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Read Armageddon's Children (2006)

Armageddon's Children (2006)

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Genre
Rating
4.23 of 5 Votes: 6
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ISBN
0345484088 (ISBN13: 9780345484086)
Language
English
Publisher
ballantine books

Armageddon's Children (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

I read the Shannara books as a young teen and loved them. It was such a letdown when I tried to read them years later and they didn't hold up. Pretty thin, really. But I got suckered in to reading multiple new ones set in that world afterwards. Since I knew the world, they were comfortable and familiar. I kept wanting to recapture the original feeling, but they just weren't very good. This one is the same thing. The concept isn't entirely bad but the mediocre writing continues. There are too many offenses to mention, but I'll just cite one to represent the theme of the rest. In describing the appearance of an elf, he describes it as "elven-featured." Come onnn, man. Make an effort, for crying out loud! He is a lazy writer who phones it in and takes glaring shortcuts. No subtlety, no polish. Clumsy, transparent devices, flat, cartoonish characters, storylines drawn in crayon. And really, not a whole lot happens in this book. It's pretty much a setup for the next one. Aaagh. I've finally learned my lesson and won't read any more of his stuff.I think when he wrote the original Shannara books, the reading world was just hungry for anything in the universe that Tolkien had laid out for them. The genre just hadn't been explored very much, so people ate it up. And since people were familiar with the Shannara world, he just kept putting out books set in it. And people kept buying it because they were familiar with it. But when I read a book like this one, I have to think it wouldn't make it past the editor's desk if it were an unknown author's first book. This sounds like something I might write, and I'm not a writer. He's trading on past success at this point. This book and this series are probably just fine for young readers who have yet to be spoiled by better quality writing.

Wow. Hate to give a book 1 star without finishing it, but I had to put it down. As i get older I'm finally breaking myself of the mentality that I "have to read a book all the way to the finish". So admittedly I haven't finished it, so take this review with that in mind.With that said: Boring characters. My main problem is none of them seem fresh at all. Headstrong, young leader taking care of a pack of headstrong young kids...sighh. But SOME have special needs. For example, one likes to wander off! One is skilled, but VERY shy. One gets real angry, and has trouble connecting this others. And one may hold the secret to their survival! How many times has this been done? There is no spark to the characters at all, nothing to set them apart from anything else you've ever read. But wait! The young leader is uncommonly brave! Yawn. Oh, but did I mention he is in love with a young (possible) princess? AND the love is forbidden. YAAAWWWWWN. It's been so long since Brooks innovated anything, every book of his I pick up seems like old news. I read a little over half and put it down. No action, slow story, boring, nonthreatening drab world. How many times is he going to do the "surviving in a post apocalyptic world?" I'm not going to wait around until they find the magic talisman whatever, and the leader "struggles to harness the power inside of him". Skip it.

What do You think about Armageddon's Children (2006)?

Dopo due trilogie di davvero basso profilo, Terry Brooks risolleva in maniera decisa l'infinita saga di Shannara con questo nuovo romanzo che si pone a cavallo tra gli eventi relativi alla "trilogia del Verbo e del Vuoto" e la nascita del mondo di Shannara. In un mondo desolato e devastato dall'inquinamento e dell'incoscienza umana, sopravvivono gli ultimi Cavaliere del Verbo, oltre che sparuti gruppi umani rinchiusi in fortezze ben difese, in continua lotta con demoni ed ex-umani, ormai padroni dell'intera Terra. In mezzo tutto questo sfacelo, Brooks ci conduce verso la sofferta nascita del mondo di Shannara, una sorta di reset del mondo attuale, avviato in maniera tale da riportare in equilibro il continuo scontro tra il verbo ed il vuoto. In questo primo libro conosciamo i due ultimi cavalieri rimasti, Logan Tom e Angela Perez, incaricati di compiere alcune missioni delicate, la piccola banda degli Spettri, giovani adolescenti che si sono ricostruiti una loro vita nella decadente Seattle, oltre che a vecchie conoscenze quali Findo Gask e Due Orsi. Un buon libro che ho divorato in una sola settimana, e che spero vivamente che Brooks non rovini trasformandolo nel classico gioco dell'oca, che tanto ha rovinato diversi dei suoi precedenti libri.
—Karmakosmik

Having never read Terry Brooks before, I was not sure what to expect from this book. It begins in a post apocolyptic world, where humans are shutting themselves into compounds to save themselves from a world run amok by demons, mutants, and something called once-men, who seek only to destroy and follow orders from the demons not caring if they live or die. The book follows three separate people with the promise that they will all be brought together. (However, they are not, you got to go to the next book I guess.) Two of them are called Knights of the Word, a mystic order following the "Lady" to try to save humanity. The third is a boy named Hawk, probably somewhere in his teens, who is the leader of a bunch of street kids who call themselves Ghosts. I enjoyed the character development, sometimes told in flashbacks, and the pacing is steady. My only disappointment is its cliffhanger ending. The bookjacket sounded like this would be a stand alone type of read- even recommending it for someone who has never read Terry Brooks before, but I guess all fantasy novelists write in trilogies (and then some.) There is also a trilogy that is obviously a prequel to this book, mentioning the Knights of the Word and Hawk's mother, Nest Freemark. It does make sense even if you aren't familiar with any of Brooks' works, but I really don't want to have to read 3 or more books to get to the end of a story. So that is probably why I rated it four stars instead of five.
—Andrea Yargeau

This is the book that finally links the Word and the Void series with the Shannara books and WOW does it do it in style. The book is about a post apocalyptic world where the demons have won and mankind is splintered into groups of survivors that seem only to be awaiting their own end. The Bearers of the Black staff here, Knights of the Word, are Logan Tom and Angel Perez, and for this book they follow separate roads which take them to different places. The book's main characters, however, are a bunch of street kids, and these too are well rounded out and very realistic people. 5 stars does not cover how highly I recommend this book
—Simon

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