The Realms Thereunder: The Ancient Earth Trilogy, Book 1

This ambitious debut somewhat jerkily weaves three major narratives into a Tolkienesque saga, maintaining that destroying Evil isn't enough: humans have to actively build Good. At age 13, protagonists Daniel Tully and Freya Reynolds disappeared into a secret tunnel beneath an English church, awakened two sleeping Anglo-Saxon warriors, and carried out a coming-of-age sortie against horrid orcish yfelg%C3%B3pes before returning to the surface. Eight years later, Freya, an Oxford student, and Daniel, a homeless wanderer, plunge back into a renewed crusade in Nidergeard, the subterranean realm housing the whole range of supernatural British folklore beasties. Fitfully impressive passages can't mitigate the ennui of interminable tunnel and sewer crawls, and Lawhead's predictable message is often obscured by things that go bump in a near-endless night. (Sept.)