Running With the Demontt# of Pages: 434tttYear: 1997By: Terry BrooksRunning with the Demon is a good read for teens and adults who like supernatural activity and suspense. But be forewarned that this book has a ton of detail and can be quite boring until the second half. The main problem that this book addresses is a demon that comes to the small, settle, and very hot town of Sinnissippi to take all the souls that live there, but mainly to take what is rightfully his, his daughter Nest Freemark.Nest Freemark is a 14 year girl (with magic and the ability to see creatures from different realms) who lives with her grandparents Evelyn (Gran), and Robert (Old Bob) because her mother committed suicide after Nest was born and her father left. Her best friend is a sylvan named pick (forest protector). Nest spends most her days with her four friends Cass, Brianna, Jared, and Robert. She also relies on Danial (owl) and Wraith (Ghost Wolf created by the demon to protect Nest, nut turned against the demon with Evelyn’s magic) when she is in danger. One day she is greeted by a man named John Ross who turns out to be a knight of the word and came to protect Nest from the Demon who sought to turn her evil for his own cause. Nest later meets the Demon and finds out that he is her father (he killed her Grandma Evelyn). Nest is having a normal day with her friends when the demon rolls into town. Little does she know that the demon is here for her and has planned to do whatever it takes to make her join him. She is later visited by John Ross who also has magic, but he knows what the demon has in store for Nest because he can dream of the future. She also meets a Sinnissippi Indian named O’olish Amaneh who invites her to join him watch the spirits of his tribe dance. The night that she goes to see the dance, she also receives a vision of the past. The vision is of her grandmother running with a demon and the feeders (creatures that feed on the negative emotions of people). She is troubled by the vision so she confronts her grandmother about it. Evelyn tells her of her troubled past. She had fallen in love with a demon and had done a lot of bad things and used her magic for wrong. Then one say she realized what the demon really was and used her magic against him and told him to leave her and never return. Out of anger the demon waited for his revenge. He waited for Evelyn to get married and have a daughter. Once her daughter Caitlyn was old enough the demon seduced her. Once Nest was born the demon told Caitlyn and Evelyn who he really was and what he had done. Feeling so awful about what had happened Caitlyn committed suicide. This was when the demon left and created Wraith to protect his newborn daughter Nest. Now he had come back to take what was his, his daughter. Meanwhile the Demon had been helping a troubled and angry man named Derry Howe plan an accident that would make the MidCon Steel factory give into the strike. He created a bomb that he would detonate at the 4th of July Fireworks that were funded by MidCon Steel. His plan called for people to get hurt, or possibly die. The Demon also was making preparations to distract John Ross so whole the Demon took Nest. He would release an ancient monster that had whipped out the Sinnissippi Tribe. The Maentwrog. On the day before the Demon’s plan would play out he got Evelyn alone. Evelyn knew the Demon would come for her so she prepared herself with a shotgun. When the Demon came she was ready to die. After firing all her shotgun shells the Demon killed Evelyn with a heart attack. Nest spent the morning of the 4th alone in her room mourning her loss. It was there where she discovered a note her Grandmother had written her. “When he comes for you, use your magic. Trust Wraith. Love, Grandma”. Later that day she spoke with John Ross who told her that her father was the Demon. That night when she was at the fireworks with her friends, Nest prepared herself to face the Demon when he came. In her head she heard her friend Pick cry out to her telling her that she needed to come quick. When she arrived at the place Pick was being held captive she came face to face with the Demon. The Demon tried to persuade her to come with him but she refused. Then John Ross came out of the trees to destroy the Demon. It was then that the Demon released the maentwrog. Knowing that he was the only one who could destroy it and there was no other way, John Ross used all his energy to destroy the monster. It took all the strength John had to kill the beast that he was knocked out and unable to help Nest. Pick was captured and Danial was dead. Nest was left to face her father, the Demon, alone. He again tried to get her to join him and she again refused. When she tried to leave the Demon used his magic to knock her down. She called upon Wraith to help her. When the Ghost appeared the Demon laughed and told her that he was the one that created Wraith, that Wraith would not hurt his master. With nowhere else to turn Nest used her magic against the Demon. This did not kill the Demon, but he was furious. He started to send a blow when Wraith attacked him. Nest watched confused as Wraith ripped the Demon apart. Eventually the Demon was destroyed and disappeared into the ground like the maenterog. Once Wraith had succeeded in killing to Demon he disappeared into the trees. Nest was safe. It was then that she realized that her grandmother had used the rest of her magic to turn Wraith against the Demon, and Nest’s magic was the trigger. She freed pick and aided to John. Meanwhile Old Bob had uncovered Derry’s plan to sabotage the fireworks. So he went to confront him and was injured by the explosion in the process. After all the crazy died down nest went to visit her Grandpa in the Hospital. Old Bob had survived the damage and would recover, but Derry Howe had died. She later healed her friend (crush) Jared from his coma using her magic. It seemed now that Nest would have the happy peaceful life she had been waiting for. John Ross left Sinnissippi to go to his next destination where he and his magic were needed. As he sat on the bus he dreamed of the future he hoped would never come. What I did not like about this book was all the details about the little things that in the end weren’t important. But it got better near the end. A good Theme for this book would be “Don’t be overcome by evil, do what’s right.”Favorite Quotes: Page 218: “Because, we are, in some part, at least, the enemy we fear.” –Two Bears (O’olish Amaneh)Page 219: “Fear is a fire to temper courage and resolve. Use it.” – Two Bears (O’olish Amaneh)
After re-reading Sword of Shannarra a while back, I felt pretty confident that I could just write off the rest of that series. At the same time, I wondered whether this book would be the same experience. When I first read this, back when I was 15 or 16 probably, it was possibly my favorite book. More and more over the last few months I have been itching to pick this book back up and read it to see just how much I have changed as a reader.And for the first 100 pages or so, it was looking pretty grim. There were a lot of stylistic things that got on my nerves. For one, there were a lot of scenes and description that seemed completely unnecessary and slowed down the narrative. There was a lot of blow-by-blow description of what the protagonist was up to - she woke up, took a shower, got dressed in this shirt and these pants, ate this for breakfast, etc. For another, I felt like the book was beating me over the head to get certain points across... and more than once. The emotional and psychological processes of the characters were explained in painstaking detail. And it wasn't enough that this element of the story or that point of character was explained once--oh no, it had to be explained again, with the same degree of attention, and sometimes the same exact wording, in the next chapter. It seemed the author was concerned that I was going to forget some part of the story or the premise and wanted to be sure I was keeping up. That was obnoxious, and it carried throughout the whole book.But by the time I was about 100 to 150 pages in, the story had grabbed me, and I was really interested in reading it. The plot is this book's saving grace, and it is actually quite engaging and original. I like the characters, in spite of how stereotypical and formulaic they sometimes felt. And there was genuine suspense for me to find out what was going to happen next. It has been at least 15 years since I last read it, and I was surprised by how little I actually remembered about it.Another flaw of the book, though, is that it felt a little too gratuitous in the gore and violence department. There are only a handful of violent episodes, but it seems that all of them go over the top in the descriptions and the degree of gore portrayed. That was off-putting, as it seemed the author was relishing a little too much in those descriptions. I'm not saying the actions themselves were out of place or uncalled for, just that the depictions were tasteless.And speaking of tasteless, I was really disappointed in the way the Josie Jackson character turned out. She was set up initially to be a potentially important figure, but boy does that get shut down fast. John Ross makes it with her in a pair of surprisingly non-gratuitous scenes (considering how the author treated the violent scenes) and then she completely vanishes from the story. The whole time he keeps talking about how big of a mistake he is making, but that is not really explained either. It was just amazing to see how flat her character was, just used for a bizarrely unimportant "romance" line that doesn't do anything to develop anything.And well, there are actually a lot of asides like that that just last a paragraph or so, which just make the book longer than it probably needed to be. But in the end, the story did engage me, and I felt like the story came together well in the end. So, not a great book, but one that entertained and engaged me more than I expected, and I'm actually a little more on the fence about whether to proceed with the remaining books in this series.
What do You think about Running With The Demon (1999)?
This was a very difficult book to read because there didn't seem to be a point at first. It seemed like forever for any action to take place. While I do know you need to do some character building, I thought there was a little too much. I also thought this bordered on the horror side and that really isn't my genre. It seemed to be post apocalyptic and that also isn't something I like very much. I selected this book because it was the first in the Word And Void Series. I had read the Magic Kingdom Series and loved most of those books. This one just seemed to drag along and I didn't even want to pick it back up.I am giving this 2.5 out of 5 stars, because the writing was good but not to my liking. I think it needed a bit more action to keep you reading the pages.
—Connie
Con questo libro Terry Brooks si diede al fantasy contemporaneo... e fece bene! Dopo essere rimasta folgorata da I figli di Armageddon (atmosfera straordinaria), ho scoperto che la Trilogia del Demone (conosciuta anche come Trilogia del Verbo e del Vuoto) ne costituiva una specie di prequel, e così (non appena ne ho trovato in libreria un'esemplare che non fosse impolverato/strappato/stropicciato) ho acquistato questo primo capitolo. Molti fan di Brooks sono di parere contrario, ma personalmente, per quel poco che ho letto di lui, mi sembra che l'ambientazione "realistica" giovi molto a questo autore. Appassionante e ben scritto, con un unico neo: un paio di colpi di scena non mi sono risultati tali, visto che avevo capito tutto un bel po' di pagine prima. In ogni caso molto ben definiti i personaggi, sia Nest Freemark che John Ross, come anche la nonna di Nest. Una menzione a parte merita il parco, che finisce per assurgere al ruolo di personaggio vero e proprio, conferendo grande fascino alla narrazione. Verbo contro Vuoto, Creazione contro Distruzione. La lotta impari e quasi disperata di due "eroi", Nest e John, contro un nemico implacabile e, forse, imbattibile. In altre parole, una vera metafora della condizione umana. Non do il massimo solo perché penso che il culmine della trilogia sia rappresentato dall'ultimo capitolo, il bellissimo Il fuoco degli angeli.
—Loredana La Puma
This was one of the best Terry Brooks books I've read ever and one of the best books I've read in a long time. Brooks keeps it simple with a small cast of characters but makes each and every character beloved by the middle of the book. Fast paced and intriguing this was entertainment at it's finest. I avoided these books when they were first published because I thought "The Void and the Word" had no connection to his beloved Shannara series. Once the "Genesis of Shannara" was published and I realized this series was connected I hunted the books down. Now after reading the first book, I'm sorry I took so long to read it. Even if this had never been tied into the Shannara mythos, Running with the Demon stands on it's own two legs and never stops running. Great, great book. Read it!
—Doug Bazdar
