I read it and The Sword of Shannara as a kid and enjoyed them immensely. I’m not making this up.ĭespite its less than stellar literary reputation The Iron Tower Trilogy has its share of fans. It’s complete with a hidden entranceway that reveals itself with silver tracery at a dwarf’s touch, and is guarded by a tentacled monster from the Dark Mere. Perhaps most egregious of all is a journey through the ancient underground dwarven fortress Kraggen-Cor which is the Fellowship’s passage through the Mines of Moria in everything but name. That’s merely a taste of the curious coincidences you’ll find in The Iron Tower Trilogy. No, this isn’t the Siege of Minas Tirith, but the battle of Challerain Keep.

Later they use catapults to rain the heads of dead men down on the defenders in an attempt to break their spirit. Later, huge ogre-like monsters bring a massive iron-headed ram named Grond-excuse me, Whelm-to bear on the gates. The goblin-creatures send out the mouth of Sauron-pardon me, a, gloating, evil-voiced emissary of the dark lord Modru-to entreat with the defenders. The fortresses’ human defenders are aided by wee folk (warrows) and an elf. Their standard is a burning ring, scarlet on black. Anyone who possesses even a passing familiarity with Tolkien’s masterwork should stand aghast at the “similarities.”įor example, in The Dark Tide, an army of orc-like creatures attack a fortress ringed with multiple walls.

The Iron Tower Trilogy is, in fact, The Lord of the Rings with the serial numbers filed off. In comparison to The Dark Tide, Shadows of Doom, and The Darkest Day, Shannara is a veritable bastion of originality sprung whole and entire from the forehead of Zeus. The championship belt for most slavish LOTR imitation (that I have read, at least) hangs proudly about the waist of Dennis McKiernan’s The Iron Tower Trilogy. Despite the commercial success of Shannara and its sequels, its now widely considered to be the poster child for Biggest Tolkien Ripoff.īut, prevailing claims to the contrary, The Sword of Shannara is not even close to that moniker. Lin Carter, editor of the acclaimed Ballantine Adult fantasy series, said of The Sword of Shannara ,” the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read”. Its publication began a trend of Tolkien-inspired fantasy that deeply marked ( marred, others might say) the genre thereafter.īut the ensuing years haven’t been kind to Brooks. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings left fans clamoring for more epic, secondary world fantasy with maps, and with The Sword of Shannara Brooks delivered. The publication of Terry Brooks’ Sword of Shannara in 1977 was a watershed moment in fantasy literature.

Jake, Lucid Dreamer by David J. Naiman