Good book, shame about the auhor (Running with the Demon - Terry Brooks)

Member Name: mpeh

Product:	Running with the Demon - Terry Brooks
Date:	20/08/01 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some good initial ideas, Nicely put together

Disadvantages: Could have been written beter (by someone else?), Too much clichéd writing

Terry Brooks is one of those authors (or people) who I have a dislike of for no real reason. I've not read any of his books although I once tried 'Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold' but couldn't get into the flow of it but what really put me off was my dad. He read the first Shannara novel (I hope I've spelled that correctly) and maybe a few more and got fed up and left them and when he talked to me about them he said something along the lines of 'Terry Brooks couldn't have written these if 'The Lord of the Rings' hadn't been written a long enough time beforehand for a) Brooks to read it and b) people not to notice that Brooks was writing it, again, with less literary skill (although considering we're comparing him with Tolkien here that's not really an insult) and a few character name changes (and no elvish). This immediately put me off, funny that, still no reason to feel a personal animosity towards the man though is it? Oh well. Anyway I picked up 'Running with the Demon' at the end of a holiday where I'd read my way through everything else that even remotely took my fancy, it had come down to this or Stephen King and I've read the good ones (my opinion of Stephen King, or rather his novels, can be dealt with some other time) so this was it.

Nest Freemark lives in Hopewell Illinois with her Grandparents. It's a sleepy American town in the midst of a long strike that involves the towns major industry, steel production, and a large minority of the towns workforce. It's the Fourth of July weekend and the heat is on (sorry). Two men have come to Hopewell to battle for the fate of the world. John Ross is a Knight of the word, the creationist force of good in the world and he has come to face down a demon, a servant of the void, the destructive force of evil in the world. Whenever Ross sleeps he dreams of the future should he fail, a post apocalyptic horror where humans denigrate each other f
or the purposes of the void. The blurb says '... a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course upon waking. Ross hass the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it?' and I can't compete with that.

It turns out (no I'm not spoiling the book it also says this in the blurb) that Nest is the crux of the whole thing. Whoever wins her soul will ultimately triumph. Now this, so far is a brilliant idea for a novel containing lots of concepts which really grab me, the dreams of Ross for one. But, Brooks isn't secure enough, for whatever reason, to write the complex emotional novel that could have ensued from here so he trivialises his world slightly by making Nest a member of a rare group of people who have magic. She is the guardian of the Sinnissippi park in Hopewell with the help of a magical creature called a Sylvan. This, in my opinion really weakens the story. In his determination to write a fantastical fantasy novel Brooks has introduced elements that are superfluous to the story. The fantasy ideas he uses are clichéd and unoriginal (tautology, oops) the Sylvan is unexplored, merely a human character in another shape and the mythos of the Word and the Void is merely a trotting out of the Good and Evil necessary for the story Brooks hasn't wrapped them in anything new, he hasn't created the ideas (although to be fair no one can create the new ideas of good and evil now it's been done so many times that writing about the forces of good and evil and avoiding cliché is no mean feat) and he simply mentions them when necessary to avid saying 'the goodies' and 'the baddies'.

Now as usual my reviewing is very harsh, you'd probably think from reading the previous paragraph that I hated this book, not true. I enjoyed this, I liked reading it but nowadays we are spoiled with good Science Fiction and Fantasy writing and Brooks doesn
't live up to the standard of many other authors. The core ideas here are fresh, I don't like the fact that he made the world one with extra magic in, not merely the demons and the knights of the word but maybe you will. What I couldn't help feeling as I read this was that I wished someone else had written it. Like I've said the ideas are good, verging on brilliant and if an author with a bit more clout had gotten hold of them I can't help thinking this would have been a five star, 'read it now' review and I, being a selfish 'books should be written for me' reader would have liked that.

There are some annoying little bits in the book, Brooks talking about Nest (a fourteeen year old girl) feels the need to show that he does know about the youth of America (say a prayer- if this is the modern worlds view of them) and mentions that she puts on Nirvana. Who does that- you write that she puts on music, or something loud or whatever but not drop a name to show that you are in touch with reality. There are a few things like this that caught my attention and annoyed me, maybe my standards are too high but so be it.

I'll repeat myself: Don't get me wrong this isn't a direly awful novel it's a good read but there are much better things out there. I won't be rushing to read any more of Terry Brooks. On the other hand if you haven't anyting you fancy reading then this isn't a waste of time, it is enjoyable and will pass time happily.

Summary: