Rumors of Spring

Years of neglect and environmental poisoning come close to killing off the world's forests, which are forced by this crisis to evolve into a new form: sentient, thriving on industrial waste and capable of unnatural growth. When their resurgence threatens to engulf entire towns, the First Biotic Crusade travels to the isolated lab where botanist Amy Hayata had first studied the phenomenon 500 years before. Despite themselves, this ragtag group of scientists, politicians, revolutionaries and runaways finds Amy's records and chances on the secret of the wood. To an ecological polemic along the lines of Ursula Le Guin, Grant adds antic characters and bittersweet whimsy recalling J. P. Donleavy. Overall, rather too thin and wistful for its ambitions and length. (February 15)