A naked boy from nowhere wanders through a desolate wasteland into the arms of a crazed hag. He becomes the soulbrother of Niles Squaver, an orphan raised by a tavern keeper in the rustic mining village of Ebony. Together the lads grow and learn of their destined quest to recover the crystalline heart of their land. Forced into a desperate journey they never meant to take, the two youthful travelers meet their enemy and gain new friends as they battle to overcome the dark forces around them as well as within.
Stonebringer is the tale of one boy's journey into manhood, from an untutored and muddle-headed potboy to the newly-risen prince of his own soul. Along the way he encounters a wizard, the secret clan of the Sisterhood, a tale-telling stallion, and a heroic treehouse. He soars from the thundering verge of an enormous waterfall and delves into the darkest caverns of his worst nightmares, by his side a steadfast friend and in his heart a burning question — why?
This is no Arthurian fantasy, but it is a quest, a grail quest, and that grail is the living heart of soulful humanity that beats deep within each of us, and after which modern readers still toil. Such a difficult, dark, and often painful quest must be handled with a deft, winsome touch, so there is much of humor in Stonebringer, and characters that light up the pages, to illuminate this shadowy path to self knowledge. Such a path is not only adventuresome but must be, and is always, a love story.
Tom Howe is a seasoned sojourner in those realms from which he draws his phantasmagorical envisionings: those alchemical lands of the imagination into which dreamers alone are allowed to pass. He has spent decades in search of his hermetic vision, trekking to exotic locales such as Pan, Xanadu, Camelot, Oz, Atlantis, Hell, Mu, and Shangri-La. A sailor, aviator, race car driver, train engineer, hot-air balloonist, astronaut, quarterback, and riverboat captain, this peripatetic man has seen it all, most especially that which is not there, or here.
Long a seeker after spiritual revelation, Tom is the founder of the Church of Absolute Unity, a congregation of one, whose credo: Everybody Is Everywhere All The Time, has gained such worldwide popularity. Mr. Howe is gleefully married to three plump wives, has twenty-five perfect children, and dwells in harmony with his pet platypus Shep in a shoe on Mount Shasta.
