The outer crust is under attack by the subterranean Styx who are turning ordinary humans into walking bombs and incubators for their eggs, and only Will Burrows and his band of retired commandos stand in their way--but the Styx also have problems of their own.

"Styx and their cohorts of deadly Armagi have swept across England, leaving death and devastation in their wake. Only a miracle can save the day and, in the inner world at the centre of the earth, Will and Elliott might just have stumbled upon one as they uncover ancient secrets that are fundamental to all human and Styx life"--

When Will Burrows and his friend Chester embark on a quest to find Will's archaeologist father, who has inexplicably disappeared, they are led to a labyrinthine world underneath London, full of sinister inhabitants with evil intentions toward "Topsoilers" like Will and his father.

Teenager Eliza and her friends are going to explore a cave near their upstate New York home, but first her friends insist on dragging her to Drowner's Swamp, a bog legendary for its dangerous sinkholes, and a place which her mother has frequently warned her about; Eliza does not want to go, and when the earth opens up and swallows her she finds herself in a system of caves--and what she finds living there is strange and dangerous beyond anything the...