The gypsy morph

Set eighty years from now, the United States has become a wasteland. Chemical weapons, pollution and disease have scarred the land, and the government no longer exists. Survivors barricade themselves in walled settlements against roaming predators, armed gangs and grotesque creatures born of poisoned soil. Behind all of these threats lurk demons and their servants, who intend to wipe out or enslave what remains of humanity.

Across the country, a scattered group of defenders has begun to push back. Logan Tom carries the staff of a Knight of the Word and is bound to guard the world's sole chance at salvation. He also wants revenge on the demon who murdered his family. Angel Perez, another Knight, has put her life at risk to shield the elves, whose hidden homeland faces annihilation by the Void. Kirisin Belloruus is a young elf who holds an ancient power and must lead his people out from under a monstrous army. Hawk is a drifter with no home, whose path may determine the fate of all humankind as he guides the survivors toward a new promised land before darkness takes hold.

The novel is the closing volume of the first stage of a new chapter in the Shannara series, which Terry Brooks has built up through the Word and the Void trilogy and the Shannara prequels Armageddon's Children and The Elves of Cintra. Its subject is a world moving from a mortal age into a magical one, and a final confrontation between the forces of the Word and the Void.