THE MAGICAL FELLOWSHIP
by Tom McGowen
The horror of a seer's vision of earth's destruction brings all its races into cooperation. In his annual scrying of the future, Gwolchmig the Troll sees a race of strange creatures speeding from the stars, bent on Earth's annihilation. Overcoming his fierce enmity to humans, Gwolchmig hurries to the wizard Mulng and his 12-year-old son, Lithim. Mulng has foreseen the same catastrophe; still, the two wizards agree that the vision also contained a hint of salvation: all Earth's wizards joining forces. Finding their prophecies rejected by both religious and secular leaders (it's blasphemy to believe that Earth will let herself be destroyed), Lithim, Mulng, and the young female wizard Natl travel secretly to find the dragons, with whom they succeed in making an alliance. Returning, they discover that additional compacts have been made; the fellowship is complete. In this first of a trilogy, McGowen sets up a fine premise; and though neither plot nor characters break new ground, his writing is compact and articulate, while the story flows swiftly. (Fiction. 9+)