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Shannara isn’t a land of the past or fantasy – it’s the land of the future. It’s the land that emerged after an apocalyptic time period full of demons re-emerging and humans allowing the land to go be poisoned by their greed. In Armageddon’s Children, we get to see how it all happened and where it all came from.

The last remaining Knights of the Word travel the land under the direction of the Lady. Each has their own mission that will bring them together to save the last of humanity. Angel Perez and Logan Tom each have a mission to complete – a mission that brings keeps turning them closer and closer to a group of street kids that call themselves the Ghosts. 

The Ghosts will play an important role in the times to come. A time full of danger and strange new discoveries of magic and mutants. They are not what they appear on the surface, but they have not yet realized their full potential. 

Traveling with the characters we see the beginnings of the strange creatures that inhabit the world of Shannara – lizards, spiders, and once-men that help to make up the landscape of the Shannara series.

While I wasn’t a fan of the urban fantasy tale that showed more modern times in a previous series, Armageddon’s Children begins to bridges the gap between now and the future of Shannara. It’s not just a dystopian tale, but the beginnings of an origin story like none I’ve read before. I did run into a few cases where the editing could have been better – names misspelled and words that should be capitalized weren’t.



Title: Armageddon’s Children (Genesis of Shannara #1)
Author: Terry Brooks
Genre: Fantasy, Dystopia
Content Rating: PG-13
Terry Brooks is one of a handful of writers whose work defines modern fantasy fiction. His twenty-three international bestsellers have ranged from the beloved Shannara series to stories that tread a much darker path. Armageddon’s Children is a new creation–the perfect opportunity for readers unfamiliar with Brooks’s previous work to experience an author at the height of his considerable storytelling powers. It is a gripping chronicle of a once-familiar world now spun shockingly out of control, in which an extraordinary few struggle to salvage hope in the face of terrifying chaos. 

Logan Tom is doomed to remember the past and determined to rescue the future. Far behind him lies a boyhood cut violently short by his family’s slaughter, when the forces of madness and hate swept our world after decadent excesses led to civilization’s downfall. Somewhere ahead of him rests the only chance to beat back the minions of evil that are systematically killing and enslaving the last remnants of humanity. Navigating the scarred and poisoned landscape that once was America and guided by a powerful talisman, Logan has sworn an oath to seek out a remarkable being born of magic, possessed of untold abilities, and destined to lead the final fight against darkness.

Across the country, Angel Perez, herself a survivor of the malevolent, death-dealing forces combing the land, has also been chosen for an uncanny mission in the name of her ruined world’s salvation. From the devastated streets of Los Angeles, she will journey to find a place–and a people–shrouded in mystery, celebrated in legend, and vital to the cause of humankind . . . even as a relentless foe follows close behind, bent on her extermination. While in the nearly forsaken city of Seattle, a makeshift family of refugees has carved out a tenuous existence among the street gangs, mutants, and marauders fighting to stay alive against mounting odds–and something unspeakable that has come from the shadows in search of prey. 

In time, all their paths will cross. Their common purpose will draw them together. Their courage and convictions will be tested and their fates will be decided, as their singular crusade begins: to take back, or lose forever, the only world they have.

In Armageddon’s Children, Brooks brings his gifts as a mythmaker to the timeless theme of the unending, essential conflict between darkness and light–and carries his unique imaginative vision to a stunning new level. Prepare for a breathtaking tour de force. To those who are new to Terry Brooks, welcome. And to those who have read him for many years: prepare for a dramatic surprise.
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