Tolkien had made such an impression on the general public." Critic David Pringle said that Brooks "demonstrated in 1977 that the commercial success of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings had not been a fluke, and that fantasy really did have the potential to become a mass-market genre". Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever and The Sword of Shannara ushered in "the era of the big commercial fantasy" and helped make epic fantasy the leading fantasy subgenre. The Sword of Shannara and its sequels helped inspire later versions of Dungeons and Dragons. Television adaptation The Shannara books were to be adapted by Mike Newell, the director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but he left the project. The books eventually were adapted for television by Farah Films and executive produced by Brooks, Dan Farah, and Stewart Till. They began with Elfstones, intending to leave Sword for a later date. The Shannara Chronicles premiered on American television network MTV on January 5, 2016. Notes References Sources Further reading External links Author's Note for The Sword of Shannara The Sword of Shannara - Chapter One (Official website) Artwork for early editions by The Brothers Hildebrandt "How Terry Brooks Saved Epic Fantasy", A Dribble of Ink. 1977 American novels 1977 fantasy novels Debut fantasy novels Del Rey books High fantasy novels Shannara novels 1977 debut novels Dwarves in popular culture