The Fearful Gates

In this concluding installment of Lawhead's Ancient Earth trilogy, Freya and Daniel, now young adults, reconnoiter in the underground city of Nidergeard, beneath Britain's increasingly corrupt surface. Up there, government officials wallow in greed and addiction. Below, a vast army of mythical horrors gathers. Toward Daniel and Freya, a steady stream of children swarms, summoned to work with them as "the next army." Fans of the previous books will recognize the large, potentially confusing cast of characters involved in the devastating wars of this one: Alex, the Scottish cop; Vivienne, his aunt; G%C3%A1d and Ealdstan, evil warlords conspiring from above and below; and various legendary beings, both good and bad, arrayed for battle to the death. This is not a stand-alone volume. Freya's doubts and resolutions and Daniel's transformations are the culmination of the entire trilogy's earthshaking conflict between the upright and the horribly bent. Lawhead draws on Britain's mythological history, especially Anglo-Saxon elements, but the final contest has Christian overtones no one will be able to miss. (Apr.)