#the shannara books

[theoakleafpancake]

YOU GUYS.

I KNOW WHO GILAN REMINDS ME OF NOW.

MENION LEAH. THE LEAH’S. PICK ANY OF THEM AND IT’S GILAN

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[clonerightsagenda]

Murderbot has met with paternal approval!

[emlinden]

The Druid of Shannara by Terry Brooks.

This second Shannara trilogy isn’t talked about as much as it should be. I loved the first series but, at this point, I actually think I like this one even better. I like that the series follows the same characters and the same general quest the whole way through; it gives me more time to get attached to the characters and really come to care about what happens to them.

[marypsue]

Yanno what, I like high fantasy just fine, but the older I get and the more I read, the more I'm starting to think I like high fantasy better when it's in-universe fantasy fiction for a different story instead of like. Me, directly reading/watching/etc it.

[itachi86]

ooh allanon backstory

[killldeer]

HRGH. MENION LEAH

[queer-coded-camaro-driver]

Maybe “why do you even care?” for harringrove :)

been saving this one for a rainy day, and it is STORMY AF outside so here we go

Harringrove, getting together, fanon Billy's book obsession

---

"Hey," Steve sits down on the top of the disintegrating wooden picnic table and lights his cigarette, like he does every day during lunch period. Billy doesn't answer, which isn't unusual. What is unusual is Steve continuing the conversation past his initial greeting: "Whatcha reading, Hargrove?"

Billy's blue eyes flicker curiously up from the page he's been scanning to meet Steve's curious gaze, which is intently focused on him and only him. "It's, uh... It's called The Wishsong of Shannara and it's the final book in a series."

"Oh, cool. You were only on, like, the third page in English this morning and now you're almost halfway through. So it's gotta be pretty good, right? Why do like this series? Who's your favorite character?" Steve takes a slow drag from his cigarette after his sudden outburst, still watching Billy with his big brown baby-deer eyes.

The blond is horribly confused.

"Huh?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bother you or anything. I'll-"

"I like the second book best," Billy states. Then he flushes and turns back to the page, voice going teasing like it does during gym class. This Billy is less real, less breakable than the one he'd asked about his book, but Steve will take whatever conversation he can get. From whichever Billy turns up at school. Surly, happy, tired, angry... He likes Billy, no matter what. "Not that it's any of your business."

Steve offers him a cigarette and Billy takes it, tucking it behind his ear for later. "Well, thanks anyway. Later."

"Hm."

And if Steve goes straight to the library and checks out The Sword of Shannara, nobody needs to know except the lady behind the desk. He needs to finish this one, ask Eddie to make sure he didn't miss anything important, and then read the second one. Billy's favorite.

So that next week when he goes out for a smoke, he can ask Billy about the plot. About the themes. About maybe talking to him about it more after a movie on the weekend...

[honourablejester]

In the backmatter for Numenera: Discovery (pg 403), there’s this list of fiction that can/have been used as inspiration for Numenera games, and some of this list does make me happy, because yes, it’s rather familiar. Moebius’ Arzach (comic), Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness (book), William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land (book), Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (movie), Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (animated movie). I’m picking up the vibes, for sure.

It also mentions the Sword of Shannara, and yes, definitely Shannara, given the whole ‘fantasy world that’s actually the future of our scientific one’, but for those vibes I’d definitely go more Heritage/Voyage of the Jerle Shannara-era, Walker Boh. Specifically, read Antrax, the second of the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy, where the fantasy druid Walker Boh gets stuck in a ruin run by an old world AI and has to deal with laser defences and maintenance robots. If you want Shannara inspiration for Numenera, definitely look at the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy.

In terms of animated movies, I would also suggest Treasure Planet. Because yes, it’s Treasure Island In Space, granted, but if you want that vibe of science-fiction-through-fantasy, or in this case SF-via-Age-of-Sail, that fantastic anachronistic mix of technology and sailing ships and archaic social structures, plus the search for vast ancient edifices holding treasures, artefact maps, and technological maguffins, it’s great. (Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire will also give you some stuff to chew on in a similar vein as well).

[theoakleafpancake]

The Ohmsford siblings are another version of the Avatar cycle

**And the Leah companion

[bdazzlebooklover]

I don't know why they stopped making these omnibus'.

[eventine-elessedill]

You think at one point Shea asked one of his new elf pals in Arborlon if they knew his dad and then they sarcastically asked if he knew their man friend back at him?

[lonely-aesthetic]

"The grayness of dawn passed slowly into the grayness of midday" - Terry Brooks, the Sword of Shannara

[kill-bill33]

Okay while I might be confused 99% of the time, during Shannara, Austin’s hair is fabulous.