The Shannara Chronicles

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

How the hell have I not heard about this until now? I went to sleep with MTV on (some movie was playing last night when I was channel surfing for something to pass out to). When I woke up I was half listening when I heard "Ellcrys" and that perked me right up!

"The Shannara Chronicles is an upcoming American television fantasy/science fiction series based on the Shannara books by Terry Brooks and produced by MTV which is set to premiere on January 5, 2016 at 10/9c." -Wikipedia





So far I've seen three names attached to this that I trust: Jon Favreau, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar.
Here's the cast list. Seems fairly solid.

I have no idea what it's going to be like, but I've been beaming all day. The Wishsong of Shannara was the first fantasy novel I ever read (I was 8), and I followed all the books until a decade ago. As much as I enjoy Feist, Goodkind, and Martin (they're arguably all better writers than Brooks), none will ever hold as dear a place in my heart as Brooks.
I'm afraid this will be the CW-style version of Game of Thrones, but I'm definitely on board to check it out.

[GohanX]

Sword was the first real fantasy book I read. This is going to be on mtv? What the hell?

[MechDeus]

I'm afraid this will be the CW-style version of Game of Thrones, but I'm definitely on board to check it out.

I'll watch it as long as they play Mmm Whatcha Say with every death.

[James]

I loved Sword of Shannara when I was 12-14, but it doesn't really hold up. I actually read a few of the sequels when they came out and, even as an uncritical teenaged reader, could feel the series losing steam. Tv is a different beast, though, so maybe it will work out ok translated to the screen. I'm probably going to end up watching this but expectations aren't particularly high.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

For me, the Shannara books fell comfortably between the hacky shit of Piers Anthony and the boring shit (sorry guys) of The Lord of the Rings.

[GohanX]

To be fair, I think Brooks was still in high school or something when he wrote Sword. His writing did get better, although I eventually stopped reading when there were so many books in the series I couldn't remember the overall story anymore.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

He got a lot of mileage out of moving forward in time, enlisting descendants of previous characters, and telling the same story over and over again.
But to this day I want a fucking moor cat.