The Sword of Shannara was simultaneously released as a trade paperback by Ballantine Books and hardback by Random House in 1977. Brooks began writing the book in 1967 when he was twenty-three years old.
Terry Brooks wrote The Sword of Shannara after reading Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings while attending law school at Washington and Lee University. He started writing the novel in 1967 to challenge himself and stay sane during his studies.
The story takes place in the Four Lands which roughly correspond to the Northwestern United States following a nuclear holocaust known as the Great Wars. Mankind mutated into distinct races including humans, dwarves, gnomes, trolls, and elves who settled in different regions of this geography.
The Sword of Shannara sold about 125,000 copies in its first year in print. This commercial success became the first fantasy fiction novel to appear on The New York Times trade paperback bestseller list.
Lin Carter denounced The Sword of Shannara in 1978 as the single most cold-blooded complete rip-off of another book that he had ever read. Critics argued the work was undigested Tolkien with point-for-point correspondence to The Lord of the Rings.