Nah, the TV series started with the second as they wanted one with strong female characters as well and the first book copped grief at the time it came out for having none. With every fantasy series these days having strong female main characters (except for the offal that is Twilight), there was no way they'd start with book 1 for TV.The first book, Sword of Shannara, was almost a scene for scene ripoff of LOTR... can't believe he got away with this level of blatant plagiarism. This is why the TV series started with the second Shannara book (Elfstones of Shannara). If there is a second season it will feature the third book (Wishsong of Shannara).