The Shannara Chronicles

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Khalan

Khalan

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I haven't read any of the books. I just finished ep1-4. Was OK. a little too much exposition and teen love triangle happening. Also the character development is pretty shallow, everyone is super typical archetype (evil father, mysterious and aloof seer, troubled rogue)
 
Jait

Jait

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Rezz_sl said:
Elenium is plenty dark, but the main characters are basically charmed and borderline invulnerable.
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Yeah, outside of GoT this is true of almost all Fantasy, even Tolkien.

Elenium though is as R-rated as Fantasy gets. Pedophiles (not just the Baron, but hell, even Sparkhawk...), torture, incest, and frankly a great fucking story in a Universe where Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all exist AS-IS sans prophets. Plus it's Eddings so it comes with more fantastic anecdotes than a Tarantino film. The story of the Preceptor who wanted his Knights to wear full plate instead of chain, so they threw him over the side of a ship to test it...shit like that. All gold.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Jait_sl said:
Yeah, outside of GoT this is true of almost all Fantasy, even Tolkien.

Elenium though is as R-rated as Fantasy gets. Pedophiles (not just the Baron, but hell, even Sparkhawk...), torture, incest, and frankly a great fucking story in a Universe where Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all exist AS-IS sans prophets. Plus it's Eddings so it comes with more fantastic anecdotes than a Tarantino film. The story of the Preceptor who wanted his Knights to wear full plate instead of chain, so they threw him over the side of a ship to test it...shit like that. All gold.
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You need to read more fantasy if you think Elenium is R rated. Elenium as it stands is ABC Family material with a TVPG rating (The TV Parental Guidelines) All the stuff you mentioned is talked about happening...but it never happens for the reader outright.

The overtones of the whole novel aren't dark, it's pretty light and easy going. Of all Eddings material though I think it's the most promising for a TV series. Frankly, were HBO to pick up another fantasy series, I think The Cold Fire Trilogy would be their best bet.
 
Thengel

Thengel

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I enjoyed the first 4 episodes, but I'm worried about this show. Correct me if I'm wrong, but our teenagers are leaving on a journey, and leaving the only good actors on the show behind.
 
Jait

Jait

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Tarrant_sl said:
You need to read more fantasy if you think Elenium is R rated. Elenium as it stands is ABC Family material with a TVPG rating (The TV Parental Guidelines) All the stuff you mentioned is talked about happening...but it never happens for the reader outright.

The overtones of the whole novel aren't dark, it's pretty light and easy going. Of all Eddings material though I think it's the most promising for a TV series. Frankly, were HBO to pick up another fantasy series, I think The Cold Fire Trilogy would be their best bet.
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I stand corrected. You have out-nerded me, sir. You clearly have read the Parental whatever it is you posted. How dare I think the pedophile scenes with the Baron, and hell the even worse one with Mirtai and her disemboweling two gay lovers while they stare at each other anything other than PG or PG-13. And clearly scenes where blood soaked orgies are used to summon demons is nothing short of a G-rating these days. Not to mention all the shit I'm probably forgetting, because unlike you I don't have the Parental Guidelines and Eddings works memorized. Please. Forgive me kind sir.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Jait_sl said:
I stand corrected. You have out-nerded me, sir. You clearly have read the Parental whatever it is you posted. How dare I think the pedophile scenes with the Baron, and hell the even worse one with Mirtai and her disemboweling two gay lovers while they stare at each other anything other than PG or PG-13. And clearly scenes where blood soaked orgies are used to summon demons is nothing short of a G-rating these days. Not to mention all the shit I'm probably forgetting, because unlike you I don't have the Parental Guidelines and Eddings works memorized. Please. Forgive me kind sir.
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You seem mad, that was an awful lot of typing for someone who wasn't mad.

There's a reason Eddings Books, all of them, are young adult fantasy. The Baron scenes are never in detail, just him being flirty with Talon, the blood scenes with demons are again, in passing, he walks among them but doesn't focus on them. Those same scenes would just be scenes where they would focus on Sparhawk as he walks through a blurry out of focus backround, like you see today in shows.

You being butt hurt doesn't change that. -shrug-
 
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Ender4212

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The first 4 were surprisingly good. I didn't plan on watching this at all. I hope Deathstroke is still in the rest of the season. I like that guy.
 
Attog

Attog

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I read elfstones when it first released in the early 80's and maybe once since then so my memory is kind of fuzzy but I always thought it was ages, like thousands of years after an even more advanced human civilization (maybe 2100's, 2200's USA?) fell. But in the first episode of the show they take a horseback ride right past a well preserved helicopter body. I agree with someone who posted earlier that they are throwing the "this is Earth, stupid" stuff in your face too much. It could have been better if they saved that for a more surprise reveal.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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I didn't read Genesis so I never knew that the setting was supposed to be Earth. I mean yeah it was obviously post-post-apocalyptic from a technologically advanced society, that was established in the very first book, but the geography of the world was changed so much that it being the distant future of Earth is completely irrelevant to the story.
 
Drakain

Drakain

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Arborlon, was located in Washington state, so the western sea would be the Pacific. I don't remember the geography of eastland.
Show has a bit of a bind with the earth thing. The originals never mention earth, just post apocalyptic like Gav said. When it was revealed in the prequel books, there was a foundation as to why elves and magic were in our world. The show, so far, just gives us, yup... this is earth... deal with it.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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The four lands just plain don't fit into the geography of North America, Pacific Northwest or anywhere else, especially if Morrowindl is supposed to be the Hawaiian Islands.
 
Qerero

Qerero

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Tarrant_sl said:
You seem mad, that was an awful lot of typing for someone who wasn't mad.

There's a reason Eddings Books, all of them, are young adult fantasy. The Baron scenes are never in detail, just him being flirty with Talon, the blood scenes with demons are again, in passing, he walks among them but doesn't focus on them. Those same scenes would just be scenes where they would focus on Sparhawk as he walks through a blurry out of focus backround, like you see today in shows.

You being butt hurt doesn't change that. -shrug-
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Yeah Eddings is a bit too light I think. The Eddings stuff also follows only one character's POV throughout the entire story (the vast majority of them anyway). That would get stale as a TV show, as the scene would never really switch to any other characters/locales.
 
Kovaks

Kovaks

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Spoilered in case anyone is gonna read the Genesis books.

If I remember correctly the main shit right before the apocalypse happened in and around Seattle. The elves and human survivors were inside a protective spell for about 500 years before they went back out into the world. That is pretty much where I stopped reading but I think this is another few thousand years after that. And the apocalypse was so bad it reshaped the continent
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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Genesis is almost a decade old, screw spoilers. The apocalypse reshaping the continent/world is exactly why the fact that it used to be Earth means absolutely nothing to the setting.
 
Kovaks

Kovaks

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I don't disagree, I loved that it was just hinted at in the first books and remember
being excited as a kid to figure it out and then see even more in the scion books. Also made for some fun when he linked word and void together. I'm not sure of they think viewers are too dumb for hints or if they are trying to set it apart from strait fantasy. I'll keep watching to see more demons as I remember really liking the descriptions of them in the book, I hope they don't dissapoint
 
A

a_skeleton_03

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I am reading sword right now, they have a battle with some beast in the ruins of an old town from before everything and it is all metal. Yes I agree with everything you guys are saying but he definitely wrote them weird at first and then learned a little more and fixed up his inconsistencies.
 
Drakain

Drakain

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Sword is outright painful to read, a self admitted LotR clone. Elfstones is where the story truly begins. I agree with the world building aspect. The over arching theme of the Elves/Demons/Ellcrys is pretty awesome. It's been over 20 years since I first read the Shannara trilogy and I still remember crying at the end of Elfstones. Might have been my first book cry. I'm a sap heh.
 
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