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The Word and The Void: Difference between revisions
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A trilogy of urban fantasy novels by noted author [[Terry Brooks]], that deals with several recurring characters caught up in the ongoing war between The Word, which created all life, and The Void, which seeks to destroy it.
The Knights of the Word [[Walking the Earth|walk the earth]] performing missions for [[Dungeon Master|The Lady]], and each night they dream of what will happen if they fail. They are locked in a secret conflict with the demons of the void, once-human [[Shape Shifter|shape shifters]] dedicated to the destruction of all things.
The books are as follows: ▼
* ''Running With The Demon''
* ''A Knight Of The Word''
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The character sheet for this series, and the ''[[Shannara]]'' books can be found [[Shannara/Characters|here]]
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Jared Scott's mother and boyfriends. Many others are alluded to.
* [[Action Girl]]: Nest Freemark.
* [[After the End]]: Ross' dreams show him wandering through a post-apocalyptic future that is very much this trope.
** Which turned into reality by the time ''Genesis of Shannara'' books take place.
* [[
* [[Asshole Victim]]: The boy who the demon kills in ''Running With The Demon''.
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Nest and Hawk Freemark.
* [[Badass Grandpa]]: It's not an over-the-top example, but Nest's grandfather gets points for willingly attacking a bomb and gun-toting nutjob who'd been influenced by the demon.
** [[Hero
* [[Bad Future]]: Ross and the other Knights of the Word are working overtime to prevent one.
* [[Big Bad]]: The unnamed demon in the first book, {{spoiler|Stefanie}} in the second, and Findo Gask in the third.
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* [[Book Ends]]: The death of {{spoiler|Bennett Scott}} in "Angel Fire East" mirrors the near-fatal incident at the {{spoiler|beginning}} of "Running With the Demon".
* [[The Bully]]: Danny Abbott and the unnamed victim of the demon in ''Running With The Demon''.
* [[The Chosen One]]: {{spoiler|Hawk Freemark}}.
* [[The Corrupter]]: The demons, and in particular, ''the'' demon (of Running With The Demon) are this trope.
* [[Council of Angels]]: The Lady comes close.
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* [[Dark Messiah]]: If [[The Corrupter|the demon]] had succeeded in touching {{spoiler|Nest, she}} would have become one of these.
* [[Demon Lords and Archdevils]]: Findo Gask.
* [[Down
* [[The Dragon]]: In ''Running With The Demon'' the demon invokes the trope's inspiration by loosing [[Sealed Evil in
* [[Dungeon Master]]: The Lady.
* [[Dying Town]]: Hopewell. Most of the population is older, the people left behind are desperate and/or poor, and the only real source of income is the steel mill. Brooks paints a very sad picture with it of a town dying a slow death.
* [[God]]: The Word.
* [[Handicapped Badass]]: John Ross; justified, he acquired his limp as the price of his magic staff, and his [[Badass|bad assness]].
* [[The Heartless]]: The feeders, mindless living shadows that eat your emotions or drive you into a frenzy. The demons themselves are a borderline case.
* [[Hell Hound]]: {{spoiler|Stefanie}}, [[The Big Bad]] of ''Knight Of The Word'' has one of these are her true form.
* [[Hero of Another Story]]: O'olish Amaneh, one of the Lady's other servants, definitely gives off this vibe. It's not hard to imagine him out there contributing in ways that are every bit as important as those of Nest and Ross.
* [[Hero
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: {{spoiler|Ross}} before the beginning of ''Knight Of The Word''.
* [[Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad]]: {{spoiler|Nest}}.
* [[In the Blood]]: All the Freemark women have had the magic. There also seems to be a certain stubborn streak that shows up regardless of gender...
* [[Ill Boy]]: Jared Scott in ''Running With The Demon''.
* [[Knight in Sour Armour]]: John Ross to a degree.
* [[Lack of Empathy]]: The demons are ''very'' close to being magically created sociopaths.
* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: {{spoiler|The demon to Nest}}. And for the worst possible reasons. He fathered her in order to get revenge on her grandmother and drive her mother to suicide.
* [[Magical Native American]]: Two Bears/O'olish Amaneh. He does get genuine characterization though; in some ways he's almost a [[Hero of Another Story]]. It's also [[Justified]] as the [[Dungeon Master|Lady]] won't ''let'' him interfere in the main plot, sending him as an observer only.
* [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]]: Stefanie. {{spoiler|[[Deconstructed Trope|Who is also the villain.]]}}
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* [[Mugging the Monster]]: In the first book, a boy demands a toll from anyone who crosses his street, using his dog as the threat. He tries it on the demon. The demon makes the boy smell like a rabbit and the whole affair ends very badly for the bully.
* [[Mutants]]: Ross runs into a few of these "once-men" in the future.
* [[No
* [[Not So Different]]: The demons are fond of this one.
* [[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here]]: Hopewell. Beyond the drinking, the strikes, the feeders, and the odd demon attack, they're right.
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* [[Our Demons Are Different]]: Specifically, they're [[The Soulless|soulless]] former humans corrupted by [[Ultimate Evil|The Void]]. They manifest a number of powers, including spellcasting, mind control, and [[Shapeshifting]], and exist only to serve The Void's will by erasing all of creation.
* [[Really Gets Around]]: Enid Scott, who has five different children by five different men.
* [[Revenge
* [[Satan]]: The Void, which only speaks once (in ''Angel Fire East'') could be considered the setting's Satan analogue.
* [[Shape Shifter]]: Most demons can alter their appearance in one way or another. {{spoiler|Stefanie is the most obvious example}}.
* [[Sealed Evil in
* [[Seattle]]: The setting of ''A Knight of the Word''.
* [[Shell
* [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]]: Each book's demon is more dangerous than the last one, most pronounced with the jump from {{spoiler|Stefanie}} to Gask. Definitely [[Justified Trope|justified]] by John Ross' epic level of badassery. Most demons go around sowing general chaos and are a roughly even match for a Knight of the Word, but by the third book they figure out that for Ross they need the demon (Gask) who specializes in hunting Knights. And even ''he'' recruits two more demons to help him.
* [[The Soulless]]: All demons. They're the remains of humans who sold their souls to The Void in return for more power.
* [[Shout
* [[Ten
* [[Terrible Trio]]: Gask's henchmen in ''Angel Fire East''. Unusually, all three are quite dangerous.
* [[Ultimate Evil]]: The Void is less a character than it is raw [[Chaotic Evil]]. It seeks to eradicate all creation, reducing everything to the primordial state from whence it came.
* [[Urban Fantasy]]
* [[Villain Exit Stage Left]]: Gask gets this, but it's justified; Nest knows she can't beat him ''mano a mano'', so she tricks him into thinking the Gypsy Morph is gone and his mission has failed.
* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Some of the demons can do this; the main villain in ''Knight Of The World'' is a good example.
** It's implied that all demons are actually capable of adopting any form they want, it's just for most of them it takes weeks for them create a new form, Knight's [[Big Bad]] was special in that it could change forms in mere minutes.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:The Word
{{DEFAULTSORT:Word and The Void, The}}
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