MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Bennett

[Takeru]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

... , but could do with some pointers - I've been considering Patrick Rothfuss, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Gene Wolfe and Robin Hobb.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time starts out fantastic, it drags a bit during the later novels but the last ones finished by Brandon Sanderson are great again, I plan to re-read the series soon.

I've heard great things about Robin Hobb, GRRM likes her work, I've bought Assassin's Apprentice but haven't had the time to read it so far.

 

[DWF]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

The first books weren't necessarily set in a post-apocalyptic world; that was a bid of retconning that Brooks did to set the series apart from LOTR (as if there were any chance of confusion...)

I've only read the first book but there seem to be strong hints in it that indicate this is a post apocalyptic world.

The Four Lands were not always explicitly meant to be a post-Apocalyptic version of the world in which we as humans live, but they WERE always meant to be a post-Apocalyptic environment.

That was pretty retconned in though I don't think that was the intention back in 1977 when he wrote the first book. Allanon told the history of the first two war of the races, but that was after war that changed the earth and made them revert back to magic.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

There's a part in Sword where the characters come aross a war-machine that Allanon says is from a war that destroyed everything, so the series WAS always meant to be post-Apocalyptic, like I said.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

They also take a path through what are obviously crumbling skyscrapers in the first book.

 

[DWF]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

There's a part in Sword where the characters come aross a war-machine that Allanon says is from a war that destroyed everything, so the series WAS always meant to be post-Apocalyptic, like I said.

Where in the book is that, admittedly it's a been a while since I've read it but I don't remember that.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

^ Maybe I'm mixing up Sword and Elfstones as far as the machine thing goes, but Allanon does talk about the Great Wars at some point in Sword, establishing that the Four Lands are a post-Apocalyptic world.

 

[Venardhi]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

The first I ever heard of the Shannara books being set on a future Earth was after Brooks announced that the "The Word and The Void" trilogy was a prequel and he was creating a series bridging the two worlds. My memory of the Shannara books is a little fuzzy but I definitely remember thinking the remnants of whatever existed before the "Four Lands" were a lot more advanced than 21st century earth, which is apparently when the downfall of civilization takes place.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

Civilization definitely advances far beyond what we currently have by the time everything completely falls apart and we're left with The Four Lands as we see them in First King, Sword, Elfstones, Wishsong, Scions, Druid, Elf Queen, Talismans, Isle Witch, Antrax, Morgawr, Jarka Ruus, Tanequil, Straken, Wards of Faerie, Bloodfire Quest, Witch Wraith, High Druid's Blade, and Darkling Child.

The thing about the Great Wars is that, contrary to what's hinted at in Sword, they weren't one gigantic conflagration that destroyed civilization in one fell swoop, but a set of multiple conflicts and incidents that ultimately resulted in a massive nuclear catastrophe.

 

[Venardhi]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

"The Great Wars" culminated in "The Genesis of Shannara" and took place across a few decades in the mid to late 21st century. I don't remember much in the way of advanced future technology in that series.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

"The Great Wars" culminated in "The Genesis of Shannara" and took place across a few decades in the mid to late 21st century.

It's actually the 22nd Century.

As far as advanced technology goes, though, there's that bit in The Elves of Cintra where the Ghosts have a run-in with killer robots that I'd describe as being far more advanced than anything that we currently have.

 

[Venardhi]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

The trilogy takes place in the 2080s according to everything I can find online, with the wars beginning in earnest about 30 years earlier.

I honestly only have a vague recollection of the books (I think I read all three over a long weekend whenever the last one came out) so the robots don't ring much of a bell, but the timeline I'm pretty confident about.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

I'd forgotten exactly what year the Genesis novels take place in, which is why I said it was the 22nd Century, but upon refreshing my own memory, they all take place in the year 2092, 80 years after the events of Angel Fire East.

 

[JD]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

Meet Amberle
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEv8BqMXxqs[/yt]
Meet Allanon
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOkR6rdMuiQ1[/yt]
Meet Eretria
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAyRx-I1X8Q[/yt]
Meet King Eventine
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmW0MfBbFrc[/yt]
Meet Wil
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1RCwV1lrII[/yt]

 

[JD]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

Here's the Allanon one.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOkR6rdMuiQ[/yt]
Sorry about the double posts, but if I edit the other post, I'll lose the videos and I don't feel like starting over.

 

[FreezeC77]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

Thats a pretty different image of Allanon than what i had in my mind in the books. No druid outfit/hood.

Physically he seems more like one of the druid chars many books and hundreds of years later.

I guess they are trying to make him less Gandalfy?

 

[Scout101]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

Yep. Probably same reason they started with Elfstones and not Sword; little close to home on the LOTR books. After that one, Terry came into his own more and got away from LOTR more, but that first one was awfully similar.

Although, if I was running things, might have considered maybe trying to start this more with First King rather than Elfstones. With some minor tweaking, you could roll in a little of Sword while mostly sticking to the First King storylines, and by blending the two a little, still tell that story without making an expensive LOTR clone the first season. All they had to do is not fail at the end, and you can essentially skip over Sword.

Guess then you can't have Allanon as the glue that holds the first couple books together, though. I mean, he's there as a kid, but not really a character. That one is Bremen's book.

Guess it'll be interesting to see if they try and keep the characters from Elfstone if the show is successful, or if they still dump most of the cast and recast for the Wishsong story. Kinda what killed Heroes: they planned to recast, but the cast got popular, so they just ran them into the ground instead. Eh, let's see if the first season goes well before we plan out multi-season arcs I guess

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

I personally asked Terry at Salt Lake Comic Con about the decision to base the series on Elfstones, and it was very much his idea, mainly because of the perception that Sword is too similar to LotR (although I've never personally had that impression, especially because of the post-Apocalyptic elements of the Four Lands and their history), and, although he didn't expressly say so, I was left with the impression that he'd never even considered making the series about any novels other than Elfstones.

Allanon also had a more elaborate look to him at one point, and I got the impression from listening to borh Manu and Terry talk that we will see said look in the series.

As an aside, BTW, everyone has completely changed the pronunciation of the name Shannara, which was supposed to be pronounced "SHAN-ARE-A" rather than "SHA-NAR-A".

 

[stardream]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

]
Meet Wil
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1RCwV1lrII[/yt]

I knew I had seen that guy before. He did a couple of episodes on Arrow.

 

[Christopher]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

As an aside, BTW, everyone has completely changed the pronunciation of the name Shannara, which was supposed to be pronounced "SHAN-ARE-A" rather than "SHA-NAR-A".

I can't tell what difference you mean to convey by those phonetic spellings. They seem almost the same, since you've used all caps throughout.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: MTV's The Shannara Chronicles-Starring John Rhys-Davies, Manu Benn

As an aside, BTW, everyone has completely changed the pronunciation of the name Shannara, which was supposed to be pronounced "SHAN-ARE-A" rather than "SHA-NAR-A".

I can't tell what difference you mean to convey by those phonetic spellings. They seem almost the same, since you've used all caps throughout.

You can't see the emphasis differences?

Brooks' official pronunciation renders the name as "Shan-"Are"-A" rather than the unofficial "Sha"-Nar"-"A".