The word and the void

A trilogy of urban fantasy novels by noted author Terry Brooks, that deals with several recurring characters caught up in the ongoing war between The Word, which created all life, and The Void, which seeks to destroy it.

The Knights of the Word walk the earth performing missions for The Lady, and each night they dream of what will happen if they fail. They are locked in a secret conflict with the demons of the void, once-human shape shifters dedicated to the destruction of all things.

The books are as follows:

• Running With The Demon
• A Knight Of The Word
• Angel Fire East

In Running with the Demon, Cute Witch Nest Freemark finds her life thrown into chaos when the titular demon arrives in her hometown of Hopewell, pursued by Knight of the Word, John Ross. Both want something from her, though Nest isn’t sure what that could be, and seem to have ties to her family’s past, specifically her mother, who committed suicide some years earlier. The demon also goes out of his way to stir up trouble around the town, which is in the middle of a long and bitter strike, putting in motion numerous plans which, if successful, will lead to Nest’s subversion, and the end of the world as they know it. A Magical Native American named O’olish Amaneh is also in the area, and provides Nest and Ross with some important, if cryptic guidance as the story moves towards a violent climax.

Several years later, in A Knight of the Word, John Ross, following a personal tragedy, has renounced his position as a Knight, and is now working for a mundane charity. Concerned that the demons will attempt to turn him, O’olish Amaneh recruits Nest to do for John what John did for her, charging her with saving the fallen Knight before it is too late. Unbeknownst to John though, one of the demons is already closing in.

After another Time Skip, both John and the demons return to Hopewell in Angel Fire East, hunting a fairy of enormous potential.

The books were retconned into the backstory of Brooks’ ongoing Shannara series (see The Genesis of Shannara for details). One of the author’s few ventures outside the world of High Fantasy, The Word and the Void paints a disturbing image of a world caught up in an ongoing war that it isn’t even aware of.

The character sheet for this series, and the Shannara books can be found here

This series provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Jared Scott’s mother and boyfriends. Many others are alluded to.

• After the End: Ross’ dreams show him wandering through a post-apocalyptic future that is very much this trope, which turns into reality by the time The Genesis of Shannara takes place.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Demons. The feeders are a variation, since they’re evil but necessary, while the demons are aberrations in every sense of the word.
• Asshole Victim: The boy who the demon kills in Running With The Demon.
• Bad Future: Ross and the other Knights of the Word are working overtime to prevent one. They failed and the Great Wars destroyed the world in the 2050s. The Shannara universe rose from the ashes of the old world.
• Big Bad: The unnamed demon in the first book, Stefanie in the second, and Findo Gask in the third.
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: The demon and Stefanie.
• Book Ends: The death of Bennett Scott in «Angel Fire East» mirrors the near-fatal incident at the beginning of «Running With the Demon».

• Creepy Blue Eyes: The demon again. His are pale, washed out, and unsettling.
• Darker and Edgier: Than Brooks’ writing in general. These books are very cynical to say the least.
• Dark Messiah: If the demon had succeeded in touching Nest, she would have become one of these.

• Down on the Farm: Hopewell is the cynical version of this, being a dried up, poor Midwestern town with no future, and residents whose morals are slowly decaying at best. The steel mill is the only source of income, and farming just doesn’t pay like it used to. The town slogan of «We’re Growing Your Way» is a bad joke at best.
• The Dragon: In Running With The Demon the demon invokes the trope’s inspiration by loosing the maentwrog on John Ross.

• Dying Town: Hopewell. Most of the population is older, the people left behind are desperate and/or poor, and the only real source of income is the steel mill. Brooks paints a very sad picture with it of a town dying a slow death.

• Greater-Scope Villain: The never confronted Void, which is The Man Behind the Man to each book’s Big Bad (though even then, it only seems to have been directly controlling Gask).
• Handicapped Badass: John Ross; justified, he acquired his limp as the price of his magic staff, and his badassness.
• The Heartless: The feeders, mindless living shadows that eat your emotions or drive you into a frenzy. The demons themselves are a borderline case.
• Hellhound: Stefanie, the Big Bad of Knight Of The Word uses this form for hunting and combat.
• Hero of Another Story: O’olish Amaneh, one of the Lady’s other servants, definitely gives off this vibe. It’s not hard to imagine him out there contributing in ways that are every bit as important as those of Nest and Ross.
• Hero Killer: Findo Gask specializes in hunting Knights of the Word.
• Heroic BSoD: Ross before the beginning of Knight Of The Word.
• Heroic Fire Rescue: Stefanie subverts this in A Knight of the Word as a cover for the bumps and bruises that she had endured during her fight with Nest; despite her shapeshifting abilities, she couldn’t hide those injuries completely.
• In the Blood: All the Freemark women have had the magic. There also seems to be a certain stubborn streak that shows up regardless of gender…

• Lack of Empathy: The demons are very close to being magically created sociopaths.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The demon to Nest. And for the worst possible reasons. He fathered her in order to get revenge on her grandmother and drive her mother to suicide.
• Magical Native American: Two Bears/O’olish Amaneh. He does get genuine characterization though; in some ways he’s almost a Hero of Another Story. It’s also Justified as the Lady won’t let him interfere in the main plot, sending him as an observer only.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Stefanie. Who is also the villain.
• Meaningful Name: Nest Freemark and her son, The Chosen One, Hawk.
• Mugging the Monster: In the first book, a boy demands a toll from anyone who crosses his street, using his dog as the threat. He tries it on the demon. The demon makes the boy smell like a rabbit and the whole affair ends very badly for the bully.
• Mutants: Ross runs into a few of these «once-men» in the future.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Jared gets one from George Paulsen in Running With The Demon.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Hopewell. Beyond the drinking, the strikes, the feeders, and the odd demon attack, they’re right.
• Older Than They Look: In both the sequels, Ross returns after being away for years, and Nest notes that he doesn’t appear to have aged.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Void seeks to destroy everything created by The Word, making all of its servants this by default.
• Our Demons Are Different: Specifically, they’re soulless former humans corrupted by The Void. They manifest a number of powers, including spellcasting, mind control, and Voluntary Shapeshifting, and exist only to serve The Void’s will by erasing all of creation.
• Really Gets Around: Enid Scott, who has five different children by five different men.
• Revenge by Proxy: Nest’s existence is the result of this. When the demon was spurned by her grandmother, he went away for years, then came back and seduced her daughter Catelyn, got her pregnant and then revealed the truth, driving Catelyn to suicide shortly after Nest’s birth.
• Satan: The Void, which only speaks once (in Angel Fire East) could be considered the setting’s Satan analogue.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The maentwrog in Running With The Demon. Or more accurately Sealed Evil In A Tree.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Derry Howe from Running With The Demon is what happens when this character is dumb, easily manipulated, and dropped into the middle of a town that’s in the middle of a strike. Ross and O’olish Amaneh both have aspects of this.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Each book’s demon is more dangerous than the last one, most pronounced with the jump from Stefanie to Gask. Definitely justified by John Ross’ epic level of badassery. Most demons go around sowing general chaos and are a roughly even match for a Knight of the Word, but by the third book they figure out that for Ross they need the demon (Gask) who specializes in hunting Knights. And even he recruits two more demons to help him.
• The Soulless: All demons. They’re the remains of humans who sold their souls to The Void in return for more power.
• Shout-Out: A Knight of the Word has numerous Shout Outs to The Wizard of Oz.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Ross, for most of Knight of the Word, following My Greatest Failure and a Heroic BSoD.
• Terrible Trio: Gask’s henchmen in Angel Fire East. Unusually, all three are quite dangerous.

• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Gask gets this, but it’s justified; Nest knows she can’t beat him mano a mano, so she tricks him into thinking the Gypsy Morph is gone and his mission has failed.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Some of the demons can do this; the main villain in Knight of the Word is a good example. It’s implied that all demons are actually capable of adopting any form they want, it’s just for most of them it takes weeks for them create a new form, Knight’s Big Bad was special in that it could change forms in mere minutes.

• Was Once a Man: All the demons were once human, and gave up their souls for power.
• World Half Full: It’s a cynical, depressing setting, in which the war between The Word and The Void can never be ended, but it is possible to make a small difference in peoples’ lives. That’s what keeps Nest and Ross going.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shannara ^[1] is a series of high fantasy^[2] novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with The Sword of Shannara in 1977 and concluding with The Last Druid which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, First King of Shannara. The series blends magic and primitive technology and is set in the Four Lands, which are identified as Earth long after civilization was destroyed in a chemical and nuclear holocaust called the Great Wars. By the time of the prequel First King of Shannara, the world had reverted to a pre-industrial state and magic had re-emerged to supplement science.^{[citation needed]}

Setting[edit]

The Shannara series is set in a post-apocalyptic world called the Four Lands. This world is a futuristic version of our own, and not a secondary world. The Genesis of Shannara trilogy reveals the Four Lands to be located in the modern Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Much of the landscape has been changed by a future nuclear holocaust called The Great Wars, but some landmarks remain. For example, the Columbia River still exists.^[3]

Each land is named after the compass point it faces: the Northland, the Southland, the Eastland, and the Westland, and is the primary home of different peoples. The Westland is the homeland primarily of the elves, while the Northland is mostly inhabited by trolls and the Eastland is the home mostly of dwarves and gnomes. The Southland is primarily the homeland of humans.^{[citation needed]}

• Maps of the Four Lands

• 

  Northland

• 

  Southland

• 

  Eastland

• 

  Westland

Characters[edit]

• Allanon, described as Brooks’ «most enigmatic character»,^[4] is very secretive and the last remaining Druid of the original order. Trained by Bremen, he lived an unexpectedly long life, being the Druid that summons the Ohmsford family during the original trilogy (Sword, Elfstones, and Wishsong). He is never completely honest, telling many white lies or half-truths, and provides others with information only if it is dangerous, crucial, or required.^[5] Allanon often called on the aid of the Ohmsford family in the novels, as they are descendants of Jerle Shannara and therefore the only ones who can use the Sword of Shannara. He called upon Shea Ohmsford in The Sword of Shannara, Wil Ohmsford in The Elfstones of Shannara and Brin and Jair Ohmsford in The Wishsong of Shannara.
• Galaphile was the Elf who was responsible in the creation of the Druids. Meeting at Paranor, it was he that believed that the Druids shouldn’t belong to any one race, so they became separated from the people.
• The Druids are an order of historians, philosophers, magic-users, teachers and researchers. The greatest minds that remained in the Four Lands were first assembled by Galaphile at the fortress of Paranor.^[6] Druid Magic, like most of the magic that originates in the Four Lands, is elemental. It draws from the earth, air, fire and water in various forms. Its power is enhanced or weakened by the strength of the user. Some users would find more success with talismans like the Sword or the Elfstones than others. Sometimes the magic of a talisman or an external source links with the magic innate in a user, causing various results. Unlike science, magic is uncertain, and the results of its application are not always predictable.^[7]
• The Warlock Lord was formerly a Druid named Brona who was removed from the walls of Paranor for studying and practicing forbidden magic found in an ancient sentient tome called the Ildatch. He and his followers then inhabited the Skull Kingdom deep in the Northland.
• King of the Silver River — a Faerie creature who appears throughout the series.^[8]
• Skull Bearers were Druids once upon a time, but they were subverted by the Ildatch along with the druid Brona, who would later become the Warlock Lord. They «sacrificed their humanity»^[9] to become «winged black destroyers»;^[9] but in doing this, they tied themselves to their master, the Warlock Lord, and became his «dread minion[s]».^[10] Reviewers and critics had mixed opinions on the Skull Bearers. Praise for them came from Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, who liked all of the «monsters» in The Sword of Shannara. He said that «[Terry] Brooks creates distillations of horror that hark back to childhood’s shadows, when the most important thing about a fearful creature was that you didn’t know its exact shape and intent. You only knew that it wanted you. The black-winged skull bearer, for instance, is more than a euphemism for death.»^[11] Tom Shippey wasn’t so positive, as he thought that the Skull Bearers were very familiar to those who had read The Lord of the Rings: he found that the Skull Bearers were «analogues» for the Nazgûl.^[12]
• Demons is a common name for many different creatures^[8] in novels by Terry Brooks. They are creatures that were trapped inside the Forbidding after the creation of the Ellcrys.
• The Dagda Mor is the antagonist of The Elfstones of Shannara.^[8] He is the most powerful Demon locked inside the Forbidding. As such,^[13] most of the others obey him out of fear, with a few notable exceptions, such as the Reaper. He channels his magic through his Staff of Power.^[13]
• Shea Ohmsford is the protagonist of the Sword of Shannara.^[14] He has the blood of Jerle Shannara, making him the only one who can wield the powerful Sword of Shannara to vanquish the Warlock Lord.^[15] A major theme of The Sword of Shannara revolves around Shea. Part of his quest, in addition to killing the Warlock Lord, includes finding a belief in himself, so that he will have confidence to go on.^[16] This is a search that every subsequent Brooks protagonist must undergo.^[16] Scholar Tom Shippey believed that Shea was too familiar to those who had read The Lord of the Rings: he found that Shea and Flick were «analogues» for the hobbits of Tolkien’s stories.^[12] Terry Brooks stated in his autobiography that «[his] protagonists [Shea and Flick] are cut from the same bolt of cloth as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.»^[17]
• Garet Jax is known as the «Weapons Master»^[18] Garet first appears when he rescues Jair Ohmsford from a band of nine Gnome Hunters, defeating eight of them single-handedly—he killed six, knocked out their leader, and one fled. The ninth, Slanter, doesn’t even attempt to fight, saying that he was only working with them because he had to, and he has heard stories about the fighting prowess of Garet. Terry Brooks expressed his desire in the beginning of Dark Wraith to further explore the relationship between Jair and Garet Jax.^[19]
• Cogline is the «grandfather» of Kimber Boh. Cogline found Kimber after Gnomes killed Kimber’s parents when she was an infant. It is later found out that Cogline was a former failed Druid, with knowledge of alchemical arts. Was referred to as Walker Boh’s guardian and teacher before Walker Boh became a Druid. Cogline aids Brin in her leg of the journey to find and destroy the Ildatch, the ancient Book of Power that holds the forbidden knowledge of the Druids. It is referred to as the book that led the Druid Brona to becoming the Warlock Lord.
• Wil Ohmsford is the grandson of Shea Ohmsford. One who would forsake his birthright he sought to become a healer, studying amongst the Stors at Storlock. He unwillingly became the protector of the Chosen Amberle, after being sought out by Allanon, on the quest to restore the Ellcrys and reseal the crumbling wall of the Forbidding.
• Eventine Elessedil is possibly the greatest Elven King, maybe with the exception of Jerle Shannara. He is the backbone that the Elves need to withstand the attacks of the Warlock Lord in The Sword of Shannara and the Demon hordes in The Elfstones of Shannara.

Important places[edit]

• Arborlon is the capital city of the Elves. It is unusual, in that it is not bound to a particular location, but basically moves with the Elves by being transferred into a magic Gemstone, called the Loden: In the «Genesis of Shannarah» trilogy, it is located in the Cintra. In most novels, it is located in the Westland, except for the «Heritage of Shannarah» tetralogy, where it is located on an island, named Morrowindl, before being brought back by Wren Ohmsford.^{[citation needed]}
• Paranor is the fortress home of the druids. Technically located in the Northland, it remains close to each of the Four Lands so that the Druids would not show favoritism towards one people.^{[citation needed]}
• Shady Vale is the ancestral home of the Ohmsfords.
• Tyrsis is one of the largest human cities. It is in the borderlands known as Callahorn, between the Northland and the Southland and serves as the first line of defense against the Northland armies.^{[citation needed]}
• Storlock is home to the healers known as the Stors. Located in the Eastland, it is much like Paranor as it does not show favoritism towards one people.^{[citation needed]}
• Leah is a small highland kingdom located southwest of Rainbow Lake. The ruling family, the Leah’s, join in on many of the Ohmsford adventures.^{[citation needed]}

Novels[edit]

Word & Void[edit]

The Word & Void series (also called The Word and The Void) focuses on John Ross and Nest Freemark, forced acquaintances who use magic given to them from the Word to prevent mankind from being overcome by the demonic forces of the Void. The trilogy consists of Running with the Demon, A Knight of the Word, and Angel Fire East and is predominantly set in present-day Illinois. It follows Nest Freemark, a girl with magical abilities who has no known relationship to any Shannara character. Before the publication of Armageddon’s Children it was unclear whether this trilogy existed within the Shannara universe. It has since been revealed as the «ultimate prequel» to the Shannara novels.^[20][21]

The Genesis of Shannara[edit]

The Genesis of Shannara series consists of Armageddon’s Children, The Elves of Cintra and The Gypsy Morph. They cover events during The Great Wars, which are alluded to often in the Shannara series.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]

The Legends of Shannara series consists of Bearers of the Black Staff and The Measure of the Magic.

First King of Shannara[edit]

This is the prequel to the Original Shannara Trilogy.

The Sword of Shannara[edit]

Also published as the Original Shannara Trilogy by Del Rey Books, these were the first three published Shannara novels (The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara)^[22]

The Heritage of Shannara[edit]

The next four books consist of The Scions of Shannara, The Druid of Shannara, The Elf Queen of Shannara and The Talismans of Shannara. These books are known as The Heritage of Shannara, are set 300 years after The Original Shannara Trilogy.^[23]

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara[edit]

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy consists of the books Ilse Witch, Antrax, and Morgawr.^[24] It is set 130 years after the Heritage of Shannara.

High Druid of Shannara[edit]

The High Druid of Shannara trilogy includes the novels Jarka Ruus, Tanequil, and Straken.^[25]

The Dark Legacy of Shannara[edit]

This trilogy is set 100 to 120 years after the events in Straken, consists of Wards of Faerie, published August 21, 2012, Bloodfire Quest, published March 12, 2013, and Witch Wraith, published July 17, 2013.^[24]

The Defenders of Shannara[edit]

Set 100 years after the events in The Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy. The three novels are loosely connected, stand-alone novels, described as the setup for the conclusion of the entire Shannara saga.^[26] The trilogy consists of The High Druid’s Blade (published July 15, 2014), The Darkling Child (published June 9, 2015), and The Sorcerer’s Daughter (published May 24, 2016).

The Fall of Shannara[edit]

The Fall of Shannara is a four-book series, set over 200 years after «The Sorcerer’s Daughter», that concludes the overall story arc of the Shannara universe. It begins with The Black Elfstone, which was published on June 13, 2017. It is described as the chronological end, but not necessarily the last stories to be published.^[27] The second book, The Skaar Invasion, was published on June 18, 2018.^[28] The third book, The Stiehl Assassin, was published in June 2019. The fourth and final book, The Last Druid, was released on October 20, 2020.

Short stories[edit]

• Paladins of Shannara #1 – Allanon’s Quest: An e-book short story set directly before The Sword of Shannara, re-published in Unfettered III: New Tales by Masters of Fantasy.
• Paladins of Shannara #2 – The Weapons Master’s Choice: An e-book short story set sometime before The Wishsong of Shannara.
• Paladins of Shannara #3 – The Black Irix: An e-book short story set soon after The Sword of Shannara.
• Indomitable: A short story published in the anthology Legends II, set a few years after The Wishsong of Shannara.
• The Dark Wraith of Shannara: A graphic novel that shows part of the events of Indomitable, along with a continuation of the story.
• Walker and the Shade of Allanon: A short story published in Unfettered: New Tales by Masters of Fantasy, that takes place during Chapter 8 of The Ilse Witch.
• Imaginary Friends: A Word/Void short story published in anthology Once Upon a Time: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales, re-published in Unfettered: New Tales by Masters of Fantasy

Chronology[edit]

1. Imaginary Friends (1991)
2. Running with the Demon (1997)
3. A Knight of the Word (1998)
4. Angel Fire East (1999)
5. Warrior (2018)
6. Armageddon’s Children (2006)
7. The Elves of Cintra (2007)
8. The Gypsy Morph (2008)
9. The Bearers of the Black Staff (2010)
10. The Measure of the Magic (2011)
11. The First King of Shannara (1996)
12. Allanon’s Quest (2012)
13. The Sword of Shannara (1977)
14. The Black Irix (2013)
15. The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)
16. «Aftermath» (2021)
17. The Weapons Master’s Choice (2013)
18. The Wishsong of Shannara (1985)
19. Indomitable (2003)
20. The Dark Wraith of Shannara (graphic novel) (2008)
21. The Scions of Shannara (1990)
22. The Druid of Shannara (1991)
23. The Elf Queen of Shannara (1992)
24. The Talismans of Shannara (1993)
25. The «Last Ride» (2021)
26. Ilse Witch (2000)
27. Walker and the Shade of Allanon (2013)
28. Antrax (2001)
29. Morgawr (2002)
30. Jarka Ruus (2003)
31. Tanequil (2004)
32. Straken (2005)
33. Wards of Faerie (2012)
34. Bloodfire Quest (2013)
35. Witch Wraith (2013)
36. The High Druid’s Blade (2014)
37. The Darkling Child (2015)
38. The Sorcerer’s Daughter (2016)
39. The Black Elfstone (2017)
40. The Skaar Invasion (2018)
41. The Stiehl Assassin (2019)
42. The Last Druid (2020)

Television and film rights[edit]

In 2007, Warner Bros. optioned the film rights to the Shannara universe for producer Dan Farah, but the rights deal expired in 2010 and all rights reverted to Terry Brooks.^[29]

Farah Films partnered with Sonar Entertainment to acquire TV rights to the Shannara universe in 2012.^[30] In December, 2013 it was announced an epic TV series based on the books was being produced for MTV. The series is produced by Dan Farah, Jon Favreau, and Smallville showrunners Miles Millar and Al Gough, and Jonathan Liebesman.^[31][32] During the Shannara Chronicles panel at San Diego Comic Con in July 2015, a teaser trailer^[33] was revealed, giving audiences a first look at the sets and characters. A television version of the trailer was shown during the 2015 MTV Music Awards.^[34][35] The series premiered January 5, 2016. Season 2 began airing on Spike in October 2017.^[36]

On January 16, 2018, it was announced that the series had been cancelled after two seasons.^[37] Producers later announced that the series is being shopped to other networks.^[38] The series was later considered officially concluded.

See also[edit]

•  Fantasy portal

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• «How Terry Brooks Saved Epic Fantasy», A Dribble of Ink
• Shannara Universe series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A trilogy of urban fantasy novels by noted author Terry Brooks, that deals with several recurring characters caught up in the ongoing war between The Word, which created all life, and The Void, which seeks to destroy it.

The Knights of the Word walk the earth performing missions for The Lady, and each night they dream of what will happen if they fail. They are locked in a secret conflict with the demons of the void, once-human shape shifters dedicated to the destruction of all things.

The books are as follows:

• Running With The Demon
• A Knight Of The Word
• Angel Fire East

In Running with the Demon, Cute Witch Nest Freemark finds her life thrown into chaos when the titular demon arrives in her hometown of Hopewell, pursued by Knight of the Word, John Ross. Both want something from her, though Nest isn’t sure what that could be, and seem to have ties to her family’s past, specifically her mother, who committed suicide some years earlier. The demon also goes out of his way to stir up trouble around the town, which is in the middle of a long and bitter strike, putting in motion numerous plans which, if successful, will lead to Nest’s subversion, and the end of the world as they know it. A Magical Native American named O’olish Amaneh is also in the area, and provides Nest and Ross with some important, if cryptic guidance as the story moves towards a violent climax.

Several years later, in A Knight of the Word, John Ross, following a personal tragedy, has renounced his position as a Knight, and is now working for a mundane charity. Concerned that the demons will attempt to turn him, O’olish Amaneh recruits Nest to do for John what John did for her, charging her with saving the fallen Knight before it is too late. Unbekownst to John though, one of the demons is already closing in.

After another Time Skip, both John and the demons return to Hopewell in Angel Fire East, hunting a fairy of enormous potential.

The books were recently retconned into the backstory of Brooks’ ongoing Shannara series (see that page for the details on Genesis of Shannara in which this was done). One of the author’s few ventures outside the world of High Fantasy, The Word and The Void paints a disturbing image of a world caught up in an ongoing war that it isn’t even aware of. Highly recommended.

The character sheet for this series, and the Shannara books can be found here

Tropes used in The Word and The Void include:

• Abusive Parents: Jared Scott’s mother and boyfriends. Many others are alluded to.
• Action Girl: Nest Freemark.
• After the End: Ross’ dreams show him wandering through a post-apocalyptic future that is very much this trope.
  • Which turned into reality by the time Genesis of Shannara books take place.
• Exclusively Evil: Demons. The feeders are a variation, since they’re evil but neccessary, while the demons are aberrations in every sense of the word.
• Asshole Victim: The boy who the demon kills in Running With The Demon.
• Awesome McCoolname: Nest and Hawk Freemark.
• Badass Grandpa: It’s not an over-the-top example, but Nest’s grandfather gets points for willingly attacking a bomb and gun-toting nutjob who’d been influenced by the demon.
  • Findo Gask probably counts too, as does O’olish Amaneh, who is so Badass even Gask would rather not face him.
• Bad Future: Ross and the other Knights of the Word are working overtime to prevent one.
• Big Bad: The unnamed demon in the first book, Stefanie in the second, and Findo Gask in the third.
  • Bigger Bad: The never confronted Void, which is The Man Behind the Man to each book’s Big Bad (though even then, it only seems to have been directly controlling Gask).
• Bitch in Sheep’s Clothing: The demon and Stefanie.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: The demon.
• Blue Eyes: The demon again. His are pale, washed out, and unsettling.
• Book Ends: The death of Bennett Scott in «Angel Fire East» mirrors the near-fatal incident at the beginning of «Running With the Demon».
• The Bully: Danny Abbott and the unnamed victim of the demon in Running With The Demon.
• The Chosen One: Hawk Freemark.
• The Corrupter: The demons, and in particular, the demon (of Running With The Demon) are this trope.
• Council of Angels: The Lady comes close.
• Darker and Edgier: Than Brooks’ writing in general. These books are very cynical to say the least.
• Dark Messiah: If the demon had succeeded in touching Nest, she would have become one of these.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: Findo Gask.
• Down on the Farm: Hopewell is the cynical version of this, being a dried up, poor midwestern town with no future, and residents whose morals are slowly decaying at best. The steel mill is the only source of income, and farming just doesn’t pay like it used to. The town slogan of «We’re Growing Your Way» is a bad joke at best.
• The Dragon: In Running With The Demon the demon invokes the trope’s inspiration by loosing the maentwrog on John Ross.
• Dungeon Master: The Lady.
• Dying Town: Hopewell. Most of the population is older, the people left behind are desperate and/or poor, and the only real source of income is the steel mill. Brooks paints a very sad picture with it of a town dying a slow death.
• God: The Word.
• Handicapped Badass: John Ross; justified, he acquired his limp as the price of his magic staff, and his bad assness.
• The Heartless: The feeders, mindless living shadows that eat your emotions or drive you into a frenzy. The demons themselves are a borderline case.
• Hell Hound: Stefanie, The Big Bad of Knight Of The Word has one of these are her true form.
• Hero of Another Story: O’olish Amaneh, one of the Lady’s other servants, definitely gives off this vibe. It’s not hard to imagine him out there contributing in ways that are every bit as important as those of Nest and Ross.
• Hero-Killer: Findo Gask specialises in hunting Knights of the Word.
• Heroic BSOD: Ross before the beginning of Knight Of The Word.
• Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad: Nest.
• In the Blood: All the Freemark women have had the magic. There also seems to be a certain stubborn streak that shows up regardless of gender…
• Ill Boy: Jared Scott in Running With The Demon.
• Knight in Sour Armour: John Ross to a degree.
• Lack of Empathy: The demons are very close to being magically created sociopaths.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The demon to Nest. And for the worst possible reasons. He fathered her in order to get revenge on her grandmother and drive her mother to suicide.
• Magical Native American: Two Bears/O’olish Amaneh. He does get genuine characterization though; in some ways he’s almost a Hero of Another Story. It’s also Justified as the Lady won’t let him interfere in the main plot, sending him as an observer only.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Stefanie. Who is also the villain.
• Meaningful Name: Nest Freemark and her son, The Chosen One, Hawk.
• Mugging the Monster: In the first book, a boy demands a toll from anyone who crosses his street, using his dog as the threat. He tries it on the demon. The demon makes the boy smell like a rabbit and the whole affair ends very badly for the bully.
• Mutants: Ross runs into a few of these «once-men» in the future.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Jared gets one from George Paulsen in Running With The Demon.
• Not So Different: The demons are fond of this one.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Hopewell. Beyond the drinking, the strikes, the feeders, and the odd demon attack, they’re right.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Void seeks to destroy everything created by The Word, making all of its servants this by default.
• Our Demons Are Different: Specifically, they’re soulless former humans corrupted by The Void. They manifest a number of powers, including spellcasting, mind control, and Shapeshifting, and exist only to serve The Void’s will by erasing all of creation.
• Really Gets Around: Enid Scott, who has five different children by five different men.
• Revenge by Proxy: Nest’s existence is the result of this. When the demon was spurned by her grandmother, he went away for years, then came back and seduced her daughter Catelyn, got her pregnant and then revealed the truth, driving Catelyn to suicide shortly after Nest’s birth.
• Satan: The Void, which only speaks once (in Angel Fire East) could be considered the setting’s Satan analogue.
• Shape Shifter: Most demons can alter their appearance in one way or another. Stefanie is the most obvious example.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The maentwrog in Running With The Demon. Or more accurately Sealed Evil In A Tree.
• Seattle: The setting of A Knight of the Word.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Derry Howe from Running With The Demon is what happens when this character is dumb, easily manipulated, and dropped into the middle of a town that’s in the middle of a strike. Ross and O’olish Amaneh both have aspects of this.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Each book’s demon is more dangerous than the last one, most pronounced with the jump from Stefanie to Gask. Definitely justified by John Ross’ epic level of badassery. Most demons go around sowing general chaos and are a roughly even match for a Knight of the Word, but by the third book they figure out that for Ross they need the demon (Gask) who specializes in hunting Knights. And even he recruits two more demons to help him.
• The Soulless: All demons. They’re the remains of humans who sold their souls to The Void in return for more power.
• Shout-Out: A Knight of the Word has numerous Shout Outs to The Wizard of Oz.
• Ten-Minute Retirement: Ross, for most of Knight of the Word, following My Greatest Failure and a Heroic BSOD.
• Terrible Trio: Gask’s henchmen in Angel Fire East. Unusually, all three are quite dangerous.
• Ultimate Evil: The Void is less a character than it is raw Chaotic Evil. It seeks to eradicate all creation, reducing everything to the primordial state from whence it came.
• Urban Fantasy
• Villain Exit Stage Left: Gask gets this, but it’s justified; Nest knows she can’t beat him mano a mano, so she tricks him into thinking the Gypsy Morph is gone and his mission has failed.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Some of the demons can do this; the main villain in Knight Of The World is a good example.
  • It’s implied that all demons are actually capable of adopting any form they want, it’s just for most of them it takes weeks for them create a new form, Knight’s Big Bad was special in that it could change forms in mere minutes.
• Walking the Earth: The Knights of the Word.
• Was Once a Man: All the demons were once human, and gave up their souls for power.
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Hawk is overtly compared to Moses in Armageddon’s Children.
• World Half Full: It’s a cynical, depressing setting, in which the war between The Word and The Void can never be ended, but it is possible to make a small difference in peoples’ lives. That’s what keeps Nest and Ross going.
• X Meets Y: Terminator meets Urban Fantasy.

Yes

The world of Shannara is initially described as post-apocalyptic. The Great Wars are first mentioned in The Sword Of Shannara, where Allanon re-tells the past history of the world to the Ohmsford brothers. Also he mentions that the Druids of old (First Druid Order) were initially trying to recover old sciences, not magic.

The next link is the robotic monster that attacks the party on the way from Culhaven to Paranor. It clearly hints that the creature is based on the old world’s artificial intelligence.

In the third book, The Wishsong of Shannara, it is hinted that magic may be gone and replaced by something else, possibly by the sciences of old. However, that never happened.

In the Voyage of Jerle Shannara trilogy, we see another AI monster of the old age named Antrax, which is described as a very advanced supercomputer capable of self-maintenance and creating cyborg-like creatures (wronks) out of living things

The Word is first mentioned in the original Shannara novels by The King Of The Silver River, stating that The Word has created this world.