A knight of the word Shannara: The Word & The Void Trilogy, Book 2

The Barnes & Noble Review August 1998 With Running with the Demon, bestselling author Terry Brooks turned his remarkable skills toward a much more horrific kind of writing than he'd ever attempted. He succeeded with one of the most critically acclaimed and impressive novels in his long and enduring career. In the sequel, A Knight of the Word, Brooks proves that he's as comfortable working in a modern fantasy world with darker underpinnings as he is in the light magical high-fantasy field where he's already so well known. For anyone uncertain if he or she will like the new tack Brooks is taking, rest assured, the author continues to enthrall and fascinate. Five years after the close of the first book, we find that John Ross is not merely a reluctant hero but has actually given up on being a knight of the word, a position of great magical power entrusted to him by the Lady. He has nightmares of a future world created by the Void, an earth full of demons and un-men that can only be avoided if John prevents certain events from occurring. On one of his missions, John failed to see a demon's influence behind a hostage crisis at a grade school, and several children were killed in the ensuing shoot-out. Racked with guilt, John now works at a homeless shelter in Seattle, and though he still carries his black runestaff, he refuses to use magic in any form, not even to check for demons in his presence. Though he still dreams of one particular event that is to take place on Halloween night, he feels that by renouncing his position he can no longer be held responsible for whatever happens,andbelieves that the Lady will simply replace him with another knight. Nineteen-year-old Nest Freemark, another enforcer of the word, has gone on to become one of the best long-distance runners in the nation's history, and she's bound to win a gold medal in the Olympics. More important, however, she is John Ross's last hope to again take up the mantle of his knighthood. If he continues to turn his back on his power, he will be subverted by the forces of the Void, and if she cannot persuade him to accept his fate, then the Lady will have no choice but to send another agent and have him killed. And time is running out: According to John's dreams, on Halloween night - in two days - something evil will happen to Simon Lawrence, the man in charge of the shelter, and Nest knows that a demon is loose among the homeless. The author has simplified his follow-up story, paring it down substantially from the lengthy and intricate Running with the Demon. Brooks has focused all his high-powered attention on a limited cast: John, Nest, Simon Lawrence, and O'olish Amaneh, the Sinnissippi Indian agent of the Word who may or may not be dogging John in order to assassinate him. The plot builds slowly with a greater richness of passion and fear, showing the characters' struggles over whether to save those they love or be true to a hopefully greater and more worthwhile cause. A Knight of the Word is a meditation on responsibility and consequence as well as a dark fantasy page-turner. The novel effectively captures the difficulties and frustration one must deal with when warring with evil from the Void, or from within one's own heart. -Tom Piccirilli Enter Series Index : 02 of 20 Calc Series Group : Shannara Test Search : Word and The Void 2_Knight of the Word / Terry Brooks Test Compare Series to Entered: eq Formats : EPUB, ZAB Calc ESI Combined : 02 of 190 Quick Search : Terry Brooks Shannara ABook : Have Has Cover : Yes All Identifiers : ff:b/terry-brooks/knight-of-word, goodreads:420496, google:SkTRM2ogU5IC, isbn:9780345444592 Test Text Series Index: 2 Single Author : Terry Brooks Raw Title : Word and The Void 2_Knight of the Word Calc ESI Part 2 : of Sorted Author by LN, FN: Brooks, Terry ES Group : Serified_AnE Title Length : 38 Num of Aut : 1 ES Cover Quality : ICBF Record ID : 194 Enter New Series (Calced): Serified_AnE.Shannara.Scifan.02 of 20..ICBF ES Name : Shannara EBook : Have Uncomma Author : Terry Brooks Number of Words in Auth: 2 ES Genre : Scifan Calc New Series : Shannara.... Calc ESI Part 3 : 20 Compare Author : eq Calc ESI Part 1 : 02 Title Parm A : Word and The Void 2_Knight of the Word “Superior to anything being written in the genre . . . Terry Brooks is one of a handful of fantasy writers whose work consistently meets the highest literary standards.”— Rocky Mountain News Eight centuries ago the first Knight of the Word was commissioned to combat the demonic evil of the Void. Now that daunting legacy has passed to John Ross—along with powerful magic and the knowledge that his actions are all that stand between a living hell and humanity's future. Then, after decades of service to the Word, an unspeakable act of violence shatters John Ross's weary faith. Haunted by guilt, he turns his back on his dread gift, settling down to build a normal life, untroubled by demons and nightmares. But a fallen Knight makes a tempting prize for the Void, which could bend the Knight's magic to its own evil ends. And once the demons on Ross's trail track him to Seattle, neither he nor anyone close to him will be safe. His only hope is Nest Freemark, a college student who wields an extraordinary magic all her own. Five years earlier, Ross had aided Nest when the future of humanity rested upon her choice between Word and Void. Now Nest must return the favor. She must restore Ross's faith, or his life—and hers—will be forfeit . . . “[An] urban dark fantasy . . . Sharp and satisfying.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)