A Demon Awaits

Then, all at once, Angel knew.

It would be waiting on the stairs above the doorway where it could vault the railing and fall upon her as she came through. If it was quick enough, it could break her neck before she even knew what had happened.

She could see it now in her mind, could see it clearly, could see the demon, faceless and formless, crouched and ready.

Big.

But she would be bigger.

Strong.

But she would be stronger.

She tightened her grip on the staff and faced the door. She had left it unlocked. The demon would know that, would have tested it to discover if the locks were back in place. Had they been resealed, it could have relied on the sound of their release as a warning of her approach. Unsealed, they would give no warning. So it would be listening for the sounds of her approach or, failing that, the shadow of the door opening into the room.

She would have to be very quick.

She summoned the magic, let it build, and then blew the door right off the hinges. As she did so, she went through the opening at a slant, angling back against the wall as she broke clear of the doorway, eyes and staff lifted to the stairs above her. The shadow was already dropping toward her, every bit as smooth and supple as she had feared. But is was a fraction of a second too slow. Clawed fingers raked the air she had just passed through, just out of reach, clutching futilely. As the demon landed, the white fire of her staff exploded into it, throwing it across the room and into the lobby desk, smashing the desk into pieces.

She had gotten only a momentary glance at it, but enough to reveal that it was huge. "Helen!" she screamed. "Run!"

Tom Logan is a Knight of the Word. When he was 8-years old, his family was killed when their stadium was attacked and he was saved by O'olish "Two Bears" Amaneh, a Knight of the Word. Now, in his mid-30's, Logan travel what is left of the United States in his Lightning S-150 AV by himself. He drives around the country looking for slave pens where demons mate with their human captives and breed half-demon, half-human children.

Across the country, in Seattle, Hawk is leader of the Ghosts, a gang of ten street kids that have learned to survive outside the compound (Seattle's Qwest Field). Hawk is in love with Tessa, a girl inside the compound, and they meet in secret whenever they can. Down in Los Angeles, Angel Perez is the only other Knight of the Word left, and she is busy saving children from compounds that are being attacked by Findo Gask and his army of demons and once-men.

When Findo Gask attack the Los Angeles Coliseum, Angel gets the children to safety. Findo Gask is getting tired of Angel interfering with his plans and sends his main demon, Delloreen, after Angel.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, in the Willamette National Forest, the Elves have remained hidden for many centuries. Kirisin is one of the six Chosen that watch over, and care for, the Ellcrys, a giant, sentient tree that is the heart of the Elven nation. When the Ellcrys informs Kirisin that something evil is coming that will destroy the Elven nation, no of the other Chosen believe him. The Ellcrys has tasked Kirison to find the Elfstone called the Loden and place her inside it so she can be transported to safe place. When Kirisin tells the king about what the Ellcrys has asked him to do, the king does nothing to help.

Above Los Angeles, Angel runs across Ailie, a fairy tatterdemalion, whose has been sent by the Lady, the voice of the Word, to help her. Ailie is to bring Angel north so she have help the Elves find the Elfstone and save the Ellcrys. Leaving the children behind, Angel and Ailie flee north with Delloreen hot on their trail. Back east, Tom Logan also hears from the Lady, and is given the hand bones of Nest Freemark. He is to use them to help him track down the gypsy morph (Nest's magic-imbued son, which Logan will need the help of is they are going to help humanity survive what is coming.

Armageddon's Children is the first book in the Genesis of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks. This Shannara fantasy tale takes place 1500 years before the Sword of Shannara. It is a story of the aftermath of a the global destruction of our civilization and the few humans, along with two Knight of the Word (see Running with the Demon, A Knight of the Word, and Angel Fire East).

I have always wondered how the Shannara world came about. From my dim recollection of reading the Shannara series way back in the early 1980's, I vaguely remember being shocked to find out that the fantasy world that Terry Brooks created was on Earth in the distant future. What happened to our civilization? Why did is crumble? What's goin' on? Finally, the answers to these questions come about in Armageddon's Children.

We find out what happened to cause our civilization to fall. We see that humans have almost been wiped out. We see the rise of being with magical abilities, although some of that story is told in The Word and the Void series. But when I read those books eight years ago, I didn't know that Terry Brooks intended to tie that series in with his Shannara series. Maybe he didn't know that either, but he does a wonderful job of doing so in this book. I will be honest . . . I didn't really like The Word and the Void series as much as his Shannara books.

So, color me surprised when he melded the two series in the new Genesis of Shannara trilogy. It didn't think it would work at first, but it did, and very well indeed. Although the book starts off a little slow with four different stories, it quickly increases in pace and ends will a heck of a cliff-hanger. I loved the way Terry Brooks interweaved the four stories along with his Word and Voids series.

As I was reading the book, I got so into the book that I started wondering what I was doing in our world with the inevitable end of the world that the author wrote about. Then I had to stop and think, "Hey, it's only a book. It's not real." But I will tell you what, it sure feels like this could happen, with the war on Iraq and the threat of terrorist bombings. Let's hope the world doesn't end that way. I really got into this book and immersed myself into this gloomy world. Terry Brooks has done and wonderful job with his character development and created some main characters that the user can easily latch onto.

Overall, Armageddon's Children is a great start to a series that promises to only get better and better. I cannot wait to find out what happens next in The Elves of Cintra, the next book in this trilogy