The Sword of Shannara 2.5/5 Stars
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Coming into this series, I had already watched and read a lot of mediocre reviews. I was well aware that this book was very heavily inspired by Lord of the Rings and I'm glad I was prepared for this because even though I knew it, throughout the book I found myself saying 'Lord of the Rings', 'Lord of the Rings,' and 'oh, more Lord of the rings!'

I wish I liked The Sword of Shannara more than I did because I do feel, despite being inspired by Tolkien's Middle Earth, that Brooks really created an amazing world with a fabulous history. The land of Shannara is basically our world years and years and years in the future and has become home to a number of different man-like species besides humans.

The book was just far too heavy with description that it became borderline tedious for me. There were a few times that my eyes were drooping and I almost fell asleep more than once while reading. I had to start skimming now and again because otherwise I would just be reading paragraph after paragraph of description rather than actual dialogue or important content that moved the story along. Some description was repeated a lot such as the description of Allanon and I got sick and tired of hearing about his 'dark figure'. I was pretty glad when this was over but still eager to move on to Elfstones.

The Elfstones of Shannara 3 Stars
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Overall, this may be my favorite book of the series. I definitely felt a lot more for the characters of Will, Amberle and Eretria than I did for Shea and Flick. It was also perhaps a little bit more original. I did ship Will with Eretria a lot more, as I do in the TV show, and I liked the twist in the ending. I also really wanted something to happen between Ander and Stee Jan XD

The Wishsong of Shannara 2.5 Stars
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The first half of this book was good. I liked Jair and Brin and learning about them, their personalities and the wishsong. Allanon was really annoying in this one as usual. He's actually a bit of a bully but I liked that in this one it's acknowledged by everyone. I also feel that Wishsong has a lot more real Allanon moments. We see him weak, and afraid and we also see some moments of tenderness with Brin. However, I really love Jair's group of comrades and in particular his relationship with Slanter. Unfortunately this book eventually fell the same way as its predecessors and just became boring and I eventually began to skim.

I'm really glad I finally finished this bind-up because I really just stopped enjoying it. It began to feel like homework and I dreaded picking it up. When it comes to any more Terry Brooks reading, I'm sticking with Landover.