There are nine layers to the world. We live on the first layer, but the Ninth Layer of the world is where the action is. That’s where the King of the World lives, where dragonflies grow as large as alligators, and where all the rest of the layers are defended from evil. It is to the Ninth Layer of the world that eleven-year-old Duncan and his beagle, Thoreau, are summoned.
After surviving the journey to Castle Andermatt and enduring weeks of arduous training there, Duncan comes to understand that his greatest gift, his imagination, is also his greatest weapon. But how that will help him succeed against Sulgon, the creature that is slowly sucking life from the world, even he can’t imagine. There’s the prophecy which foretells of The Strømling, a great warrior who will defeat the dark prince--but Duncan’s no warrior. True, he has Thoreau and a crack team of giant insects on his side, but Sulgon controls armies.
It’s an impossible quest made that much more difficult by the discovery that Duncan and his team have been through it all before--and failed. They are caught in a time-loop, endlessly repeating the same choices and manifesting the same results. Only this time is Duncan aware of the truth. He knows he must make a crucial decision somehow differently than he has done before. He must be willing to trust his power, risking what he loves most in order to break the pattern and win the day.