Amazing. This trilogy is the one I've been waiting for for years! The way Terry Brooks finally connects the Word and Void trilogy with the Shannara books I've been reading since middle school...this is amazing! ( )

Armageddon's Children is full of action from the very first sentence. Every main character is in danger and has a battle to fight just to survive much less accomplish the task they are destined to carry out. The demons and once-men control much of the world and take joy in slaughtering and enslaving humans. Much of the human population has taken refuge in compounds, although a few have taken their chances on the streets. Some have been permanently altered from exposure to unnatural toxins and radiation.

It is in this ruined world that two remaining Knights of the Word continue to fight against the Void in a futile effort to save mankind. A street kid named Hawk tries to keep his chosen family safe from the dangers that lurk around every corner even as he dreams of the day he can lead them to safety. Hidden away from the humans, the elves watch the destruction of the world and argue among themselves whether or not to even become involved in the battle.

Although it is not necessary to have read the Word and the Void series before reading Armageddon's Children, I believe it would be helpful. The events in that series lay the groundwork for the Genesis of Shannara trilogy and characters and events from that series are mentioned in this one.

Terry Brooks keeps the story moving at a fast pace and conveys the various emotions of each character strongly. With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, I'm eager to start on the next book in the series, The Elves of Cintra ( )

I only read 5 chapters and gave up. I know nothing of Terry brook's other writing so I can't compere this book against his other works.
It was disappointing to me for a number of reasons. Firstly the language used is very basic ( I even checked in case I had picked up a Young Adult or teenage book by mistake) This feeling was further reinforced as the main characters all seem to be little more than children/ young adults themselves.
To be fair, I have picked this book up after finishing the first 6 Thomas Covenant books so the plummet from the heights of prose in the TC books down to the level found in Brook's work was quite a jolt.
The seeming mish-mash of bible story references , demons , the Word, and Knights, set against a post- apocalyptic modern mechanized world did not sit well. After reading some other reviews I find that there are also elves and other High fantasy elements.
Maybe I will give this book another go later, but I don't think so. ( )

I had no idea whatsoever about the plot-line of Armageddon's Children. I was pleased to discover it was a return to the Word and Void series, and rather excited to see Brooks venturing in to new territory. No fantasy or current era Earth, but a post-apocalyptic Earth where Man has ultimately doomed himself. Clearly Demonkind who serve the Void are making the most of this scenario. It's rather bleak. The book is very heavy on character development, suggesting several tomes are yet to come (which is great news). As is Brooks' style the main characters (and indeed, as the title suggests) are youthful, discovering as themselves as they are forced to survive. The story divides itself well between four sets of characters, three influenced by the Word in some way and the forth is a storyline used to bridge the Word and the Void series to the Shannara series - it's clever and delightful. This book is a must for those who have read all Brooks' previous work, gripping to the brilliantly crafted cliffhanger at the end. ( )

This is a book I've been waiting for--a continuation of the demon series, connecting it to the Shannara series. I'm calling it horror instead of fantasy, because that's what the tone feels like to me--and because the demon trilogy was horror. Barnes & Noble calls it "dark fantasy," but isn't that really just another term for horror?

It's a post-apocalyptic world, a hundred years or so after Angel Fire East. Humankind has gathered into small groups for safety and survival, living in abandoned sports arenas or office buildings. And then there are those on the outside, like the boy Hawk and his little band of children. Mistrusting adults and mistrusted by them, the children form a family of their own, and live by scavenging and bartering.

The humans are in danger from territorial disputes with each other, but also from the demons who've gained ascendancy in the lawlessness. The demons have slave camps in which they experiment on humans and turn them into creatures known as once-men. And all that stands between humans and the demons are the Knights of the Word: Logan Tom and Angel Perez.

Logan Tom's been waging war against the slave camps, but he has a new mission: to find and protect the gypsy morph--a sort of savior that first appeared in the demon trilogy.

Angel Perez's mission of protecting children is also changed, when she's tasked with finding and assisting elves in their quest for the loden stone, with which they can protect and preserve the Ellcrys--a sentient tree that figures prominently in several of the Shannara books.

And there are the elves themselves. Young elves serve the Ellcrys for a year, and it's usually an uneventful life, but then the Ellcrys speaks to Kirisin, warning him of impending doom and telling him the steps to save the Ellcrys and with it the elves.

Armageddon's Children is quite definitely the first in a trilogy--some issues are resolved by the end of the book, but most are not. I wasn't specifically aware of that when I started reading, but I wasn't surprised--most of Terry Brooks's books come in trilogy form.

I found each of the plot threads exciting, and the characters engaging, if tending toward the young-ish side.

The only thing that really gave me pause was the romance between Hawk, who's in his late teens, and a young settlement girl, who's 11. Creeped me out a bit. Still, it's not a huge part of the story, and most of the time I could pretend she was a few years older, so it didn't ruin the book for me.

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, The Elves of Cintra. ( )