i was pleasantly suprised at how much i enjoyed this book after becoming increasingly dissapointed with his shannara series. this was a good story told with great characters. the magic wasnt that over the top, like some of his more recent shannara books. this reminded me a lot of charles de lint maybe mixed with a bit of stephen king or robert maccammon. its a good novel.

brian d

I picked this book up after reading the reviews on this site, as I'd read Brooks' shannara trilogy and liked them a lot. I knew this one would be a different kind of story but I wasn't disappointed at all. I can really say this was one of the best books I've read in a long while. For me the story took a little time to get going; but once it did, it kept me riveted. There's a lot of powerful prose and ideas in this book, it really made me think without being too heavy of a read. One little thing that bothered me though about the writing was Brooks' over-use of the word "dappled." This is nit-picky I know, but for some reason that word always got on my nerves and he used it quite a few times in this book. But aside from that very small annoyance, I loved the book and plan on checking out the rest of the series. One book I would liken this to is a book by Feist called "Faerie Tale." They're a bit different in style, but there are a lot of similarities and I loved them both.

I absolutely love Brook's Shannara series, and it was time to pick up this introductory series to "the Word" as mentioned in the Shannara books. I was very surprised to find a different pace and writing style than I had become accustomed to in the other series. The action is buried in tons of descriptive element (how many times can you describe the same park?). Although Brook's writing is always great and his wide and talented use of vocabulary kept me going, I grew weary of reading this book at times. This is a book I was able to put down quite easily to attend to daily life, unlike Terry's other books which were glued to my hand from start to finish.

Multiple beginnings

Terry Brooks made his fame by writing fantasy books patterned after The Lord of the Rings. In his case, it is the Shannara series. In all of the books that he is written, he is very consistent. They are all trilogies; they all feature storylines that have a battle of good vs. evil; the good side is introduced to the readers and to each other in the first volume as they struggle with their magical powers and what they mean; in the second volume they get separated out and it looks like evil will win; and, in the third volume, the good side wins and equilibrium is restored; they also always feature a very dark setting and very apocalyptic visions of what the future is like if evil wins.

So, how is this book different from the others?

It is based in modern day America. Other than that, it is a typical Terry Brooks. The good side is based on John Ross who is a Knight of the Word - one of a small handful of people who have strong magical powers that is trying to win the battle for the side of good. However, the battle is not easy, nor is the use of magic without consequences (why is it only the good side get completely wiped out after using magic and are weak afterwards, while the bad side can use as much as they want and have no effects?). As a matter of fact, John Ross has a crippled leg to ensure that he must remain wedded to his cause (why is that needed? Shouldn't the good side NOT cause you to become crippled?) [ this is also a reprise of some of Terry Brooks's other characters who had a stone hand and other debilitating injuries].

John Ross has come to the small town of Hopewell, IL to change the course of history. That future is very dark and chilling and features a Queen Demon who is now a 14 year old by the name of Nest Freemark. If John can affect her life, maybe she will not become the Evil Queen Demon and so he will have scored a victory in the battle of Good vs. Evil. The consequences of his failure are described in long dream sequences where John envisions what will happen.

Nest Freemark also has magical abilities, but she sees herself as the guardian of a park where six generations of her maternal ancestors have lived. All of that lineage had magical abilities, but they are mostly guarding them as a secret from everyone else. In the recent two generations, other things have happened and that is the nub of the story. Nest's mother either committed suicide or was killed (it is never made clear) as a result of her magical abilities and Nest's grandmother is teaching Nest how to use her magic responsibly. There are other characters involved who have major parts in this story, but they are actually sidebars. For instance, Nest's grandfather is portrayed as a very positive man with many good qualities, but he has no magical ability which makes his marriage to Nest's grandmother fail and we see his anguish at that process throughout the book.

The good point of any Brooks story is his imaginative characters - especially the fantasy ones. In this book we meet the obligatory Demon, but much more interesting are the Sylvan, the Maentwrog, and Wraith - who is described as a kind of elemental wolf. Each of them is well described and believable in their characterization and we actually find ourselves interested in their lives and behaviors.

The negative side is the very predictable nature of the plot. The main `revelation' in this book is so predictable that I could tell you what it was going to be when I was only about 50 pages into this 420 page book. Secondly, you can see that this book will be the beginning of a trilogy even though Brooks does a far better job of making this a complete story than normal. The last negative of this book - and the one that made me take off a whole star - is that Brooks is almost preachy to the reader in terms of what he finds objectionable in American Society of these days. Whether he recounts some horrific story (like the early teen kids who throw a five year old off a 15 story window to watch him fall and die) from modern day America, to how often he repeats that mantra that society is deteriorating because people have stopped tolerating each other and being nice and kind to each other. It is very repetitive and distracting since it is obvious that Brooks is making the point - over and over and over again - and it is simply not needed beyond the first or second time.

I came to know Terry Brook through the Sword of Shannara and his subsequent books thereafter. Having read around 8 or 9 Shannara books Running With the Demon is a refreshing change of pace. Brooks presents a believable present day world, yet still manages to infuse it with the magic and wonder that makes his Shannara material so enjoyable. Terry Brooks is slowly making me a believer.