Armageddon's Children

Terry Brooks has combined two of his most famous worlds, Shannara and the Word and Void, and developed a new post-apocalyptic setting where good and evil square off once again. There are three distinct sub-plots in this book. The first plot deals with a Knight of the Word Named Logan Tom. He has been charged with finding a magical being known as the Gypsy Morph. But he is not the only one searching for the Morph. Findo Gask, a demon who was nearly destroyed in Brooks' "Angel Fire East" has survived and, along with other demons, is searching for the Morph as well. Aided by the finger bones of Nest Freemark, the heroine from the original Word and Void series, Logan sets off across the United States in search of the Morph. It is a race between himself and Gask to see who will find it first. Sub-plot two deals with a group of young street kids known as the Ghosts. Living in post-apocalyptic Seattle, they struggle to stay alive. The leader is a young boy named Hawk. All of the members of the Ghosts have taken on unusual names. They, along with other tribes, mark their territory and try to exist. Hawk's dream is to be able to take his group safely out of Seattle to a more safe place, but he possesses a power much stronger than any of the other Ghosts can imagine. The final sub-plot involves the Elves from the Shannara setting. Kirisin is one of the Chosen who tends to the legendary Ellcrys. The Ellcrys is a tree that was made by the Elves to lock all of the evil beings away. As long as the Ellcrys lives, the evil creatures cannot return to the earth. One day, Kirisin is startled to hear the Ellcrys speaking to him. The Ellcrys never speaks, but she tells Kirisin that she is in danger and must be moved before its too late. Kirisin decides to tell the king about what he's heard, but the king ignores his pleas. However, there is one person who can help him before its too late. Meanwhile, another Angel Perez, another Knight of the Word, has been sent to help the Elves reach safety. But, she has one of Findo Gask's demons trailing after her. Will Angel arrive before the Ellcrys' magic fails? This is a fascinating read. I'm a big fan of Terry Brooks, and I've read all of his previous books. I'm amazed at how he has managed to bring together two of his most famous worlds and blend them together. As the book ends, the reader gets a true sense of how neatly Brooks has melded the worlds together. The story is fascinating, and it really draws the reader in. As in all of his previous works, the character development in this book is excellent, and the reader really feels a bond with these new characters. I recommend this book very highly. Brooks has developed a new world by combining two others, and this new world promises to be as thrilling and exciting as his others. I can't wait to see what happens in book two of the series.

Armageddon's Children (2006) is the first fantasy novel in a new series bridging the Word and Void series with the Shannara novels. In the previous series, John Ross and Nest Freemark liberated Harper and Little John from the demon Findo Gask and his minions, but Ross was fatally injured by the evil creatures and then was released from his tasks by the Lady. Gask confronted Nest briefly, but departed without a battle when he learned that the gypsy morph had disappeared after Wraith destroyed the ur'droch. Nest knew, however, that the gypsy morph had become an embryo within herself. In this novel, Hawk is the leader of the Ghosts, a tribe of children within the ruins of Seattle. He has had a vision of leading the children away to Paradise, but he is holding off until he can persuade Tessa to leave the local compound and her parents. When a monster from deep below the city attacks their home, he knows that the time has come for them to leave. Logan Tom escaped from a compound overrun by once-men at the age of eight, but all his family were killed during their flight. Logan got a good look at the demon who leads the assault; the dead eyes will haunt his dreams for decades. He was saved at the last minute by Michael Poole, leader of a group resisting the demons and once-men, and he stays with Michael for the next ten years. After Michael's death, Logan roams the country for awhile in a solar-powered S-150 assault vehicle, but is soon recruited as a Knight of the Word by the Lady. A decade later, he is wondering if his warnings about demon armies and his raids on slave camps have accomplished anything. He knows that many Knights have been killed by the demons, the number of once-men is increasing, and the environment is becoming even more polluted; is there any way to win this war? Then Two Bears gives him another kind of task to perform: guard the gypsy morph while he leads the children to Paradise. Kirisin is a young Elf who has been Chosen by the Ellcrys to attend to her needs. As he tends her roots and soil, the Ellcrys asks him why she has been forsaken. After he recovers from his shock at being addressed by the tree, Kirisin tells the other Chosen what he has been told. Kirisin is not believed and he angrily stalks off to tell the King. There he is placated and told to wait until his message has been researched in the ancient records. Soon, however, he realizes that the King already knows about the Ellcrys's message and is avoiding a response. Angel Perez was a child of the barrio in Los Angeles. When her parents die, Juan Gonzalez adopts her and teaches her how to survive amidst the ruins. Johnny also teaches her how to protect herself from the human predators in the city, using unarmed combat or any available weapon. When a group of bully boys waylay and kill Johnny, Angel sets up an ambush and kills all of them. She takes over Johnny's role as protector for those in her neighborhood. Then Two Bears recruits her as

Unlike some of the one star reviews here, the only problem I saw with the book was it's short length compared to the early Shannara books, get back into the epic fantasies Terry! I was tremendously satisfied with this book, it broke away from the campy Eddings quality that his Shannara books had picked up and actually grew some depth. I would have been worried about the author of the Shannara books being able to write a realistic version of the end of the world. There's no way to sanitize it to make it family friendly. This book is dark, edgy and haunting, Terry pulled out a subject where his real talents might lie, while his other work is good, Armageddon's Children is great, there could be some small improvements in editing and length but I couldn't have been happier.

Global warming, continual war, engineered diseases and plagues, and man's willingness to ignore the destruction all around him have pushed Earth past its tipping point. The Elves may have locked the demons away once, but human-kind has its own demons--and humans can even become demons if they fall prey to the wrong kind of temptation. In the eternal battle between the Word and the Void, the Void has won. A part of humanity has converted to demons and once-men. Another part hides behind concrete walls. Enclaves where men huddle and try to preserve the past remain, but every year, more of these enclaves fall. No matter how hard the struggle, the battle is lost. Yet, there is hope. Knight of the Word Logan Tom is given a task--find the gypsy morph--a child of incredible power and potential. Knight Angel Perez is told to seek the Elves who guard the entrance. Earth, our own Earth of the near future, cannot be saved but a child may be able to lead the way to a new world. Meanwhile, the great tree Ellcrys, has told her elf-caregivers that she needs to move and to locate the elf-stones that will allow her to survive. Author Terry Brooks ties his epic fantasy stories to the modern world with an intriguing dystopic view of the future. No matter how hard people struggle, by the time of this story (a hundred or more years in our future), the battle has been lost, Earth cannot be restored. Brooks introduces several point of view characters, most of whom work separately, coming together infrequently, if at all with the other characters. The old and cynical (Logan and Angel) and the young and hopeful (Hawk, Owl, and Kirisin) seem incompatible, but only by working together do they, and what remains of the earth have a chance for survival. ARMAGEDDON'S CHILDREN is clearly the beginning of a series and Brooks ends the story on a cliff-hanger with each of the subplots. I can hardly wait to find out what happens next.

...,as to why I even started reading in the first place, way back in grammar school. In fact, the first novel I've ever read was the Scions of Shannara. I found the book compelling in a way that the literature pushed onto us by an oppressive English Lit class could never hold a candle to, and have been an avid reader, and fan, ever since. Although the last trilogy didn't seem to share the depth of it's predecessors, even though I still found them enjoyable, I'm glad to see Terry's work back in full force. Even though the book takes place in the inevitable apocalypse, a seemingly tired cliche these days, the fact that it's a sequel to the Word and the Void, and a distant prequel to the Shannara series, definitely adds a magnitude of depth and originality that is unprecedented in the genre. Each character portrayed in the story has their own demons, and even the literal demons in the story have theirs. The fall of human civilization has scarred not only the land in which we lived, but also the hearts of men themselves. The fact that a large portion of the story revolves around a group of children struggling for survival in the ruins left for them by their parents, and how they cope from day to day and deal with the monstrosities that plague them, will certainly, at times, have you glued to your seat, and your eyes stuck to the pages. As I found out one morning at about 4 a.m. I can only hope the sequel is as enthralling as the first, and once again, THANK YOU Terry!