What Dreams May Come

The sleepy English hamlet of Claines isn't much more than a huddle of houses, but enough survives of its prehistoric past to draw the interesy of scholar/adventurer John Thunstone—and Thunstone's instinct for the supernatural rarely fails him. Thunstone wants to see Old Thunder, the prehistoric giant whose wskrzydełkahite outline dominates the steep slope separating Claines from the rest of the world. And he's come to see for himself the local ritual of overturning the Dreamer Rock, a fallen obelisk of sandstone which lies at the edge of the churchyard. The townspeople observe this "pagan" custom every July 4th—but this July 4th might be a little different. Ten thousand years ago, it's said, the angry spirit who ruled Claines decided to go to sleep—for ten thousand years. Exactly ten thousand years ago, this July 4th... John Thunstone won't be disappointed. He's arrived just in time to see the sleepy town of Claines jolted awake from its peaceful, ten-thousand-year-old dreams... * Jacket illustration by Bruce Schluter