This is the second book in The Word and The Void series by Terry Brooks. I found this book much easier to read than the previous book. I now think that another reason I found the first book of the trilogy harder to get through than the Shannara series was that Mr. Brooks had to set the scene and background for the series, and although I find this hard to say since I like Mr. Brooks' books so much, setting the scene and giving the background was slow and a bit pedantic. The second book moved along much more quickly, perhaps because there weren't as many non-essential characters to become involved with and you were already familiar with the two main characters, John Ross (the Knight of the Word) and Nest Freemark.The second book starts five years after the first book ends. Again, the main story covers a small span of days...from October 28 through November 1. However, in the beginning of the book, John Ross (through his dreams that he receives each night as a Knight of the Word) tries to prevent a disaster involving the deaths of several children from happening. He does prevent the events as shown in his dream but the demon involved in creating the disaster in the first place is very inventive. Since John Ross prevented him from killing the children as he has originally planned, the demon finds another way of killing the children, and in the process ends up killing even more children than shown in John Ross' dream. As a result, John Ross (feeling responsible for the children's deaths) disavows his service to the Lady (who originally made him a Knight of the Word). He runs away from his responsibilities as a Knight of the Word. But, as the Lady originally told him, "once a Knight of the Word, it is forever." He moves to Boston to become a student and, in the process, meets a lady and falls in love. They move to Seattle and become involved in an outreach program for abused women and children, as well as meeting the needs of the homeless. John Ross slowly stops dreaming as he did as a Knight of the Word and feels he has actually succeeded in becoming a "normal" person.But the Lady has other plans for him. Nest Freemark, in the intervening five years, has become a college student and a world class runner. She is expected to run in the upcoming Olympics and win gold for the USA. But all that changes when Ariel, a tatterdemalion, shows up and urgently tells her that John Ross is in danger of being subverted by the Void and that Nest must go to Seattle to warn John Ross of the danger. As might be expected, Nest is at first reluctant to interrupt her studies and training to go but in the end is persuaded by the tatterdemalion to go. Nest doesn't know how she can help John Ross but feels she must try. She also feels as if she has lost any magic that she used to have.The remainder of the story is composed of the "quest" of Nest, Ariel and various friends she finds in Seattle to persuade John Ross of the danger and that he needs to find his magic again to once again become a Knight of the Word. Things come to the defining point of both Nest's and John Ross' journey on Halloween night, All Hallow's Eve. To say what happened between the time that Nest arrived in Seattle and October 31 would be to ruin the story so, of course, I will not go into those details here.The reason I only gave this book four stars was that I found the ending to be predictable. The last few chapters of the book were about determining the identity of the demon who was sent to subvert John Ross to the service of the Void. For me, it was obvious who the demon was and therefore the subsequent actions taken by the characters were predictable. Nonetheless, this was more like a typical Terry Brooks' novel...the quest, the back and forth action between the good (the Word) and the evil (the Void) and (for the majority of the book) the mystery as to which side would win. Even though (toward the end of the book) the conclusion was never in doubt, I still found it enjoyable. I am looking forward to the third book in the series, Angel Fire East, and then moving on to the rest of the Shannara series.
Please note: This review originally posted 3/12/2008; do not judge based upon my current format.Fate and destiny intertwine to trap John Ross in this, the second book of the Word and the Void trilogy. Devastated by his failure to completely prevent a tragedy at a grammar school, John decides he is not able to continue as a Knight of the Word and stops. Stops using his magic, stops following his nightmarish dreams of the future ... and eventually - seemingly - the dreams go away, eventually his link to the magic appears to go away. He is still crippled, he still requires his black staff - the token of his Knighthood - in order to walk, but he no longer utilizes it for anything else but a walking staff. He meets the woman of his dreams - a stunningly beautiful woman named Stefanie Winslow - and together they move to Seattle and begin to work for a man called Simon Lawrence - a man of extraordinary vision who works to help homeless women and children - and a man who, according to the only dream John still has, John is fated to kill.But the Word is not so willing to give John up; despite the fact that he has renounced his place as a Knight, he still holds the magic of the Word and if a demon can twist that magic to the use of the Void, that would be a giant blow struck in the war against the Word. Nest is contacted by O'olish Amaneh - the last of the Sinnissippi - and asked to go and try to get John to take up his part as a Knight of the Word, to try to get him to believe that he is up close and personal with a demon, because one is already close to turning him to the Void's purposes.Although the identity of the demon didn't come as much of a surprise to me - having figured it out fairly early - it was nonetheless revealed in a rather startling manner. Watching John Ross go through what he did in this book was painful in the extreme, because it is easy to understand the isolation and loneliness that he underwent as a Knight of the Word as compared to the happy life he had built for himself in Seattle, where he had a job he loved, a girlfriend he loved and a thriving social network. To watch all that come apart under the machinations of a demon AND the Word - it was quite painful. And to watch his determination to make things right anyway was somewhat awe-inspiring.Terry Brooks can break your heart over and over and you still keep coming back because his characters speak to you in so many ways. This story was about growing up, in more ways than one. I highly recommend it.
Do You like book A Knight Of The Word (1999)?
This book is the second in a core trilogy, and oddly enough, it's actually not the weakest book. I usually find myself disappointed by a second in a trilogy because they always end on a cliffhanger. Not so here. This was encapsulated, a nice change from the usual fantasy mold.It continues the travells of John Ross, Knight of the Word. Make that ex-Knight of the Word. He's quit and never has felt better. Abandoning his staff and taking on the role of an everyday life in Seattle, his visions of impending apocalypse have stopped, his sleep has never been better and he even has himself a girlfriend. The only thing left to him of the old life are the limp he got from denying the Word in the first place and Nest Freemark.This does not please the Word, and worse yet, it gives Void the edge.When a creature known as a Tatterdemallion appears in the Seattle area, a creature composed of the souls of children dead before their time, it needs the assistance of the Word to avenge itself, but John just isn't interested. However, Nest and other forces conspire to bring the Tatterdemallion to rest.This was a good book. In a roundabout way it got me to read the first book in the series, Running With the Demon. I picked it up used in a bookstore and pieced together 'sequel' in a few pages of reading. Best round-about book selling method ever applied on me.Give the series a go, and if you like it, go on to Armageddon's Children.
—Monk
In way I like this better then the first book in the series because now I was more familiar with the authors world and Nest is more grown, however, at time this was little predicable. My main issue and I could be wrong here is that Nest figures out who the daemon is by how the daemon acted around Ross and that it was similar to how the other daemon acted around Gran. However Nest, Ross, and the daemon were never in the same place. The first time Nest and Ross meet she is outside when he comes up in a Taxi and the second he meets her in her hotel lobby. And both time they depart from each abruptly and no one else is with them. Also I don't recall Gran, other daemon and Nest hanging out. Ok as the reader, the Daemon's ID is little predicable and you don't need Nest's thinking about Gran to figure it out. Also this book could have more meat. I'd like to see Two Bears kick some ass. I think Nest could have another episode where she demonstrated a more mature use of magic. Also this daemon wasn't as calculating as the first. There should have been some more misdirection and manipulation.Anyway this book was good enough that I stayed up rather late finish it.
—Dave
The story isn't so much bad as it is transparent. The very first foreshadowing of who the antagonist might be made it so obvious that the rest of the book was just a chore to get to the final confrontation. I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if the demon were revealed in the first few chapters (to at least one character) so we could read about how John/Nest deal with that knowledge. Instead we just watch as everybody fumbles around ignorantly while we, the reader, know full well who they should be pursuing. I was also a little disappointed that the investigative journalist added absolutely nothing to the story other more pointless drama. Every other plot line illustrates that John Ross is at siege from a demon, we don't need one more that doesn't add any depth to the story. The end was much more satisfying than I thought it would be. I'll admit, I really didn't anticipate the revelation of Nest's magical powers (maybe because throughout the entire book none of the main characters actually USE their magic until the last 50 pages, so it was kind of forgotten) so that was a nice surprise.The last thing I'll say is this: when your main character meets and interacts with god maybe you should commit more than one paragraph to the interaction.
—John
