A Knight of the Word
core novel 1998 Shannara
Record
| First published | 1998 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.07 (16,301 ratings, collected 2026-09-12) |
| First-edition ISBN | 0-345-37963-2 |
| First-edition date | 1998-08 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
The second novel of the Word and Void trilogy is set in Seattle around Halloween of 2002, five years after the events of the previous book. John Ross, a Knight of the Word still tormented by a failed mission that resulted in the deaths of children, tries to walk away from his supernatural duties, believing he has found an ordinary life through his relationship with a woman named Stefanie and meaningful work at a homeless shelter run by the well-regarded activist Simon Lawrence, nicknamed the Wizard of Oz. Nest Freemark, now nineteen and a college student, senses that John is vulnerable to corruption by the Void, the dark force opposing the Word, and travels to Seattle to help him.
Where it sits
- Universe: Shannara
- Series: Word & Void core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Terry Brooks
Notes
- From the series record (Word & Void): Contemporary-set (1990s Illinois) prequel trilogy; the ultimate origin of the saga's magic and antagonists. Treated as Core per Brooks' own unified reading order, despite the non-Four-Lands setting.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Word & Void: position 2 of 3: previous Running with the Demon (1997) · next Angel Fire East (1999)
- Internal chronology, within Shannara: position 2 of 32: previous Running with the Demon (1997) · next Angel Fire East (1999)
Sources
- Terry Brooks official site
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannara
- https://www.isfdb.org
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Knight_of_the_Word
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