It seems in order to review the Sword of Shannara that you need to first discuss the fact that Terry Brooks borrowed a lot from Tolkien. I feel that this many years later it is time to let it go. If your the type that is going to be bugged by this fact then my advice is to steer clear of this entire series. I myself was warned so I didn't let any of that take away from my experience of The Sword of Shannara.
Judged on its own merits it is a good epic fantasy novel. The characters are a lot of fun and so is the world they inhabit. The beginning of Sword has a lot of mystery to it. I love how the valemen are as blind as the reader about who to trust, and what to do. Really when you get down to it this novel is just a heck of a lot of fun. It isn't very dark. The whole novel just moves things along quickly. For the most part it works well.
I have two complaints about the novel. First is that it is written in omniscient perspective. This means that the narrator is not one of the characters. So in any scene you can know what any one of the characters is thinking. I rarely like this type of writting style. It seems that the vast majority of fantasy is written in a style called 3rd person limited. It gives each chapter a flavor for whoever the chapters viewpoint is written from. You can crack this one up to personal taste. If this kind of thing doesn't bug you then it won't be an issue. The only other compliant that I would have is that the last act suffered a little to much from a battle without involving the character as much. It felt like a blow by blow account of a war instead of being on the front lines with the characters.
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