A Knight of the Word

Starred review from June 29, 1998
Brooks continues his vacation from his trademark Tolkienesque adventures (the Shannara and Magic Kingdom novels) with this urban dark fantasy, a sharp and satisfying follow-up to last year's Running with the Demon. It has been five years since mortal John Ross was anointed a Knight of the Word, and in that time he has suffered a serious crisis of faith. Unable to prevent the death of innocents in senseless acts of violence engineered by demons of the Void, he has fallen from his calling and drifted to Seattle to work with saintly Simon Lawrence and the Fresh Start program for homeless women and children. Nagged by recurring nightmares of a possible future in which he murders his mentor and dismantles the program, John is guilt-ridden, uncertain and vulnerable to a shape-shifting demon who has infiltrated his circle of associates. His only hope is Nest Freemark, the teenage heroine of his previous adventure, who applies her own grasp of the Word to smoke out the demon before John's dreams--which include her death--can come true. The identity of John's demonic manipulator and the meaning of his dreams are carefully crafted mysteries that build to a climax filled with surprising twists and turns. Brooks's real achievement, however, is his orchestration of the tale's social issues and personal dramas into a scenario with the resonance of myth. Both a sprightly entertainment and a thoughtful allegory of the forces of Good and Evil at large in the modern world, this novel is sure to increase its author's already vast readership. Author tour.

April 15, 1998
Best-selling fantasy writer Brooks offers a sequel to his Running with the Demon, featuring a black runestaff who has the awful burden of channeling the world's magic.

May 15, 1998
John Ross and Nest Freemark, the magical principals in "Running with the Demon", are still around five years after that disaster-fantasy's reasonably happy ending. John is in Seattle, to which he has drifted after renouncing his responsibilities as a Knight of the Word--that is, a defender of goodness--and where he works at a very successful homeless shelter. Nest comes to tell him he is in peril of becoming a minion of the evil Void if he doesn't resume his knightly duties, for Halloween fast approaches, and, as "Running" attested, that is when demons make their move. One of Brooks' strengths is physical description, and scenic Seattle serves that talent well. But description is not normally the strong suit of a fantasy thriller (King can make do with it, but what can't he do with the genre?), and since Brooks lets us down in the plot and action categories, not to mention the crucial one of suspense (the resolutions of the book's mysteries are apparent no later than halfway through), this is rather a snooze. Yet all of Brooks' books have sold well, so have it for the fans, anyway. ((Reviewed May 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)