Customer Reviews

Running with the Demon (The Word and the Void Trilogy, Book 1)

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I bought this Terry Brooks novel mostly out of habit since I am such a HUGE fan of his other fantasy works. Well I wasn't sure what to expect, because I waited until it came out in paperback, and then it stayed on my shelf until after 'A Knight Of The Word' came out in paperback as well. I started to get a little low on the choices of books to read in my personal library, and didn't quite have the money to buy the newest hardback that I wanted, so I finally opened it up and gave it a shot. It WAS a little slow to start, but it just kept me interested--facinated at the premise that the story was centered in the 'real' world, and THAT to me was unique (at least in MY reading circles). Nest is immediatly likeable and a great character. I was a bit sad hearing about Grandpa in the sequel, but Nest can hold her own. It IS different from probably ANYTHING else out there in the fantasy field, and rightfully so since Brooks is NOT one to copy others. I still think his first 3 Shanarra books are his all-time best works, but these certainly are entertaining. If you are a fantasy reader mulling over the decision to pick this series up, go ahead and give it a shot, and don't give up too soon. But also, DON'T expect Shanarra, either. It is SO different from those books as to make you wonder if they are even written by the same person. Terry, if you read this, kudos to you for doing it again, and by the way, WHEN can we expect another Shanarra book...?

Capsule Summary: Rating: Excellent. A "positive horror" novel which is well-written, well-paced, and clever.

The spine of the copy of Running With the Demon that I have just says "Fiction"; associations with the author's name invoke a general "fantasy" expectation. Running With the Demon could be considered "urban fantasy", but to me, it's clearly in another genre.

This is modern horror. This is Stephen King's bailiwick. I found myself thinking a LOT of King's work while reading Running With the Demon, and King suffers badly in the comparison. In this book, Brooks gets to show off a somewhat different style of writing, and demonstrate his skills depicting "regular people". The Shannara books take place in an entirely different world (albeit with the conceit that they are actually this world, after a sort of mystical apocalypse), and the Magic Kingdom books have a comedy slant which drives much of the character action.

Here Terry is writing a serious "Novel of Good and Evil", and his characters have to ring true. They have to be people we can imagine living in this world, even if underneath the world we know there is Something Else. And those who are connected to the Something Else we have to at least believe as residents of this world, as capable of hiding their presence from the mundanes.

Running With the Demon presents us with a world like our own, but one that is, unbeknownst to most people, under seige; a battleground between Good and Evil, or perhaps between Growth and Creation and Decay and Destruction. The Creator-power, God if you will, is the Word, and the destructive is the Void. Agents for each are selected, or select themselves through their choices. The "demon" of the title is a man who has become a demon, something inhuman, through his own choices. His general approach is to manipulate others to perform destructive acts. His main adversary, a Knight of the Word named John Ross, was chosen for this duty by a sort of manifestation of the Word called the Lady (with connections to imagery from Welsh history/myth and, at least in general imagery, seems related to the Arthurian cycle as well).

In a sense Running With the Demon seems to be almost a combination of two King novels, or rather two King novels as they might have been written by a better writer. This is The Stand meets Needful Things, because we have both an apocalyptic threat, a confrontation which may lead to the end of the world, and a story of small-town events, of the ways in which evil can use our own fears and desires against us -- possibly with a soupcon of "The Dead Zone", because John Ross can see visions of possible futures -- terrible futures, usually, which it is his job to prevent, but for which he has only the most cryptic of clues as to HOW to prevent them.

But Running With the Demon is BETTER than these books. The Stand, in the end, had to use a literal Deus Ex Machina, or possibly Machina ex Dei, the Hand of God, to finish off everything -- and in doing so made virtually all the efforts of the people useless except as symbolic acts (i.e., choosing good over evil). Needful Things allowed the main hero to survive, but at the expense of not merely a few other people but an entire town. Running With the Demon is at least as well WRITTEN as anything King's done -- and if you have read "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption", you should know that is high praise indeed -- but more importantly for me, it's a more optimistic book. The choices of humans -- even ordinary, non-powered, non-Chosen humans -- MATTER. Yes, evil is dangerous, and in any fight against it there will be costs, there will be sacrifices, but there can also be victory, and not just Pyrrhic victory, either.

There are indeed losses on the side of Good, and several of them are painful, but none of them are without value. This is a book that brought a tear to my eyes at a few points, and at one ultimate moment a triumphant and appreciative "YES!" for the cleverness of one part of the final resolution.

Thank you, Terry. That was a damn good read.

I was a devoted Shannara fan seeing Brooks for the first time when he was publicizing "Running with the Demon" at Powells Books. I got a signed copy, of course, but told him urban fantasy was not my bag.

Brooks told me, "Just keep the book. You'll need it eventually."

He was right. One night, I needed something different and there was "Running with the Demon."

Nest Freemark, one of the two protagonists, is a teenager. She spends her free time with companion Pick, trying to avoid the Demon and Feeders that inhabit Sinnissippi Park. John Ross is a Knight of the Word drawn to Hopewell to combat Evil.

As the plot unfolds, we discover that the Demon has influenced one of Nest's classmates to harass her and also some irritated steelworkers to set off a bomb at a July 4 picnic. Plotting is smart-paced as Freemark and Ross fight to figure out what's happening and stop it.

Great tale--you will find it hard to put down.

Terry Brooks is best known for his "Shannara" series, which is immensely popular despite being rather obviously inspired by Tolkien's plots, characters and themes. For reasons even I can't explain, I've read quite a few of these novels (despite my distain for them) and so I can say with a fair amount of confidence that "Running with the Demon" is undoubtedly Brooks's best novel. Moving away from his fantasy subworld of dwarfs, elves, magical talismans and plucky young farmboys-cum-heroes, the only thing Brooks hangs on to is his good against evil theme, placing it in contemporary America.

Here good and evil are represented by the Word and the Void; the former benevolent and creative, and the latter destructive. The exact relationship of these two sides is only briefly touched on and as such never explored in any great detail; instead Brooks chooses to focus on one skirmish that both sides are deeply invested in: the fate of a young girl and the events that unfold over a four-day period in a small town called Hopewell, Illinois. Two representatives of the warring sides come here in the days leading up to the fourth of July; a demon who has returned in order to see a long-laid plan come to fruition, and John Ross, a Knight of the Word whose mission is to stop him. As a Knight, Ross spends his nights dreaming of the apocalyptic future that is in store for the world, roaming the wastelands and collecting information and clues of what has transpired in order for him to act in the present to prevent such horrors from ever occurring. At the centre of both their quests is a fourteen-year old girl named Nest Freemark.

Nest is a girl living a double life. On the one hand, she enjoys loving grandparents, a close knit group of friends, a comfortable home adjacent to sprawling parklands and a promising future in athletic competition. But on the other, she sees shadowy figures known as feeders who feast on human emotion, is best friends with a sylvan named Pick who acts as guardian to the park, and has internal magical gifts at her disposal. This situation is tricky enough, but she is often haunted by the fact her mother committed suicide when she was just a baby and the mystery of her completely unknown father; and her Gran (her one human confidant of the world of magic) is close-lipped about both subjects.

Brooks creates a carefully plotted thriller/fantasy that combines...well everything. A gruesome monster gradually breaking out of its tree-prison, feeders luring innocent children into danger, a love-interest that is under threat from a more mundane human-evil, a school bully who holds resentment toward Nest, a ghostly dog-wolf whose origins are a mystery, a steelworks strike that is eroding the well-being of the town and causing some to plot drastic action and a dark family secret are all intertwined wonderfully to create a sustained, exciting, poignant story, that ultimately culminates in a darn good read. Every single plot thread, down to a lost kitten, is wrapped up satisfactorily.

There is only one crucial misstep, and that is when the demon is shown as having enough power to instantaneously kill a human being with a simple gesture. By doing so, Brooks infuses the demon with too much power, making later parts of his plan illogical when he stages various ways to rid himself of enemies that involve more elaborate schemes. If he has that much power over life and death, why doesn't he simply eliminate everyone in his way? With this one exception, the story is tightly structured, with the agendas, motivations and goals of both Ross and the demon well-paced and understandable - and with a final twist that's immensely satisfying.

Whereas most of the characters in the "Shannara" series are standard sword-and-sorcery stereotypes (the wise druid, the mystical elf, the winsome love-interest, the gruff dwarf), Brooks presents here a range of three-dimensional characters who interact with each other realistically. Everyone is given a useful part to play within the context of the story and no one bond is given precedence over any other, whether it be the rocky marriage of Nest's grandparents, the tentative bond that forms between John and Nest, the secret but unified force of Nest and Pick, or the warm and bickering nature of Nest's friends Robert, Cass, Brianna and Jared. Everyone acts in the way one would expect from their character, and all come across as sympathetic, likeable, solid characters - ones that you'd like to meet in real life. Nest in particular shines as the confused, conflicted but ultimately brave young heroine, but other standouts are the grouchy Pick and his owl, Nest's befuddled grandfather Old Bob, her no-nonsense grandmother Evelyn, and her loudmouth friend Robert who comes closer than he realises in discovering the truth about Nest.

"Running with the Demon" was followed by two sequels which paled in comparison to the workmanship and characterisation of the first book. Reading this book left me uplifted and thoughtful, the others left me depressed and dissatisfied thanks to sloppy storytelling and the removal of many favourite characters introduced here. My advice is to read "Running with the Demon" as a stand-alone novel, as the sequels really aren't worth the effort.

I thought this book was an excellent book! It had me hooked from page one! I sat down and finished the book within 36 hours since I wasn't able to put it down!

while not quite up to par with his shannara works, it's still worth reading - several times too. the sequels are pretty lackluster, but this one (as are most originals) is the best in the series.
a great introduction to brooks as well, even if you havent read the shannara books - this will introduce you to his writing style which is very good.
the thing i like the best about this novel is that the characters are so vivid and the events are so realistic and logical. the knight of the word and the demon are both described very well and are so deep psychologically that its hard for me to think of a fantasy novel that rivals it in its depth of psychology. a great buy!

Terry Brooks has cleverly fused his unique, contemporary, and personalized approach to the supernatural together with a dramatic coming-of-age story about a special 14-year-old girl. The plot is intricately constructed. Every event - big or small - happens for a reason. This theme of purpose in every event is carried one step further - small events add up to make life-changing occurrences. (A theme echoing the chaos theory touted in the contemporary social and physical sciences.) However, instead of randomness and chaos determining the significance of events in this story, the incremental orchestration of events is insidiously carried out by an evil being. This orchestrated plot is solid and brilliant. Character development is strong - another highlight of the book. The manner in which conflict is dealt with in the book is adequate. While Brooks' style in dealing with conflict does not interfere with the flow of the story, he could have refined his story-telling a bit more, providing further details for the reader to really feel engaged in the ongoing battle. Brooks is quite adept at actively engaging his reader elsewhere in the story through character development and plot construction. One measure of a book's worth is if you still ponder its themes a few days after you have completed the book. Brooks' treatment of the difficulty of coming-of-age, the balance of good and evil, and the purposeful methods taken by servants of good and evil may spark you to think about the fabric of truth, awareness, and balance in our real world. It did me.

Scott Granado

This is my first non Shannara Brooks book (not counting Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), so I really didn't know what to expect. Kind of a slow start where we are introduced to the various characters that'll come into play during the story, the first and foremost being John Ross and Nest Freemark. This may be kinda slow, but it's still some good stuff. John Ross is tortured by his dreams. Being a Knight of the Word, he sees the future in his dreams, and it's not a good one. You can imagine what this would do to one's sleeping habits. John Ross' existence is not an easy one, which we find out.

Nest Freemark grounds this story in reality. The relationship with her friends, her hometown. Brooks' descriptions of the town, the heat, the whole atmosphere of the town reminds me of when I was growing up, and that wasn't TOO awful long ago, so this town and it's inhabitants are real to me. Their problems, fears and friendships are real. Brooks does a great job establishing this and explaining how simple events in this one simple little town can bring forth a horrible future filled with Demons and bondage if our hero's don't prevail.

As grounded as she is, Nest seems a normal kid, except for the fact that she hangs out with a 6 inch twig man named Pick, can see the feeders that feed off bad feelings and emotions, and can do a bit of magic. When our two hero's meet is when the fun begins. Lives are changed, dark family secrets long buried are brought to the forefront and no matter what the outcome, nothing will ever be the same for Nest Freemark.

Brooks does a great job keeping all his plotlines entwined, offering us glimpses of each one until they all come to a head. This is a book about magic and it's consequences, a story of how our civilization has a lot of shaping up to do, or no telling what will happen to us, but mainly it's the story about a family and the secrets that they share or refuse to share and the effects of it.

My main complaint would be that I wish that there was more for John Ross to do. There was a lot going on there with him, but it doesn't feel fully realized. Which I'm sure is the author's intent, and if so, he's done a really good job, as I can't wait to see where he takes this character in "A Knight of the Word."

As I sit and read all of these one and two star reviews, I am thoroughly disappointed in my peers for coming to such conclusions. Many people said how they thought that the modern-world setting was a bad idea. I completely and whole-heartedly disagree with that notion. In my opinion, the fact that the events in Running With the Demon were "here and now" emphasized the realism and tension in the story. On a similar note, it is completely unfair to frown on Brooks simply because he didn't resort to another "sword and sorcery" fantasy land setting. I find it refreshing. As a writer, I let out a heart-felt "shame on you" for downing this story for such arbitrary, and, quite bluntly, selfish reasons. Running With the Demon was fast-paced and descriptive, with reaslitic, believable characters. Brooks managed to keep the heroes of the story "human", which is a skill that doesn't come easily to many adventure or fantasy writers. The fact that Nest Freemark was 14 years old adds to her humanity; it doesn't take away from her credibility as a hero in the story. I don't know how many people will actually read this review, because I got on the horn a little late, but I found it completely necessary to voice my opinion on this subject.

I trudged through the first half of the book, praying that something interesting would happen...FINALLY! And then, happily, it did. The stories pace picked up and the characters personalities began to meld and come together. I found some of the plot development a little bit weak, such as the grandmother and Wraith combination at the end (seemed convenient to the story)and that Nest was able to use her powers to help heal the kid in the very end (when all she could do was destroy the feeders throughout the book). But the book was 'entertaining' and the characters you came to care about (slightly). I doubt, however, if I'll read the next book in the series. Just didn't grab me that much. Not like Dune or Lord of The Rings or Foundation.