On the other hand, Terry Brooks' _Shannara,_ which started with a volume lovingly covered by the Bros. Hildebrandt which was itself an appallingly awful cover of Lord of the Rings.
On the gripping hand, starting with a subsequent volume.
On the … um … fourth hand … um … MTV?
I have no idea how to peg this one. Just … um … okay. We'll see.
‘Shannara’ Series in the Works at MTV With Jon Favreau, ‘Smallville’ Duo
MTV is looking for its own Game of Thrones.
The Viacom-owned cable network is teaming with Jon Favreau and Smallville duo Al Gough and Miles Millar to adapt Terry Brooks’ international best-selling fantasy novels Shannara, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. From Sonar Entertainment, the development deal comes with a straight-to-series commitment, so should network brass like the script, the fantasy drama would bypass the traditional pilot stage…
Ugh. I made it through the first volume only because my then-girlfriend insisted I read it. I have no desire to inflict a TV series on myself.
On the one hand, I'm glad to see more fantasy properties getting developed. On the other hand, Shannara? Not the first series I'd pick. (Possibly not even on the list).
Never heard of it before.
Ah, The Sword of Sha-na-na! The Elfstones of the Schnorrer!
Truly the Twlight Saga of their time.
Could be a hoot. MTV will probably play it for humor.
That would be even more unfortunate, @Randy.
Ugh. The Brothers Hildebrand ruined the way LOTR looked in my imagination for years. Never read Shannara because of that
I haven’t read it — heard too many bad and almost no good opinions of it. (And the cover was, indeed truly awful.) So how would a spoofish take on it be worse?
@Randy, I never read beyond the first (pretty awful) volume, though apparently enough people follow it to make it a multi-book success. Of course, a lot of people follow “The Bachelor,” too …
I guess my concern is that the mainstreaming of SF/F still feels tenuous enough to worry about a series mocking a bad book tarnishing the whole genre for the general public. Which is kind of nonsensical on my part, I know.
I was 11 when it came out and it was a bit of a relief to read it after having slogged through the brand spanking new Silmarillion. It was lighter but with a very odd font that took some getting use to. I read the first series and saw no real reason to continue on with Terry Brooks desire to keep writing the same book over and over again.
At the time I enjoyed it (again early teens) but found better books and writers to read as time went on.