Imaginary Friends

The Word & The Void #0.5

by Terry Brooks

In 1997, New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks reinvented the fantasy genre again, publishing the contemporary fantasy masterpiece RUNNING WITH THE DEMON, the first book in a trilogy of novels that would become known as the Word/Void series.But in 1991, six years before RUNNING WITH THE DEMON, Terry Brooks began testing the mythos found in Word/Void and wrote a tale titled IMAGINARY FRIENDS, a short story published in the Lester del Rey anthology ONCE UPON A TIME!IMAGINARY FRIENDS has been out of print ever since -- but no longer!Jack McCall is ten days shy of his thirteenth birthday, a happy kid with wonderful parents, a great best friend, and a bright future. But after a series of headaches forces him to visit the family doctor, Jack discovers a dark secret about himself, one that threatens to destroy him.All is not lost though. In mysterious Sinnissippi Park where he is banned to tread, Jack discovers unexpected help from the most unlikely of friends and begins a quest to locate the most potent of magics -- one he needs if he is to survive.Here, for the first time in two decades, Terry Brooks fans can read the 8500-word short story IMAGINARY FRIENDS, featuring Sinnissippi Park and the first appearance of the elven creature Pick and his trusty owl Daniel!

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Ebooks, Young Adult, Audiobook

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 31, 2011

About the author

Terry Brooks was born in Illinois in 1944, where he spent a great deal of his childhood and early adulthood dreaming up stories in and around Sinnissippi Park, the very same park that would eventually become the setting for his bestselling Word & Void trilogy. He went to college and received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in English Literature, and he received his graduate degree from the School of Law at Washington & Lee University.
A writer since high school, he wrote many stories within the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and non-fiction, until one semester early in his college years he was given The Lord of the Rings to read. That moment changed Terry's life forever, because in Tolkien's great work he found all the elements needed to fully explore his writing combined in one genre.
He then wrote The Sword of Shannara, the seven year grand result retaining sanity while studying at Washington & Lee University and practicing law. It became the first work of fiction ever to appear on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, where it remained for over five months.

Reviews

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple fun, light-hearted, magical adventure. A great way to start the new year.

[Msjodi777 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this one when I was looking at kindle books in the Shannara series, and thought I'd get it. Amazing how you sometimes stumble on true gems sometimes, isn't it? What can I say? - this is a tale of magic, and of courage, and of facing the things that scare us. As a cancer survivor, I can tell you, this story is exactly what each of us needs. Don't know if Terry Brooks reads goodreads reviews, but if he does, all I want to say is "Thank you, I needed that." Now I'm off to look for my own special little elf. <><

[Robin Burrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was originally released years ago as part of a collection of modern fairy tales. That book has been out of print for a long time and Terry has rereleased the story as an ebook for a limited time. All sales of this ebook go to help pay for Terry's "Web Druid" Shawn Speakman's hospital bills for his cancer treatments.

I originally purchased this ebook to help out Terry & Shawn, but the story won me over all on its own. The story takes place in the Word & Void setting. It's about a boy, the magic of the park, the magic within, and a battle with cancer. The story is beautifully layered and the boy's adventure with the magical creatures in the nearby park have both literal and figurative meanings.

If you haven't read this ebook, please consider going out and buying it. It's only $2.99 (right now) and will probably only be available for purchase for a limited time. And if you don't own an ebook book reader, or a phone with an ebook reader app, there is the option to purchase the book to read on your computer. You should check it out. It is a really touching story.

More info: http://www.terrybrooks.net/2011/11/sh...

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short story about a 13 year old boy who is diagnosed with cancer. He ends up with Pick who is an elf the works to save a park from evil. The main character is thrust into action against a loose dragon.

This story is meant as an inspiration as the dragon represents the cancer. On this account, the author succeeded with trying to get his point across and was a nice story. I believe the reason why I gave this a low rating is that I was expecting something else. I was expecting the author to capture the atmosphere of "The Word & the Void" series which leads to his successful Shannara series. I guess I was looking for something else.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imaginary Friends is a magical tale. It's a good thing Terry's imagination comes up with these wonderful tales or where would we be as readers.

[Andy Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good short story and all monies raised are for a good cause

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginary or real? Are there elves and trolls in the park or are the head bumps prior to each visit me telling?

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a short story it was very enjoyable. Terry has delivered yet again!!

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars - English hardcover

Review follows later. Miriam, my daughter (21), will writte te review.

[Tim Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the review on my blog: Tim's Book Reviews

Premise: Jack McCall is a thirteen year old boy with good friends and a loving family that one day starts having headaches. What he learns from the doctor is devastating: he has cancer. His best friend Waddy Wadsworth is not as concerned as he is, since you hear stories of people getting over this type of thing all the time.

Jack lives on the edge of Sinnissippi Park, where his imaginary friends Pick and his owl Daniel return to him from earlier in his childhood and lead him on an adventure to save the park from an evil imprisoned in a massive tree. Not only is he supposed to save the park, but Jack is led into a struggle to save himself.

Imaginary Friends is a short story first released twenty years ago in the anthology Once Upon A Time, and is the inspiration for Running with the Demon, the first book in Terry Brooks’ Word and the Void series.

Themes: In Imaginary Friends, Jack is forced to face his adversary head on. This is a story about overcoming adversity and what someone can achieve when they have the will to fight for their lives.

We also learn in this short story how friends can give us encouragement to go on, whether real or imaginary. Imaginary Friends tells us that good friends will be there whenever we need them regardless of time spent apart. Friends also challenge us, believe in us, and encourage us to better things.

Pros: Running with the Demon is one of my favorite books by Terry Brooks. This short story was written before the novel and was the inspiration for that story. Pick and Daniel were as I remembered them in the book, especially Pick’s cranky personality and curmudgeonly language. I hadn’t read this short story before and it was to my pleasure that this was made available because it gave me some insight into Terry working out the details for a new world. The biggest pro for me is that for a short period of time Terry is giving all the proceeds to his webmaster and friend Shawn Speakman to help him pay for his cancer treatment bills.

Cons: Pick is described differently here than in Running with the Demon. In this story he is a tiny elf with a red beard. In Running with the Demon, he is described as a sylvan made of twigs knitted together with a mossy beard and leafy head. Without giving away either story, the thing trapped in the tree is different between the two stories as well. The ending was a little predictable, at least for me.

Recommendations: Imaginary friends is a heartwarming story about overcoming cancer and the inner battle for survival. It is fitting that for a short period of time Terry has made this story available for sale in ebook format to help his webmaster and friend Shawn Speakman pay for his cancer treatments. Not only will you get a story that helped set the stage for one of my favorite of his novels, you will be helping someone else in the process. On those grounds alone I could recommend this story, but Imaginary Friends is a nice short story with characters and setting inspiring one of my favorite Terry Brooks books, Running with the Demon, and is a testament to the power of the human spirit.

[Geoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommendation: Coming in at only 27 pages, there’s not a lot to expound upon for this review. The story is a light read and a bit too fast for my tastes, but overall I’m glad I read it and I can’t wait to dive back into Shannara in the future

My Response to Imaginary Friends: I feel like reading this after having read the entire Word & Void trilogy is what people who read Go Set A Watchmen after having loved and read To Kill A Mockingbird . (On a smaller scale, obviously.)

Brooks wrote this novel back in the early ’90s as part of a short story collection. It was re-released as a single e-book in honor of a friend who had cancer with all proceeds for the first 90 days of sale going to that friend for his medical bills.

I’m glad I read this novella/short story as it was a great little encapsulated tale which shows one of the magical characters, Pick, of Word & Void fame, at an earlier time than the actual trilogy. The story revolves around 12-year-old Jack McCall who is given a cancer diagnosis. And in essence it serves as an exterior battle/response to that diagnosis.

Click here to continue reading on my blog The Oddness of Moving Things.

[Cynthia McGrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pick is back

I chose this book because the cover intrigued me. Than I read. The story plot. I sounded like something I would like. Than I discovered that Pick was in the story. Pick is one of my favorite characters and I had missed him. When I discovered Jack had Cancer I was hooked. I lost someone I loved dearly. And when I read about Mr Brooks friend I had to get it. Jack was having severe headache s but was afraid to tell his parents. I can relate to this because I had a lump in my breast and was afraid to tell anyone for fear of what I might find out. Well his Mom finally found out and they took him to the Doctor. Not good news, that's when Pick enter the story. It was seven years later and Pick retures and makes Jack fight a Dragon that turns out to be Jacks Cancer. Of course he beats. The Dragon and gets well. Also my lump was nothing. I hope Mr Brooks friend turns out with a happy ending.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very short story that is the earliest piece that ties in all the Shannara stories. This is a little story preceding the Word & Void series.

It was interesting. It has been awhile since I read the Word & Void books, so I'm looking forward to rereading them and seeing how this stories ties in.

I really enjoyed the play between magic being real and not real at the same time. Is it real because he remembers it as being real with sensation and detail or is it just because he hallucinated after hitting his head? I like the openness to interpretation and the hints of possibilities. I also enjoyed the description of Jack's active imagination and what he was seeing on top of what was really there. Young imaginations are beautiful.

[Tasha Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick short read. I think this is my 1st Terry Brooks story. I enjoyed it. Liked how the boy fights magical creatures as a way to deal with the cancer. I felt as if I was with him. The profits also go to help pay medical bills of a cancer survivor which made the story have added meaning.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice prequel to Brook's Running with the Demon series where a young boy meets Pick, the elf who guards the forest.

[Gareth Otton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea that this book existed and was excited to give it a read being as I loved the work Terry Brooks did in the first half of his career. However, for all that, I understand why this book wasn't published until 2011. It's not a bad story, it's just okay.

From a subjective point of view, this book does something I've never enjoyed, which is playing with the idea that all of this might be happening inside someone's head rather than for real. It's essentially a play on the "he woke up to find out it was all a dream" cliche. I've never enjoyed that and the same is true here.

My other problem with this book is that it doesn't really add anything to the lore of the Word and the Void series. I'm not even sure that it stays true to that lore as I always thought Pick was a sylvan not an elf, and when you understand what an elf is from Terry Brooks' later series, then this just didn't work for me. Maybe Terry was trying to stay true to his original idea for this story, but considering it's only 27 pages long it would have been pretty easy to fix this.

Overall this is an okay read, interesting only because it has characters and settings from Running with the Demon and it kind of plays on its relation to that to get value rather than the story itself.

As for the child illness and the obvious metaphor that was explained away to the reader like we were idiots, it was just too on the nose to be clever.

So overall this is nothing special and doesn't really add anything to the series. 2.5 stars rounded up to three as this story is pretty average at best, and doesn't live up to the promise the book that follows (chronologically).

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woah, short story doesn't even begin to describe this. If you blink, you'll miss it. There's no real character development and the plot makes itself up as the story goes. Other than being in the same local as the Word & Void series there, as far as I can I cam remember, it has been a while since I last read the series. Taking a quick look around Google it seems the charactt Pick also appears in at least one, perhaps others of the series this story precedes, by how long? We don't know but the timelines seem close. This short, short story was written, as the author states, in the early 90's for inclusion into a coffee table book of modern fairy tales. It may contain the spark that created the series but on its own? It's not much of a story. It's over too quick and too easy. It's taken longer to write this review than to read the story. You could pass on this and miss nothing important and at three bucks (current price as of 06/18/17) for only twenty-seven pages? Your money could be spent better elsewhere.

[Tammy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the Word and series when they originally came out and I loved them! Of course, my introduction to Terry Brooks was the Sword of Shannara. I picked up in trade mainly because it had a Brothers Hildebrandt cover, but I read and was hooked. I’ve bought all his books but only got about half way through the Shannara books. I thought a reread was in order, but I decided to go chronologically. The first book is a short story called Imaginary Friends. This I had never read but it is a precursor to the Word and Void series which is actually pre-Shannara in the timeline. And while the story changes somewhat in Running With the Demon, it was like coming back to an old friend. I find comfort and familiarity in Terry Brooks prose and the characters are old friends.
If you haven’t read the Word and avoid series yet, start with this short story. It is a good introduction into the world.

[Christopher Roxby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gonna be real honest here... I didn't care for Terry's Word and the Void series. I wanted to like it, but it just didn't do it for me.

Also... Seriously? Who the hell names their kid "Nest"?

Imaginary Friends is a little longer than a short story, a little shorter than a novella... But whatever it was that I didn't get from The Word and The Void... This had it. It had spirit. It had heart. If Terry had written TWaTV with half the heart thhis short had, he would have had a hit bigger than the original Sword of Shannara.

I understand he's working on another novella set here. I have hopes now.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I didn't read *this* version. I read the one that's included in the Unfettered collection, but this was the only way to mark this particular story as read.
I can see why this is considered part of the Shannara stories (recurring characters and setting), but it's not really. It's a story of a boy dealing with a traumatic event and his imaginary friend that helps him through. Pick isn't even really the same as the Pick we see in the The Word and the Void books. Still, I'm glad I read it.

[Cams · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting find as I'm exploring the Shannara books at the age of 48, having read the original trilogy and the Heritage for the first time between the ages of 17 and 20-ish. I've just completed the original trilogy again and am now about to go to the beginning of the chronology, rather than continue with the Heritage.

The idea of magic in the real world appeals to me in rather a big way; it's something I've thought about all my life. It seems like the Word and the Void are books that I'm really going to enjoy, as I did with this little teaser.

[Tawnya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack is almost thirteen, only one week to go. Then Jack realizes he is dying. The doctor said “leukemia”. (I think Terry made Jack a bit too old. Reading the story you get sense of innocence from him that he would have lost by seventh grade. I think ten years of age is closer to how Jack is written.) When Jack was eight he met an elf named Pick. It was only one time-when he had ventured into the woods behind his house. Jack even got one quick flight on Daniel the owl. He never saw Pick again. So why is Jack thinking about him now after all these years?

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Charming Story

It’s too bad we all can’t beat back our illnesses like Jack did, but this was a nice story. My only disappointment was that he never saw Pick again. Apparently, the sighting of the Elf had fulfilled its purpose, but still, I was disappointed Pick and Jack didn’t share any more adventures, though I HAVE read of the further adventures of Pick with another of Mr. Brooks’ characters, a female this time. 😊

[Alessandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am reading all the Shannara saga, chronologically, and obviously started with the Word and the Void part. But hadn't know of a prequel, that is to say this wonderful, beautiful, tender tale, where Brooks explains how magic can (even) cure a terminal sickness, even in this world, where supposedly there is no magic at all. Don't you believe it? Well, let's make a small trip down in Sinnissipi Park...

[Laura Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ it was a great little story about a young boy finding out he has a blood illness, coming to grips with the possibility of dying young, and learning how to live with it.

I enjoyed it thoroughly. Was it a bit childish with the magic system, maybe. But I think it just came across that way because it was through the eyes of an 11 year old kid. I think it could have been maybe ten more pages to be able to explore a few things more. But I think considering how short it was, it was still good.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first discovered the magical world of Shannaras as a young teenager – completely absorbed, utterly fascinated, devouring page after page.

Now, more than 30 years later, I stumbled upon this forgotten treasure while cleaning out my attic. Why not, I thought.

The opening story follows 13-year-old Jack McCall, fighting illness and clinging to life. But maybe – just maybe – he’s fighting for something far greater than himself.

Let the story begin.

[Zachary Pareizs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the play adaptation by his sister, Laurie Brooks. Loved the story about imagination and creativity. Really cool opportunity for some sound design. I like that the bad guy isn’t literally the disease but more about giving him the courage to fight the disease and not give up. But the language around the Uncle made me uncomfortable

[Wendy Beckman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story with a purpose

Imaginary Friends is short, of course, so there's not a lot of space for plot or character development. This story was written to deliver a message. It succeeded in that.

[Dayna Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am still in tears after reading this short story, It was definitely not what I was looking for having read it after the word and void series, but it was something! Well written and heartfelt. Did not disappoint. Obviously I was not emotionally prepared to take that little adventure.

[jeff williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

greatest book on the planet

I liked everything about it and disliked nothing. Terry Brooks is clearly very talented in writing this book. Thank you, Terry!