Publisher's Synopsis
When Tal Smith woke up on the morning of his eighteenth birthday, the main thing on his mind was earning a full ride scholarship at a college somewhere far, far away. That changed pretty quickly. First thing that morning he was kidnapped by the local high school bullies, who then drove him out to the middle of nowhere, before throwing him out of the back of their still moving pickup truck. After pulling the burlap bag off his head, Tal discovered they'd dumped him at some tired, old, beat down gas station out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. When he pulled himself together to start the long trek back home he saw a note addressed to him, taped to the service bay door. Then the Air Hose started hissing at him, and both of the out of order Gas Pumps start ringing up text messages. All of them telling him that he had to go to the Ladies' Room because worlds (yes, plural) depended on him. So, he went to the Ladies' Room. When he opened the door he found himself at a place called Hunts School. The students there are in their final year of a hundred year school session, and there are nine teams competing to be the ruler of all of the known worlds (again, the plural) for the next three hundred years. Tal has the recurring problem of a ghoul that hides under his bed and tries to steal his face. He meets a draugr whose primary goal is to kill him (and eat him.) There are also some luscious siren mermaids (also trying to kill him and eat him.) He meets one amazing young woman-who he seems to get sideways with at every turn-so he's pretty much permanently in the doghouse with her. There's another really hot girl who's totally into hooking up with him (she also wants to kill him, but at least she doesn't want to eat him.) His team helps him make a simulacrum golem (who is him, but not him.) He meets Merlin (well, kinda sorta Merlin) and King Arthur (again, that would be kinda sorta King Arthur.) He learns that whoever wrote all of those old myths and stories totally got most of the details wrong. Everyone's spelling at Hunts School is completely jacked up, the use of the letter "y" is rampant. Tal is supposed to be Seeking the Center (whatever that is) but it seems like every time he turns around someone says, "your life is forfeit," or "you're dead, human." Which seemed at first to be unnecessarily negative, but apparently might be true. Since at the end of the first term he has to fight to the death for his team to advance to the next Hunt. "Finals," takes on a completely new meaning for him. Enjoy the Journey!
