http://www.fnordinc.com/2009/12-27/re...

I have long been told that Terry Brooks was a writer i would enjoy, but i really had no strong desire to start reading his mammoth Shannara series. 19 books is quite a commitment to a single author, as such, i just never got around to reading any of them.

About six months ago, i ran across a copy of Armageddon's Children on the cheap. I read the inside cover and it was pretty clear that this was a standalone book, and a nice introduction into Brooks, with out having to commit myself to a mass reading project. i picked up the book and read it, enjoying the whole plot. Unfortunately, the book ended up not being a standalone. Instead, it was the first book in a standalone TRILOGY. the prequels to the Shannara series... damn you publishing house.. damn you. The other two books are "The Elves of Cintra" and "They Gypsy Morph"

I searched out and found matching hardback copies of the rest of the trilogy and got sucked into the story with absolutely no effort.

The series is pretty solid. it details the journey of a band of children living in the pac nw after the world has essentially ended. radiation has created waves of mutation in humans. healthy people are holing up in fortresses for safety, often times made out of the largest populace centers available, stadiums.

One band of children, led by a boy named Hawk, live in the pioneer square area of seattle. they are fending for themselves and eking out a moderate existence as a surrogate family.

Hawk has a dream that he will lead the children to a safe world where they can thrive in safety. the children follow him almost like a father figure.

From an alternate location, Logan Tom, is a Knight of the Word. he hunts demons that roam the planet, seeking to destroy all that exists, seeking dominance over the world. Logan Tom is sent by the essence of existence, the "Word" to find Hawk and help him achieve his goals. He must do this before the world in engulfed in a flaming apocalypse which will destroy everything.

There are a lot of sub plots and a large number of characters i do not make mention of. I would highly suggest this series. even if you have no desire to read the whole Shannara series, this prequel set is a solid read and is written in a way that you are never forced to moe on. Shannara is not even mentioned by name.

funny, i finally get why people spout off at the mouth about Terry Brooks. Perhaps i will pick up his novelizations of Hook and The Phantom Menace and read those soon.

- FNORDinc.com ( )

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. ( )

This was my first Brooks novel and I'm very intrigued. I'm fairly new to the Science Fiction/Fantasy scene and hope to read more. Who would of thought that a demon and and fairies would be in the same story? Fascinating! ( )

Logan Tom still dreams of his last night with his family. He dreams of being shaken awake by his father, he dreams of the forces of evil slaughtering his parents, brothers and sisters. He dreams of that scene repeated all over the world as mankind goes mad. And when Logan Tom awakes, the horror begins. Because his dream was real and Logan's only hope lies in traversing the United States in search of someone who may be able to end the madness.

Other reviewers have more knowlege of Brooks as a fantasy writer. I found this a very satisfying stand-alone novel and beginning of the trilogy. ( )

This book was a really great change from the typical Shannara stuff we'd been used to recently. All new characters, all new world (possibly...) doom and gloom abounds. It's fast paced, exciting and pretty damn scary in parts. Highly recommend, and can be read without having read the previous Shannara books. ( )

I love this book!!! It's the start of a new series about the creation of Shanara!! It shows a slowly decaying world due to nuclear warfare and such. The creatures that haunt our world are very cool and the use of known cities (such as LA, and Seattle) that have fallen into ruin is very eerie!! If you are a Shanara fan I definately recommend it and I think that others will enjoy it too!!! ( )

I adore that Brooks bridged the Word and the Void series with the Shannara series. I had high hopes for this bridge series, and was not disappointed. ( )

Awesome, this is seriously some of his best writing!!! ( )

I'm frankly amazed that anyone could give this book a 5...let alone a fairly large percentage of people. Have you read books before? Don't get me wrong; Brooks writes some acceptable action sequences and has some fast moving plot that keeps things interesting at times, but his characters are incredibly cliche and one dimensional and at other times the writing is just plain boring. Normally, the plot is coherent, linear, and fast-paced enough in his fantasy works that I can look past this stuff. However, this particular novel also suffers from an identity crisis. It's a great marketing feat for an author to bring two series' together, and get some cross-readership. It turns out it's not quite as great of a literary feat.

The world that he creates is not real enough to be identifiable and not fantastical enough to be alluring. His allusions to things like Gandalf and Dick Cheney are really out of place in the writing. Maybe a small thing, but it left me scratching my head wondering why he threw those in. This introductory novel also spends many pages with blatant character backstory on characters that in an epic sense, seem very unimportant. Instead of learning about them through their interactions and through small kernels of relevant knowledge, you are deluged with long rants on each character's past. At times, I felt like Brooks had just copied down his character profiles into the novel. I mean, shouldn't authors learn how to make this stuff a bit more subtle? "Instead of having reader's come to conclusions about characters indirectly, I'll just tell them exactly the one dimension this character excels in and why and heck, let's even name some of them based on this dimension." Finally, the elven storyline in the book appears out of nowhere. No tie ins, allusions, references, hints. Just bam!, we have elves in this chapter. I actually had to check whether some pages had been ripped out, because I felt like I had started another novel. I can think of several ways this could have been smoother.

There are some good things in this novel. The haunted druid/knight characters are always a bit more interesting and you can tell it's who Brooks likes. In every novel I've read of his, that's usually the most interesting/round character. Logan Tom is not a bad "main"ish character and I actually think sticking with him a bit more would have served the book better. In addition, the book picked up a bit in the second half, after we didn't have to slog through character dumps as much. ( )

Terry Brooks. Hm. I tried reading one of his Shannara books in high school and just couldn't do it. Honest, I tried. Had to put it down, or maybe I finished it, all I know is I was left with a feeling of "don't do that again". But, I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction. Stand by Stephen King is amazing and holds up to many re-readings. Pierced by the Sword by McFarlane is crap when read after the age of 25, but at 23, I thought it was pretty good. That and it was heavy on the Catholic sutff which I dig.

So, there I was in Off the Shelf obeying my rule of "I can buy whatever book I want as long as I pay cash and don't do it on-line". I saw Armageddon's Children and then I saw who the author was and well, the urge to read another good world-ending story overpowered my desire not to waste time or money on Terry Brooks.

Was it worth it? Sort of. It ends so unfinished because it turns out that it's part of a trilogy (which they really don't tell you on the back of the book) and I'm not sure it's worth it to pick up two more books to find out who dies and who survives. The story was good, the characters good, a little one-dimensional, but there are lots of characters to keep straight, potential for it to happen in my lifetime, probably not ridiculous. John Titor, it ain't, but it probably isn't too far off base.

BUT, I went to check out what some other people said... This story is the pre-story to Brooks' other series. I am not going to read the other stories and I think I'm done. It was a lovely diversion, but not that lovely. If you like his other stuff, you'll love this, but otherwise, enh.
Originally posted May 16, 2007

I was shocked to realise that The Sword of Shannara was published 30
years ago. For 30 years, Terry Brooks has been gradually adding to
what must be longest running fantasy series of all time. With the
publication of Armageddon's Children he draws together the Shannara
series with the Word and the Void Trilogy, detailing the collapse of
our civilization and the rise of magic.

I've always been a fan of the Shannara books, ever since I first found
a battered 700+ page hardback edition of the Sword of Shannara and
took it to school for Friday reading, only to find it was too thick to
fit in my desk drawer. I've up with the series long after I gave up on
similar authors from that period of my life, and so what might strike
some readers as repetitive and worn out strikes me as familiar and
comfortable.

For yes, we do have the same elements. A quest (or two, with the
makings of a third), wise guides advising from the shadows, inhuman
enemies, mutant creatures, individuals ignoring their lethagic rulers,
strong male characters with a two syllable first name and a one
syllable second name....

This is not an ambitious book. Like many of Brooks's works, it
contains elements of originality and promising concepts, but the whole
never manages to exceed the sum of the parts. The post apocalyptic
setting somehow lacks punch, with mutants and slave camps feeling a
little tired. It also suffers from first book syndrome with too much
set-up material, particularly in the form of infodumped backstories to
characters.

But despite all that, I enjoyed reading it, and I'm sure that anyone
who enjoyed any of Brooks's other books will like this one, too. The
plot keeps going at a fair pace, racing towards a cliffhanger ending,
and there's plenty of material in play for the next two books. Even
after 30 years, there's no end in sight for this story. ( )

http://monsterlibrarian.com/endofworl...

Armageddon’s Children is the first book of a trilogy dealing with the cataclysmic events that created the fantasy world of Shannara. The story takes place in our near future, a bleak and dismal time. War and pollution have destroyed the environment, creating a world that is no longer hospitable to men. To make things worse, demons are scouring the world, looking to exterminate the human race. The remaining humans have moved into sports arenas, thinking the high walls will shut out the dangers plaguing the rest of the world. Children are surviving on the streets in gangs, calling themselves tribes. Meanwhile, the Knights of the Word, magic wielders trying to save the human race, are fighting the demons to protect the few survivors. Armageddon’s Children is a true pleasure to read from the first page to the last. The characters are captivating in a way that makes the reader really care about what happens to them, the action is non-stop, and the story itself flows from scene to scene in a way that makes it hard to put down. Reader’s advisory note: Armageddon’s Children is a good choice for Terry Brooks fans, and also for those readers with a penchant for fantasy tales and apocalyptic stories. Recommended for public libraries’ horror or fantasy collections, and high school library media centers. ( )

Terry Brooks is a well-known fantasy author, most famous for his books about Shannara. Those who enjoyed his previous works will enjoy Armageddon's Children, since it is evident that he continues to learn about his craft and applied that knowledge for this book--the contrast between this novel and his first one, The Sword of Shannara, is quite dramatic. Armageddon's Children is the first in a new trilogy.

This book takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. The world has succumbed to wars, pollution, and all kinds of human excess. Some of the survivors are mutating so that they are no longer recognizably human. Some are going crazy so that they are only called "once-men." Some are holing up in compounds around the world, trying to maintain a vestige of civilization. Complicating their attempts at survival is the appearance of demons—strong, depraved creatures who are fighting for eradication of the human race and the supremacy of the Void, the force of evil.

On the side of good are two Knights of the Word. One of them is tasked with finding the gypsy morph--a child born of magic--and protecting him or her as it leads humanity to a new future. The other is tasked with helping the Elves (and yes, there have been Elves hiding in the world all along!) find their own way to the new future.

This book was entertaining and absorbing. It combines two of my favorite genres--fantasy and post-apocalyptic. It focused more on the post-apocalyptic, so there is a lot of description of the ruined world and of the survival skills necessary to live in it. I anticipate that as the series continues the fantasy aspect will become more predominate.

There are elements in the story that remind me strongly of Brooks' other writing, which is enjoyable as a fan--seeing connections among an author’s work is part of the privilege of a long-time reader. Unfortunately I cannot say too much more without ruining a possible surprise--one which I delighted in finding out when I finally realized it.

Armageddon's Children is one of those books that kept me up way past my bedtime, drawing me into reading just another 15 minutes...just one more chapter...okay, just until 11:30. The story was entertaining and easy to follow, without becoming too predictable.

The characters could have been developed with a little more depth, but they are already above par for the genre. The number of flashbacks in the text border on the annoying, but they provide useful illustrations and back story.

I would heartily recommend this book to fans of Brooks, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic writing. This would likely be a good introduction to any of those three, for those not already invested in any category. The worst I can say about the book is that now I am impatient for the next one in the series! ( )

My friends have been trying to get me to read Terry Brooks for years, so I finally thought I 'd humor them.

While I normally like the fantasy genre, I really can't say that I was very impressed with this book as a whole. The story had potential, but I really didn't think that he blended the whole elves and fairies thing in with the post apocolypse theme very well. In addition, I was really disappointed that he made no attempt to conclude the book. I hate blatant baits to try to get you to read the next story.

ps, I would like to say thanks a lot to the person who wrote the big fat spoiler in their review, this didn't help much either. ( )

As a stand alone novel set in a world which has mostly fallen apart at the seams, this is a great book.

As part of the "Word and Void" series it was pretty good, although it seemed to contradict what I remember of the themes of that series (it's been a while since I've read any of them, though).

As the first book of a group that will tie the "Word and Void" and Shannara series together... I'm going to reserve judgment. It seems a little bit like Brooks is grasping at straws in this attempt to bind his two fictional worlds together. We'll see how it plays out in the later books. ( )

Nest Freemark is dead, and some considerable time has passed. John Ross' visions have come true, and lone stray compunds of humans try and hold off the demons and once-men, and fail.

Few Knights of the Word yet live, but two are in this book, both chosen by Two Bears, who is still around, as is the demon Findo Gask.

Logan Tom is one, and Angel Perez is another. The Lady has tasked Logan to protect the gypsy moth, who, it seems, is now a boy again and the leader of a ragtag band of kids in Seattle called the Ghosts. The Lady sends a Tatterdemalion to Angel to give her another task.

"There are Elves in the world, Angel Perez. There have always been Elves in the world, even before there were humans."

Angel is tasked to find an Elfstone.

In two interludes in the book, Elves actually appear, a band of Chosen, protectors of a magic tree, also need to find an Elfstone to save the tree and its heritage. There are mentions of humans and demons in this interlude, so quite possibly this is going on at the same time.

Tom finds Hawk, the boy who is the gypsy moth, but he is going to be executed for stealing medical supplies. The boy realises he is something strange after healing his mortally wounded guard dog, and Tom showing him the bones of his mother Nest's hands.

Quite similar to the earlier trilogy, but postapocalyptic with Elves. If you can call that similar, but similar in tone, and maybe a bit more interesting.

Ends in a cliffhanger as Hawk and his girlfriend are thrown off a sports stadium wall, the favored execution method for the people that desperately defend this sports stadium.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2006/1... ( )

I've always been a fan of Terry Brooks' fantasy novels, and I have twenty of them on my shelves to prove it. His style and prose make him easily one of my favorite authors.

But for the first time I've ever noticed, he decided in this title to paint a picture using references to current events which, taken as a whole, rather clearly inform the reader of his political views. I found this to be an unnecessary distraction from my enjoyment of the book (the story would be able to stand on its own without blaming the Bush administration by name for "planting the seeds" of a nuclear holocaust).

The issue isn't whether I'm sympathetic to the author's worldview, rather it's that I am forced to contemplate it at all in a fantasy fiction book. The country is already polarized on these matters, and it's the last thing I want to think about when I'm ready to lose myself in a good fiction novel.

I used to very much look forward to the next Terry Brooks release, but my usual anticipation has been tempered by this latest one. My hope is for Mr. Brooks to go back to using his considerable skills to help us FORGET about what's actually going on in the world, or at least find a more appropriate outlet for his editorials. ( )

Quite good work that will theoretically tie together the Shannara series to the Nest Freemark/Knight of the Word. Rather grim and depressing, but interesting to see how the events begun in the Knight of the Word seris have played out. The Elves did not have much of a role here, in fact their presence was more distraction than anything else. Hopefully Brooks will cut this thing off at a trilogy. ( )

Pretty dark, and a little slow. ( )