arborlon then they were magically in Paranor. That was my only real problem and I realize that those scenes wouldn’t have been very exciting, so… no problem.
I haven’t read these books in A VERY LONG TIME. But I remembered things as the show continued. And I need to reread all the books again.
These books were a big part of my teenage life. Fantasy was a huge part of my teenage life, as we learned from my last blog post. I needed it. To see it come to life on the screen was magic.
When you hear screams drifting through the air tomorrow night, remember…
It’s just me, fangirling.
My husband recorded the show and we watched it last night. I was reading a book so I wasn’t fully attentive, but the visuals I saw were impressive. I felt like the story would have made more sense to me if I’d read the book, but again, I was reading a different book and only half-watching so maybe that’s more the problem than the scripting of the show. 🙂 I know hubby liked it and he’s set up a series record so we’ll be seeing the next episodes.
Give it a shot. If you don’t like it, I’ll still love you. But be prepared for more of my squealing. Lol!
We loved the first episode as well, even though I’d never read the books (I managed to read probably every other fantasy series as well when I was a teenager, but somehow missed Shanara) and my husband had not reread them for ages as well. As my husband put it, we sensed a little bit too much teenage drama going on between all the (young) main characters, but it is a show made by MTV, after all. I have a feeling they’re going to do a good job with the series, but I also think it’s a blatant grab at the “geek” viewership that networks like CW are cashing in on. Cute review too. 🙂
The teen drama is expected anymore. But I think I’ll just ignore it. Lol! And MTV is so trying to get in on the fangirling that CW has!
man……I don’t get THE CHANNEL MTV anymore *cries and huddles in corner* …grrrrrrrr…..
guess I will go get books and start there instead…sigh…..
OH NO! *cries with you* Enjoy the books!
I am so with you on this show! Never read the books but I am a HUGE Fangirl of Fantasy and this is an AMAZING series! I can’t wait to read my first book. I’ve read all of Piers Anthony, Ann McCaffrey (etc) and so when I found out about Shannara Chronicles I was wondering “How did I miss this series?!” Love your GIF’s by the way!
There are so many Shannara books, so many different series within the series! And I swear new ones keep coming. And thanks! I love GIFs!