Five hundred years after a nuclear war, the American northeast is an area called the Forbidding. Ruled by the evil Lord Tan, the Forbidding regularly sends stalkers (eyeless, toxin-spitting former humans), werebits (perhaps a Monty Python nod — like rabbits, but with a gaping maws full of fangs), and other horrors over the immense concrete wall, created with the last resources of the old world, that separates the Forbidding from the Dominion.

In some ways, the Dominion is just as bad. At least it seems that way to young archer Willow, whose parents are both dead and whose memories include both recollections of her parents discussing the Dominion’s rot and also, strangely, memories of an earlier life as a high school student and taekwondo fighter at the time of the war.

Now Willow is off to the Academy, where she is expected to take girl classes (embroidery), not take boy classes (combat), and ultimately make a lifelong commitment to a profession to aid the collective. Drawing on her skills and native intelligence, as well as on the memories of her apparent former life, Willow carves her own path through the Academy, aiming at nothing less than revolution.

Dispocalypse is a Shannara-esque post-apocalyptic return of magic tale, rich with prophecy, redolent with the stink of evil, and vibrant with the undaunted clamors of a young woman who will not allow her will to be constrained. It walks a delightful line between science fiction and fantasy and delivers a tale sure to please readers looking for unusual adventure fiction.

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