The Elves of Cintra
Terry Brooks
Del Rey, Sep 2007, $26.95
ISBN: 9780345484116

Five decades into the future earth is a terrible place to live as pollution is everywhere with plague being the norm. Most humans live inside fortifications never venturing outside the walls if they want to live as human predators are everywhere, but along with these "once-men" are powerfully magical evil Void demons.

A few good souls remain with the strength to keep dwindling humanity safe, but these Knights of the Word are realistic as they know they are slowly losing the fight. Still they adhere to their pledge so that the remaining twosome Logan Tom and Angel Perez risk death or worse protect children. However, they are losing the battle of Seattle where they and a child with magic Hawk try to keep the Ghosts children of the street safe from the demons and their once-men minion. Hawk vanishes; ending up in the mythical Garden of Life. However, there is no time to worry about the young practitioner as Logan and Angel split up in hopes of saving at least one group. Logan assisted by Cat the lizard girl lead one horde of kids out of the city; Angel takes another group into hiding in the nearby woods where they meet Kirisina Cintra elf hiding there also. Hopes are slim, but Kirisin offers an idea, find the blue Elfstones that will lead him to the powerful Loden Stone.

The second Word and Void fantasy thriller (see ARMAGEDDON'S CHILDREN) is a terrific bleak epic tale of an earth destroyed by human excesses especially the inability to see beyond the immediate bottom line of the "it's the economy stupid" philosophy. The post-apocalyptic world seems genuine even with magic working as the audience will accept Terry Brooks' theory that we of today killed the earth. Thus in this nightmarish future, readers quickly understand the courage of Logan and Angel, who could easily walk away to a safer nicer lifestyle.

Harriet Klausner