Product Description
On the distant planet of Kalár the two hundred year old life cycle of the Schánda once again menace the idyllic lives of the Boláni, a small tribal village of forest dwellers living in their hollowed Lándo trees.
The schánda stand half a cubit high, have a two hundred year life-cycle and normally live up on the northern edges of the tundra of the planet of Kálar. They’re an insect something like a cross between a spider and a scorpion. The adult form has no poisonous stinger and isn’t carnivorous. Then the mating urge mutates the schánda into a massive swarm of ferocious carnivores. It doubles in size, grows the stinger and large claws in its fourth and final moult, then begins its long march from its home-ground in the North of Kálar, south to its mating grounds on the shores of the Golden Sea.
In its path live the small peaceful Bólani tribe who make their homes in living Lándo trees in the forest. Around the same time as the schánda begin their journey, the Bólani’s collective unconscious, an imbedded memory of these carnivorous insects, triggers nightmares. They dream of an unstoppable carnivorous procession intent on eating their way to their mating grounds, heading their way.
The Bólani must gather their possessions and flee as fast as they can, ahead of the encroaching swarm. They flee south to the shores of the Golden Sea to escape the voracious insects. Their long march south to the shores of the Golden Sea takes them through a series of adventures involving small blood sucking lake insects, vicious storms, predatory birds, unfriendly villages, lakes of volcanic lava, and desert worms. Only the skill of their apprentice wizard, Morác, saves them from disaster—transforming his powers in the process.
Even when they reach the Golden Sea their problems are not at an end. Imprisoned by a coastal tribe and then buffeted by storms on their flimsy rafts the dynamics of the tribe are changed forever before they finally manage to return to their small forest village back up in the far North.
This is an eco-fantasy tale stretching the imagination beyond the solar system.
The schánda stand half a cubit high, have a two hundred year life-cycle and normally live up on the northern edges of the tundra of the planet of Kálar. They’re an insect something like a cross between a spider and a scorpion. The adult form has no poisonous stinger and isn’t carnivorous. Then the mating urge mutates the schánda into a massive swarm of ferocious carnivores. It doubles in size, grows the stinger and large claws in its fourth and final moult, then begins its long march from its home-ground in the North of Kálar, south to its mating grounds on the shores of the Golden Sea.
In its path live the small peaceful Bólani tribe who make their homes in living Lándo trees in the forest. Around the same time as the schánda begin their journey, the Bólani’s collective unconscious, an imbedded memory of these carnivorous insects, triggers nightmares. They dream of an unstoppable carnivorous procession intent on eating their way to their mating grounds, heading their way.
The Bólani must gather their possessions and flee as fast as they can, ahead of the encroaching swarm. They flee south to the shores of the Golden Sea to escape the voracious insects. Their long march south to the shores of the Golden Sea takes them through a series of adventures involving small blood sucking lake insects, vicious storms, predatory birds, unfriendly villages, lakes of volcanic lava, and desert worms. Only the skill of their apprentice wizard, Morác, saves them from disaster—transforming his powers in the process.
Even when they reach the Golden Sea their problems are not at an end. Imprisoned by a coastal tribe and then buffeted by storms on their flimsy rafts the dynamics of the tribe are changed forever before they finally manage to return to their small forest village back up in the far North.
This is an eco-fantasy tale stretching the imagination beyond the solar system.
