Annal: 1980 National Book Award for Science Fiction

Walter Wangerin’s profound fantasy concerns a time when the sun turned around the earth and the animals could speak, when Chauntecleer the Rooster ruled over a more or less peaceful kingdom. What the animals did not know was that they were the Keepers of Wyrm, monster of evil long imprisoned beneath the earth … and Wyrm, sub terra, was breaking free.

There were too many people and too few resources on Earth. The old alliances had crumbled, and three global alignments now coexisted uneasily. Then, in a nearby star system, the Earthlike planet Jem was discovered. Its untapped resources might bring a renaissance to Earth—or bring on the final apocalypse.