Running with the Demon

by Terry Brooks

No cover — Terry Brooks: Running with the Demon (Paperback, 2007, Del Rey)

Paperback, 448 pages

English language

Published May 1, 2007 by Del Rey.

ISBN:: 978-0-345-49256-2
OCLC Number:: 171549674

(11 reviews)

Twenty years ago, Terry Brooks turned fantasy fiction on its head with The Sword of Shannara, the first fantasy novel to make the mainstream bestseller lists, and the first in an unbroken string of thirteen bestselling books. Now, in Running with the Demon, Brooks does nothing less than revitalize fantasy fiction again, inventing the complex and powerful new mythos of the Word and the Void, good versus evil still, but played out in the theater-in-the-round of the "real world" of our present. On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois, site of a lengthy, bitter steel strike. One is a demon, dark servant of the Void, who will use the anger and frustration of the community to attain a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word, a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking. Ross has been given the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it?At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men. And the lives of the people of Hopewell. And the future of the country. This Fourth of July, while friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of Humanity will be decided . . .A novel that weaves together family drama, fading innocence, cataclysm, and enlightenment, Running with the Demon will forever change the way you think about the fantasy novel. As believable as it is imaginative, as wondrous as it is frightening, it is a rich, exquisitely-written tale to be savored long after the last page is turned.From the Hardcover edition.

5 editions

DaveNash3 reviewed Running with the demon by Terry Brooks

Review of 'Running with the demon' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I read the 7 core Shannara books back in the day. This was a refreshing work from a well read author. You can't really compare this to the other Brooks books, I picked it because I was interested in how a fantasy writer would work with a modern setting. He did outstanding.

A couple criticisms that come from writing in contemporary times, he writes that the Nest won the 10k Cross Country meet in High School in the Spring. XC is a fall sport and girls don't run the 10k in HS on the track or XC.

Also there seems to be an issue with the year. I think its 1991-92 but I've read other places that its 1997. I don't care about which year July 4 fell on Monday or something like that. There is a reference to 38 year old Vietnam Vet and that's not possible in 97. Also the "Reagan Country" identity would have still been prevalent in 92 not so much in 97. In the next book, 5 years later, he writes Nest is training in a few years for the Melbourne Olympics, wrong city, Sydney, but that was 2000 Athens was 2004.

Also he's a little left wing, but I ignore it like I do a good NYT article.

I guess when you make up your own world you don't have to be as fact correct or think about political connotations.

Despite all that this was a thriller and I enjoyed taking the fantasy genera to our times.