[DiapDealer]

In Brooks' defense, I don't think it was "blatant." Blatant as in, "I'm going to sit down and write a story that is LoTR with different colored trousers." Inspired by Tolkien (as many writers were), a lawyer-cum-wanna-be-writer started writing an epic fantasy (when epic fantasy wasn't being published). After pounding away at what turned out to be the first two-thirds of Sword of Shannara, he grew dissatisfied with the way his story was going (because he knew it was closer to ripoff than homage--which was not his intent). After taking a long, soul-searching break, he returned to the project and finished the last third of the book. Which—to anyone who paid attention when reading the book—is exactly where the plot deviated from the formula of Tolkien's masterpiece. That was where/when Brooks discovered his own voice and his own style and never looked back from there. He went on to write 32-and-a-third more novels with no resemblance to Tolkien's plots (unless one wants to grant an unlimited patent to Tolkien on elves, monsters and magic).

So it's really about time to put the "Shannara is a Ripoff of LoTR" meme to bed. It's not as if he's the only fantasy writer to get his/her start writing about a Party on a Quest with/for an Artifact led by a Wise (yet not completely forthcoming) Old Man with special gifts.

Twenty-seven Shannara books and counting, with twenty-seven non-LoTR-like conclusions, and twenty-six non-LoTR-like beginnings and middles; yet someone always wants to dwell on the first two-thirds of the very first book of a burgeoning fantasy author who didn't quite have his feet under him yet (and recognized it).

Give the ripoff bit a rest. Whether you like the Shannara series or not, it's not fair to the guy's body of work ... which speaks entirely for itself (in its own voice).

I'm not saying the various plot-point comparisons/analyses aren't valid. I'm just saying the ridiculous scrutiny of Sword of Shannara was at least partly due to the fact that it had the (mis)fortune of being the first commercially successful epic fantasy since LoTR was published (and/or culturally embraced). So it got branded with the stigma that the virtual flood of LoTR ripoffs that followed were able to avoid for the most part.