"ARMAGEDDON'S CHILDREN," by Terry Brooks, Ballantine/DelRey, 371 pages, $26.95

The artful Terry Brooks admits to having a strong political position on most of what he writes. If the reader has not read Brooks before, "Armageddon's Children" is a logical place to start, because he intends it as the first in a new series.

Brooks said his vision is that our current world "is following a thread," which, if continued, will "eventually implode under the weight of its own mistakes, mismanagement and poor decision-making."

So think Iraq, Lebanon, torture, corruption, a presidential administration trapped by its own mistakes — and you can probably get a handle on "Armageddon's Children." That doesn't mean President Bush or others from his world are labeled as characters — rather it gives the author an opportunity to use current events as a platform.

It may be that some readers will not even recognize the connection, but it is Brooks' intention to produce our world through a different lens, to force people to take a second look. That means they may very well interpret the book differently than the current events that inspired it.

"Armageddon's Children" will be a series of nine books (or three trilogies), if Brooks has his way. A familiarity with biblical characters and events is almost certain to help the reader interpret Brooks, because he uses a number of symbols, such as light and darkness, good and evil.

Brooks begins "Armageddon's Children" with Logan Tom, a character damaged by his violent past after his boyhood was cut short by his family's slaughter. It is a result of madness and hatred sweeping the world, causing the downfall of civilization.

The action takes place in America, much of it in Seattle, where Brooks lives — but it is not a Seattle anyone would recognize. The beauty has been razed by the demons, the freaks, the forces of evil. The devastation is so bad and the forces of evil so strong that America itself is virtually unrecognizable.

Logan has promised to seek a remarkable being born of magic, who is destined to lead the final battle against darkness. In Los Angeles, Angel Perez is trying to do much the same; she is looking for a place shrouded in mystery before her enemies succeed in exterminating her. We don't know how, but their paths will cross some day, strengthening the crusade. Nevertheless, until that happens, the attackers are in the driver's seat. As Brooks writes:

"This might have discouraged those hiding in the compounds if there had been anyplace else for them to go. But the mind-set of the compound occupants was such that the idea of surviving anywhere else was inconceivable. Outside the walls you risked death from a thousand different enemies ... Freaks ... feral humans ... the once-men. ... There was anarchy and wildness. The humans in the compounds could not imagine contending with these. Even the risk of an attack and siege by the once-men was preferable to attempting life on the outside where an entire world had gone mad."

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