Ages ago, the Eater of the World threatened to consume the world, superimposing its reality over the world and smothering the people in anguish and misery. The Landscapers (magically talented folk able to sculpt and amend landscapes) shattered the world into pieces, then banished the Eater's desert-and-ditchwater places beyond reach. Although it survived, it could not touch the world's now-disconnected places nor inspire folk to acts of horror.

In Sebastian by Anne Bishop, time and petty malice have conspired to give the Eater one more chance at victory. A spiteful girl's curiosity and idle vandalism at the school for Landscapers gives the Eater an avenue back into the world.

(Source: Roc Hardcover)