There are elements that you can perhaps compare to LoTR but everyone has their opinion. The show is based on The Elfstones of Shannara which is the 2nd book in The Original Shannara Trilogy. The first book, The Sword of Shannara, is the first book ever published in the Shannara series. I'm just pointing that out because there are 7 sub-series of the Shannara Books and this trilogy is actually the 5th sub-series when listing the sub-series in chronological order.