Product Description

Fifty years from now, our world is unrecognisable. Pollution and warfare have poisoned the skies, the water and the soil. Pockets of society still exist, living in highly fortified strongholds, while those outside the walls roam the landscape - either predator or prey. But even these isolated compounds are not safe; armies of demons and once-men assault their defences, and inevitably, one by one, they succumb. Civilisation has fallen and anarchy is the only law. Logan Tom and Angel Perez are the last two Knights to stand against the forces of chaos. These two extraordinary people have the ability to resist the dark tide, and to them will fall twin tasks: to find and protect a very old and a very new magic. They are humanity's last hope. Although the odds are stacked against them, Logan and Angel have the power to halt the destruction of the Old World. It will be up to others to usher in the New ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7371 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'Compelling and rewarding ... surprisingly emotional, rich with human feeling and insight. Moore has a keen ear for both dialogue and a well-turned phrase, and the writing is suffused with a reckless joy' Robert J. Wiersema, Quill & Quire 'An astonishing writer. She brings to her pages what we are always seeking in fiction and only find in the best of it: a magnetizing gift for revealing how the earth feels, looks, tastes, smells' Richard Ford, author of Independence Day '[She] is from Newfoundland - a rare and fortunate inheritance for any novelist. But she can also flat-out write, and would be a major find even if she came from Kansas' Richard Ford, author of Independence Day

About the Author
Terry Brooks was a practising attorney for many years, but now writes full time. His first novel, THE SWORD OF SHANNARA, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 5 months. Every one of the 23 novels that have followed has been an international bestseller.

Customer Reviews

How it all began...
I have not been reading Terry Brooks in years, and I have to say "finding" him again with this book was a most pleasant surprise.

If you have read the Shannara books, please be wary and do not approach this book with the same ideas: this is no fantasy, or at least, not fantasy in the classic sense: the story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic scenario like has been told hundreds of times, but Mr. Brooks manages to add a new soul to it, avoiding all clichés you could expect.

The book unfolds "slowly", but this slowness does not affect the eagerness to go on, to turn page after page: as I see it, it is simply the price we have to pay to get to know well the main characters that will star in the next books, and once again I have not been disappointed by the level of insight that we are provided on each of them.

What truly crowns this book as a must-have for any Shannara fan, however, is the hints you get in the beginning (and the confirmations you get later on) that this story might have to do more with the world we learnt to know in the Shannara series than you might expected by a first glance.

The only warning I feel to give concerns the ending: this is a major cliffhanger, so if you think this may be a bother and maybe spoil a truly good story, then you might want to wait for the whole trilogy to be published before buying this book.

It'll end in tears (and demons)
Many years ago I read some of the Shannara stories but I have to confess, I found them okay but not very memorable. I can remember books by Fiest, Eddings etc, but nothing stuck from Terry Brooks.

It wasn't until I picked this up and read the reviews that I realised that it linked into the Shannara stories and some of Brooks' other works, but you can read this in isolation.

This is a blend of post apocalypse survival with more then a bit of dark fantasy slung in. While the remains of mankind try to survive a holocaust, they have to defend themselves against emerging demons and those of mankind who are turning towards the emerging darkness.

I enjoyed this far more then I thought I would, with an interesting slant on the usual post apocalypse stuff. I was engaged quickly and keen to keep turning the pages to find where it was going. It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger which was a little frustrating and this probably pushed me to a three star score rather then four and it will be a frustrating wait until the next one.

A Great First Book For the Pre-Shannara Trilogy
Those of you who read Terry Brooks will know what to expect from this book. It will be written tightly with precise brush strokes of storytelling from a masterful writer. What I am going to tell you is simple: More than any other Terry Brooks book, I cannot wait for Book Two of this trilogy to be released! The first book centers around the destruction of the world and those who have been called upon to save a sliver of it. The two Knights in this book are written extraordinarily real - I honestly felt their plight and what it means for them to serve the Word. The story is dark and eager to be told, the characters real, and the only bad thing about this book is the wait for Book Two! Note: New readers to Terry Brooks can read this book without having read a single thing from the man! So buy it, enjoy it as I did!