The Word and The Void: Book Three

Angel Fire East

by Terry Brooks

Published in 1999

THIS REVIEW IS NOT SPOILER FREE

With Angel Fire East we again revisit Hopewell and Nest Freemark. John Ross is still a Knight of the Word and is still having apocalyptic dreams as he was before. In some ways things are still the same, but yet a lot has changed. The story starts 10 years after the previous book, Knight of the Word, and Nest is back in Hopewell at the family home for the Christmas holidays.

A story thread from the first book, Running With The Demon, is picked up here with Bennett Scott returning to Hopewell and meeting up with Nest to live with her. Bennett has had a rough life since we last saw her about 15 years ago. Struggling with drug addiction and a young child in tow, Bennett turns to the only person whom she feels that has ever cared for her, Nest Freemark. Nest of course, takes her in and provides a safe haven for Bennett and her daughter, Harper Scott. At least it was safe in the beginning, as a demon again has come to Hopewell. This demon, Findo Gask, is bold and approaches Nest right off the bat and tells her that he is looking for John Ross and she would be wise to tell him if he is there. Nest truthfully tells him that John isn’t there and the demon leaves.

John Ross, of course, shows up shortly thereafter with a child of his own in his care. There is a difference with his child, though. John Jr (as they call him) is a Gypsy Morph, a rare magical being that comes into existence for a short time and changes form multiple times until settling on a final form. This Gypsy Morph settles on a young boy and subsequently says “Nest” and then doesn’t speak again to John Ross. John heads to Hopewell to find Nest.

As things start to play out, the demon has a group of other demons with him who help him carry out his plan of defeating John Ross to be able to take control of the Gypsy Morph. This demon has been tasked by the Void with capturing the Gypsy Morph if possible, or at least preventing John Ross from using the Gypsy Morph to the Word’s advantage.

The demon’s plan is to set up John Ross as a drug dealer and then uses a local law enforcement officer, Larry Spence (who is interested in a relationship with Nest), and Bennett Scott as a way to frame John Ross. Penny Dreadful, one of the demons, poses as a drug user and works on breaking down Bennett, who had committed to stop using, until she eventually uses drugs with Penny. Findo Gask has been pressuring and using his powers of persuasion against the officer to convince him to visit Nest and try and catch John Ross in the act of selling or using drugs.

After Bennett uses, the demons lure her out to the cliffs at Sinnissippi Park and eventually push her off the edge while she is in an intoxicated state, thus finishing the job that the minions of the Void started 15 years ago in Book 1. When Bennett’s body is found, John Ross is suspect number one and Larry Spence turns up the heat on Nest to get to John. Nest pushes back and tells the officer that Findo Gask, who has been posing as an FBI agent, is not who he says he is. Larry goes to the house that Findo Gask is staying in and confronts him, but too late realizes his mistake and Gask traps him in the house with his magic to wait for Nest and John Ross to show up.

Another part of the plan, was for Gask to send one of his demons, an ur’droch, to kidnap Harper and John Jr. When John Ross is having a reunion and reconnecting with Josie Jackson and Nest is distracted, the ur’droch is able to get into the house and take the children. The irony is that while Gask is after the Gypsy Morph, he isn’t aware of the fact that the Gypsy Morph is John Jr. as he thinks that the Gypsy Morph’s final form is a ferret. He tells Nest and John that they need to bring the Gypsy Morph to his home at midnight or else the children will be killed.

John and Nest come up with a plan, with Pick’s help, to infiltrate Gask’s home and steal the children back and kill the demons. This bold plan almost works and is the climactic battle of the trilogy. Nest and Pick sneak in the back and go in the basement and find the children, but the powerful ur’droch is there waiting but isn’t aware of their presence yet. John attacks the demons by coming in the front door, magic blasting away. John quickly defeats Larry Spence who is a tragic pawn in the story, and is able to also defeat the muscle of the group, Twitch, and eventually defeats Penny but he is poisoned from Penny’s knives. He attempts to kill Findo Gask but is not strong enough due to the poison from Penny. Gask believes John to be dead and leaves him be.

While this is going on upstairs, Nest and Wraith attack the ur’droch with Wraith defeating the demon. Wraith and Nest come to an agreement that he is not to return to dwell inside her. This allows the Gypsy Morph to transform one final time, into it’s final form - an embryo inside of Nest’s womb to be born later. Nest leaves the home as police and fire vehicles are coming to the home, while thinking that John Ross is dead and she heads back home.

Findo Gask thinking his mission accomplished leaves with the impression that John Ross is dead and the Gypsy Morph has dissipated into nothing, John Ross is almost dead, but able to escape the home, and wanders off through town into Sinnissippi Park by the river. He collapses one last time, dropping his staff. The Lady visits him before he dies and tells him that he has accomplished his mission and has been an honorable Knight of the Word. John Ross passes on. Two Bears shows up to take the black staff for safekeeping and to give it to the next Knight of the Word.

This final book in The Word and The Void trilogy is a good entry in the Shannara Saga and while providing an ending to the main characters story of Nest and John Ross, it leaves me not very satisfied with their ending. While it’s been said by many successful writers, that if you leave your reader wanting more and wondering what happens next, then you have done a good job of storytelling. While I believe this perspective with storytelling, I’m not left satisfied wanting more with this series but instead am left saddened and wanting more for Nest. If this was my first entry into the Shannara Saga (as it is chronologically first in the timeline), I don’t know if I would continue on with the overall story due to the depressing nature of the stories and ending of our main characters.

I feel that the main character’s, Nest Freemark’s, story was not finished satisfactorily and I feel that her life’s journey has been left unfinished and unfulfilled. While a successful college and Olympic athlete, Nest has known nothing but grief and loss from such a young age in her personal life. A small subplot of this last book is that Nest had been married to Paul for awhile but they eventually divorced. Nest is still struggling with this new change in her life and then the tragic events of this story happen. Bennett Scott, a friend she has known and cared for, for the past 15 years is tragically killed. In addition to these events, Nest ends up being impregnated with a powerful magical being at the end, as well as caring for Bennett’s child, Harper, leaves a lot of story to be told and explored.

The events of this story combined with the extreme losses that Nest has experienced over the years from Book 1 until now, I feel does an injustice to the character of Nest. She has experienced loss from the beginning of her life with her mother dying when she was young. Her grandmother, and surrogate mother, dying during Book 1. Then between Book 1 and 2, Nest’s grandfather dies. Then two of Nest’s best friends, Brianna and Jared, move away and while Brianna would stay in contact with her for a short time, the boy whom she had feelings for never talks to her again. Her best friend, Cass dies unexpectedly and all of a sudden. Nest does have Robert, but that friendship is mostly awkward until he marries and moves on from her.

Even John Ross, while she has only interacted with him on three different occasions, but was a rock and trusted friend, is dead by the end of this story. We are left to assume that this new baby will bring her joy, but we are not allowed to experience this future joy with Nest. We are left only with Nest’s trials and losses, which as a reader of a character we have grown to care for and become invested in her story over the years, it is hard to end our relationship with Nest because of the way things are are left with her. I don't want, nor need, a Hollywood type ending but I would appreciate a happy ending for Nest, the girl we’ve cared for and rooted for for the duration of the story.

Now with John Ross, while I feel he deserved more (can the guy catch a break for once and end up with Josie Jackson after all these years?!), I was saddened by his death, but still accepting of it even though I disagreed with it.

I give this third book in The Word and The Void series a 3 out of 5, a somewhat satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy.

Next up the story jumps ahead in the timeline and we start with Book One in the Genesis of Shannara trilogy - Armageddon’s Children!