The Sword of Shannara, a fantasy novel written by Terry Brooks in 1977, tells a classic, derivative story that is marred by repetition and the unwillingness to detach itself from its greatest inspiration: The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The protagonist of the book is Shea, a half-elf who, one day, receives a visit from a …
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The first book in The Wheel of Time series, The Eye of the World, is an epic fantasy novel that wears its inspirations on its sleeve – even to a fault: its story is clearly based on Arthurian legends and The Lord of the Rings, but it’s Tolkien who most shackles Robert Jordan’s novel. The Eye of the World shines …
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One of the most recurrent problems in fantasy novels concerns exposition, with the intricate world created for the story being described in too much detail, to the detriment of the characters and pacing. But, sometimes, the opposite is true: the world is put aside for too long and so fails to capture our interest. In Gardens of the Moon, one …
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