THE PACK
by Tom Pow
Engrossing and memorable fable of a few children and dogs clawing their way through a devastated world. Bradley, named for the shop where he was found begging, is the leader of the Pack. The Pack has three children, recently returning to human form after living as dogs, and three dogs, one of whom is part wolf. Destitute and hungry, their only adult contact is an Old Woman who tells them tales of their mysterious, semi-forgotten pasts. When a warlord kidnaps one child, Bradley must follow. He leaves his Zone, squalid but comparatively safe, and ventures through the treacherous Forbidden Territories and Invisible City. The Pack survives capture, caged fights and difficult travel to reach the Land of Wolves, poignantly familiar to them from a tale. Pow elucidates certain details of the Pack members’ history and leaves others cryptic; he does the same for society’s crash from normalcy into the Dead Time and grim present. A humbly beautiful ending brings plot and genre full circle. (Fantasy. 10-13)