A Knight of the Word (The Word and the Void Trilogy, Book 2)
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 . . . Amazon.com Review The story winds lazily through sleepy, wet Seattle like a tour bus, steadily building. Everything eventually converges on the homeless shelter where John works with his new sweetie Stefanie Winslow for über-activist Simon Lawrence, a man his dreams tell him he is fated to kill. A thin mystery clouds the identity of the demon conspiring to deliver John unto evil, but the book's real focus is John's fitful, foot-dragging attempts to fulfill his destiny. Knight doesn't provide the suspenseful energy of Running, a book that followed Nest through the dramatic loss of her childhood, but it rejoins her as she assumes the responsibilities of young adulthood and--like that period in life--still manages to deliver satisfying, if more subtle, rewards. --Paul Hughes From Publishers Weekly From Library Journal Preachy, no escape from real life Why serve the side of good? Is there an escape from fate? Or are we trapped by destiny?Product Details
Editorial Reviews
John Ross, the tortured, conflicted Knight of the Word from Terry Brooks's Running with the Demon, finally gets a good night's sleep in the sequel. He buys this moment's peace at the cost of his sacred oath to be a champion of the Word, renouncing that pledge after failing to prevent the slaughter of a group of schoolchildren. Duty and destiny are difficult to elude, though, and soon his former charge Nest Freemark, now a college student and Olympic hopeful, arrives to warn him of his imminent destruction, or, worse, his unwitting fall into the service of the Void.
Brooks continues his vacation from his trademark Tolkienesque adventures (the Shannara and Magic Kingdom novels) with this urban dark fantasy, a sharp and satisfying follow-up to last year's Running with the Demon. It has been five years since mortal John Ross was anointed a Knight of the Word, and in that time he has suffered a serious crisis of faith. Unable to prevent the death of innocents in senseless acts of violence engineered by demons of the Void, he has fallen from his calling and drifted to Seattle to work with saintly Simon Lawrence and the Fresh Start program for homeless women and children. Nagged by recurring nightmares of a possible future in which he murders his mentor and dismantles the program, John is guilt-ridden, uncertain and vulnerable to a shape-shifting demon who has infiltrated his circle of associates. His only hope is Nest Freemark, the teenage heroine of his previous adventure, who applies her own grasp of the Word to smoke out the demon before John's dreams?which include her death?can come true. The identity of John's demonic manipulator and the meaning of his dreams are carefully crafted mysteries that build to a climax filled with surprising twists and turns. Brooks's real achievement, however, is his orchestration of the tale's social issues and personal dramas into a scenario with the resonance of myth. Both a sprightly entertainment and a thoughtful allegory of the forces of Good and Evil at large in the modern world, this novel is sure to increase its author's already vast readership. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Haunted by his failure to prevent the death of innocent children, John Ross abandons his calling as a Knight of the Word and opens himself to corruption by the forces of the Void. His only hope for rescue lies with Nest Freemark, a young woman whose demon-blood once brought her to the edge of the Void but who now seeks to repay her debt to the Lady of the Word. The sequel to Running with the Demon (LJ 9/15/97) features a pair of engaging heroes and a fast-paced, though predictable, plot. Best-selling author Brooks continues to maintain his reputation as a polished raconteur. Most libraries should add this to their fantasy collection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.Customer Reviews
First of all, I'm a huge Terry Brook's fan. But so far I've found The Word & the Void series off the beaten path from the Shannara series. The first book seemed excessively descriptive and without as much action as Terry usually packs in. Then I started reading this one...and my, oh my, is it preachy! Conversation after conversation of homelessness, its various causes, society's reaction, and on and on. It reads like a philosophical debate on society's problems, centering on homelessness but including our self-destruction. A thin story line is interwoven into the debate, but you have to earn it to get it. The self-destructive line is understandable, given that the end of this world preceeds the Shannara world, but the rest of it is wearing me down. I like to read fiction books to escape the specifics of real world problems. So far, there's no escape here. It's a reminder of all the problems waiting for me when I put the book down, all the unfortunate possibilities that the current economic state could present us with. As overwhelming as real life feels these days, this book just reinforces those feelings.
The second volume of the Word and the Void series, is as much of a standalone novel as the first one (Running with the Demon) was, and it features many of the same characters. The main story line this time is that John Ross has decided to forsake the side of the Word and quit his role as A Knight of the Word. Unfortunately, quitting is not allowed in this world and so a battle begins for his soul between the two sides. Ross is being courted and seduced by a demon who is working as hard as it can to make sure that Ross becomes an ally of the Void. The Word is not sitting idly by either. The Lady sends emissary after emissary to him trying to get him to stay in the fold - or actually, to return to her service. The initial emissaries are the normal dream sequences - but Ross ignores them; so then she sends her other servants culminating in the recruitment of Nest Freemark who is now a 19 year old woman attending college.
The main problem I have with this whole concept is that it seems to me that there is no reason for anyone to want to take on the mantle of fighting for the good side - the Word. Look at Ross for instance, as soon as he is admitted to the fold, he is permanently disabled and bound to the staff. We are told that this is to remind him every day of his service. Also, he is haunted every night by nightmares that show him how the world will end if he screws up. Oh, these dreams eventually yield clues that allow him to redirect events and resolve things to the side of the good, but why would anyone want to do this? What are the rewards of service? If you read these two books attentively you notice that there are no rewards - only more and more demands.
In Ross's case, he makes a mistake and does not foresee all the possibilities for wrongdoing in one case and consequently he fails - which results in a massacre in which 14 young kids die. Ross is understandably upset by this setback and one would think, nay hope, that the Lady would come to his aid - but she does not do so. Instead she spurns him and does not appear to him to bolster his morale. Noticing this, the dark side dispatches one of its most feared demons to work on subverting Ross. So, what does the Lady do? She sends a few more emissaries, but also dispatches one of her assassins to be ready to kill Ross in case he deteriorates further! Why would you serve these people willingly?
As far as the story goes, it rolls along in a semi-believable fashion as we witness the battle from Nest's perspective. She is not sure why she is being asked to help, and put aside her own worldly concerns, but she eventually does. As she finds Ross, and works out all the mysteries and swirls of magic around him, she begins to unravel the plot that is ensnaring Ross and points the way out to him. Ross for some reason believes her, while not believing in all the previous emissaries, and consequently is ready for the final battle in the nick of time - a battle that introduces us to a new twist of the magic that resides within Nest!
The demon that is working on Ross is obvious from miles away. About one third of the way through the book, I figured out who it was. The author does his best to cloak this and to sow doubt at the end, but those plot twists do not really work. Also, the whole story is a vehicle for the author to present his very dark vision of current American humanity and to expound on his political views of how the world and our society have turned their backs on unfortunate people - which will ultimately cause us immense pain and destruction.
I am not sure what bothered me more: the preachiness of the book? The obvious plot? Or the utter disregard that the supposedly good side has for its own people. For all of these reasons, I rate this book as a mere two. One final note, what was the illustrator thinking about when preparing the cover? Whose house is that? It is certainly not a part of either of the first two books in this series. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
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.
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