In the Beginning was the Word

The jacket blurb for this book looked so interesting at the library that I picked it up and started reading before I realized that it was the last in a series of three. I quickly became involved with the interesting characters and plot however and continued on. I found that the book could stand alone as good reading and when I finished, I searched till I found the first two books and read them also.


John Ross is a Knight of the Word who dreams at night of possible futures. The future is terrible unless he follows the clues to interfere in an event that precipitates said future. He dreams of demons and once-men bent on destruction of the human race, cities in chaos and his own failure and death if he does not hasten to a place where a gypsy morph will appear. A gypsy morph has a fragile life for it is a collection of magickal forces and energies that will die after several feeble transformations unless they stabilize. Only rarely do they enter a final transformation and live. They have the capacity to become either great good (one became penicillin) or great evil (one became a plague). John hastens to travel to find the place where the morph will first appear. After several shimmers and glimmers, it becomes a little boy who speaks one word. The word is Nest.

John Ross must decide in which direction to go. Nest means most to him when he connects it to a woman he hasn't seen in ten years, Nest Freemark, another human with magical abilities. He hastens to Hopewell, Illinois, an ordinary steel town where he came years before to interfere in Nest's destiny. Will Nest greet him with open arms? He doubts it. The last time he appeared his visit brought chaos, confusion and death. Yet he needs her help if he would turn the energy of the gypsy morph to the side of the Word and not lose it incredible energy to the Void.

I was fascinated with this unlikely hero who is like so many people in today's world, fearful of the future of mankind, tired of trying to do the "right thing" and not seeing any lasting consequences of doing so. Tired of seeing how easily it appears that evil triumphs all around and too often true goodness is only found in tiny pockets. It's a believable scenario, one you can identify with unlike a knight in shining armor type who always wins the great battles and has friends, fame and fortune follow him, John Ross is tired, discouraged, but carries on with what he believes in.

The ending left me feeling that somehow it is not the end. Another series may come from this, or a sequel. I was not satisfied. I wanted to know more about the gypsy morph's final destiny and that of Nest Freemark. I wanted more for John Ross. I did enjoy the book enough that I read the others in the series and look forward to a sequel.