Angel Fire East (The Word and the Void Trilogy, Book 3)

Rating:
Summary: Zero stars
Review: PASS! Juvenile. Story was uninteresting. Characters had zero dimension. A WASTE. Slow, boring and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Rating:
Summary: Could be the Best in the Series.
Review: A fantastic read. Brooks seems to have the formula to captivate in all his books. I look forward to the next installment, and hate the wait.

Rating:
Summary: Best in the series
Review: I was very impressed by this book, particularly compared with the first two. What happens to John Ross at the end is predictable, but what happens to Nest at the end is completely unexpected. The series has improved with each book in my opinion. The first book lacked cohesion. The second told a more interesting tale with genuine suspense, and this one has even better characters and plot twists. If he could restore Shannara to this level of quality it would be a step forward. My only regret is that he still didn't tie it in with Shanarra. Hopefully he'll do that in a future book, since he leaves the door wide open for a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A book well worth reading
Review: Great book! I only wish it wasn't the end of the series. An improvement over Knight of the Word. The character's have more depth, you can see that Nest has grown much more confident in herself and her abilities. It may seem, however that the character's are a bit dense at times, and the plot is fairly predictable, but it doesn't do much to detract from the overall story. This book is definately worth buying!

Rating:
Summary: A Good Book
Review: Well, as the one line summary says, this was a good book. Brooks can still tell a good tale. Although the element that made it a good book was there, it lacked something to make it a a great book. While this was better than A Knight of the Word, it didn't come close to Running with the Demon.

Rating:
Summary: One of his best
Review: This book was great. I found A Knight of the Word somewhat of a disappointment, had thought Terry Brooks might have lost his touch as a great storyteller. He rebounds well with this book. A great story from beginning to end with very real characters. The ending of this book was great, absolutely no disappointments in the final confrontation between good and the ultimate evil. I truly hope this is not the last book of this series.

Rating:
Summary: Will we see a fourth book?!
Review: In "Angel Fire East", Terry Brooks returns to the writing style of "Running with the Demon", and I think it is the best of the three books in the series. Nest has returned to Hopewell after a personal tragedy at the Olympics and a failed personal life. She is living in her Grandparents' home, and is reunited with some of the characters from the first book. She is visited by a demon searching for John Ross, and Nest must decide whether or not she wants to invite the chaos that seems to follow John back into her life. The demons in this story are much more satisfying than the demons of the previous two. Findo Gask is an intellectual equal to John and Nest, and it makes the story more compelling to read. The only disappointment to the book is that the ending has left it wide open for a fourth, and we have yet to see whether or not Terry Brooks will add to the series in the future. Either way, it's worth the read!

Rating:
Summary: Only read this if you have read the first two books....
Review: If like me, you've read "Running with the Demon" and "Knight of the Word," you'll want to know what happens to John Ross and Nest Freemark. Character is what this book is about.

In this final volume of the trilogy, Nest is 29 and living back in Hopewell, Illinois. John Ross, once more a Knight of the Word, has come back to try and claim a potentially powerful entity--a newly born Gypsy Moth--for the Word.

Findo Gask, a demon, wearing an "Elmer Gantry" like face, has assembled his own odd crew of fighters aiming to take the moth for the Void. The results of this battle could change the balance substantially.

While I still love Ross and Freemark, it almost feels like some of this story is templated--particularly the fight scenes. I'm glad to have read the book. It's good to know what happened to two characters I value, but this is a lackluster end to what I consider a staller beginning.

If you're interested in Terry Brooks and want to read this series, start at the beginning with "Running with the Demon" but understand it 'runs downhill' from there.

Rating:
Summary: "I've Come Home"
Review: "Angel Fire East" is the third book in the "Word and the Void" trilogy that began with "Running with the Demon" and continued with "A Knight of the Word." The gap between this book and the last is even longer than that between the previous two; ten years have passed since our two protagonists John Ross and Nest Freemark last met, and once again their reunion heralds another upheaval in the war between the benevolent Word and the chaotic Void.

"Angel Fire" is better than "Knight", but "Running" is still the best, and the only one in the trilogy that I would seriously recommend. The second two just don't seem to have the same characterisation or sense of all the plot threads drawing together in a master plan like "Running" did. But if you're determined to see Nest and Ross's story out to the end, then here we go again...

John Ross is a knight working on behalf of the Word who has managed to capture a strange magical creature - a gypsy morph that is made of leftover magics and (because of its capacity for either good or evil) is a much coveted prize for both sides of the battle. It has finally settled on the shape of a young boy, and since then the only word it has uttered has been the name "Nest".

Nest is now twenty-nine years old, a divorcee, and a retired Olympian runner - in other words, she's not really feeling fulfilled in her life, especially due to the unwanted attentions of the local sheriff Larry Spence. Then two arrivals appear: a demon named Findo Gask shows up on her doorstep inquiring after John Ross, and Bennett Scott, the young woman that Nest once saved, who is now a drug addict with a daughter of her own - Harper. Eventually John himself arrives, complete with the morph/boy they dub "Little John".

In the three days before Christmas, Nest and Ross come together again, trying to solve the riddle of the gypsy morph whilst shielding it from the control of Gask and his trio of demon henchmen. This mission is especially important to Ross due to the promise that the Lady has given him: if he completes this task, then his service as a Knight will be over.

The setting is thankfully back in Hopewell and the park, and Pick the sylvan is given more to do in this book than in the last, as does Wraith, Nest's inner guardian in the form of a giant wolfhound. The return of Bennett is a nice touch, if a little sad, Robert Heppler is still around - now with a wife and child of his own, and Two Bears again has a cameo appearance - perhaps the best one of the three books. Larry Spence is rather irritating, though I suppose he was supposed to be - but by the end of the novel I felt rather sorry for his kids - Brooks does nothing to explain what will now happen to them. Findo Gask makes a scary villain, calm, organised and collected in the visage of a country preacher with a Book of Names on all the people he has killed, and is backed up nicely by the slightly crazed Penny Dreadful. However, the other two demons' presence is somewhat unnecessary - the ur'droch remains an enigma, and Twitch's existence is entirely unjustified (he doesn't do anything except back up an unfortunate stereotype against albinos - they don't have pink eyes!)

The story itself suffers too - although the premise is interesting, there are plot holes and inconsistencies large enough to drive a truck through, plus an awkwardness in reconciling the fantasy and the `real world' stories that wasn't present in the previous books. The plot seems somewhat cobbled together quickly, switching back and forth between scenarios that don't really fit together - the demons' actions and motivations in particular are somewhat confusing, choosing elaborate schemes and disguises to watch the protagonists instead of simply going in and getting what they want. For evil creatures, they fluff around an awful lot, and spend too much time manipulating Larry Spence and Bennett when there isn't really much reason to. Likewise, the characterisations of Ross and Nest suffer too - even knowing what's at cost, they make some extremely unwise decisions. I question Nest's very intelligence at leaving Bennett and Harper alone in the house on the same day a demon came to call, and later letting Bennett go out alone after a near fatal accident. Furthermore, they don't neglect their social lives during the life or death situation - Nest goes to a Christmas party and Ross visits an old flame, seemingly believing that they'll be safe amongst other people when its been shown again and again that this is never the case. With Gask waiting too long to make his move, Nest waiting too long to ask for a basic warding spell around her house, and a lot of time wasted on a lengthy and unnecessary death scene on a frozen lake, the story just felt to patchy and hacked together.

Which is unfortunate given that it's the last book - some people may feel a little short-changed at the resolution, though it does end on a conclusion that suggests more books might be coming; Brooks certainly leaves himself with enough material to keep the franchise open, and I myself would dearly love to see Nest's old friend Brianna and Jared once again. As "Knight" centred on the theme of homelessness, here Brooks explores the evils of drug abuse. Thankfully the message was not so heavy handed as it was in the previous book, but it still comes across loud and clear: Don't Do Drugs.

All in all, a reasonable end to an interesting trilogy, but it always felt as though Brooks was skimming the surface of something much larger and more intricate that was only really explored in "Running with the Demon".


Rating:
Summary: Will we see a fourth book?!
Review: In "Angel Fire East", Terry Brooks returns to the writing style of "Running with the Demon", and I think it is the best of the three books in the series. Nest has returned to Hopewell after a personal tragedy at the Olympics and a failed personal life. She is living in her Grandparents' home, and is reunited with some of the characters from the first book. She is visited by a demon searching for John Ross, and Nest must decide whether or not she wants to invite the chaos that seems to follow John back into her life. The demons in this story are much more satisfying than the demons of the previous two. Findo Gask is an intellectual equal to John and Nest, and it makes the story more compelling to read. The only disappointment to the book is that the ending has left it wide open for a fourth, and we have yet to see whether or not Terry Brooks will add to the series in the future. Either way, it's worth the read!