Subject: Review: Terry Brook's _Running with the Demon_

From: Alexander Stroup <[email-masked]>
Date: 17 Apr 1998 13:55:22 -0400

RUNNING WITH THE DEMON: A NOVEL OF GOOD AND EVIL by Terry Brooks
           Ballantine, ISBN 0-345-37962-4, 1997, 420pp, US$25.95
                    A book review by Alexander Stroup
                     Copyright 1998 Alexander Stroup

A child of uncertain heritage is growing into magical powers only to
become the focus of a conflict bigger than any previously imagined.

Sounds like pretty standard fantasy fare, doesn't it? Except that Terry
Brooks' latest has two hooks that may catch the blurb-reader's eye. First,
the setting is Hopewell, Illinois over the weekend of July 4, 1994 (or
perhaps 2005). The second is that the main character, Nest Freemark, is a
14-year-old girl rather than the standard 14 year-old-boy. Sadly, the
latter is probably the more unusual since when fantasy is set in the
present it is called horror.

The summer swelter is in full swing in Hopewell, Illinois, and though the
employees at the city's largest employer have been on strike for months
the town is looking forward to the Fourth of July festivities. Everyone,
that is, except for a stranger putting unsavory thoughts into people's
minds. With the arrival of John Ross, another mysterious stranger, the
stage is finally set for a battle with the future of the world in the
balance. The key question is what role are the Freemarks, and the park
they have magically watched over, playing.

Nest Freemark grew up knowing of magic in the world. She has always known
of the creatures, both good and bad, living in the park next door. She has
always known that the women in her family have had magic for five
generations and that they have all looked after the park next door. She
has known for several years that the bad creatures, "feeders," have been
growing more numerous.  Unfortunately, since Nest has always known this
stuff the author apparently felt it unnecessary to explain it to the
reader.

For me this was the big problem with the book. The blurb promised that
Brooks "does nothing less than revitalizing fantasy fiction again,
inventing the complex and powerful new mythos of the Word and the Void."
Unfortunately the Word and the Void are invented much as a perpetual
motion machine is; not so much through hard word but rather by simply
claiming it exists. It is more troubling that Brooks spends so little time
filling out this "powerful new mythos" considering that the idea of good
versus evil is hardly a new one and it is in the details that Brooks needs
to set himself apart.

This lack of detail extends throughout the book and most of the people in
the book are more caricature than character. Perhaps Terry Brooks can't
really be blamed for creating wooden characters (no pun intended in
regards to the sylvan, Pick). Fantasy readers generally accept strange
character interactions but the contemporary United States setting makes it
very hard to swallow. One of the strangest scenes in the book occurs at
church. There is a death in the front area of the church, Nest asks an
usher to call for an ambulance and then returns to her grandfather to
finish the hymn. The ambulance apparently arrives and removes the corpse
but the congregation continues the sermon uninterrupted.

Terry Brooks is a good enough writer that the moments that are good were
enough to keep me reading to the end but I can only recommend _Running
with the Demon_ to the ardent Brooks fan. The casual fantasy reader will
find nothing of interest here.

%A	Terry Brooks
%C  	New York
%D	1997
%G	0-345-37962-4
%I	Ballantine
%O	hardcover, US$25.95
%P	420pp