''Card has exceeded his own high standards ... The man''s versatility makes him unique.'' - Anne McCaffrey

For Step Fletcher, his pregnant wife DeAnne, and their three children, the move to tiny Steuben, North Carolina, offers new hope and a new beginning. But from the first, eight-year-old Stevie''s life there is an unending parade of misery and disaster.

Cruelly ostracized at his school, Stevie retreats further and further into himself - and into a strange computer game and a group of imaginary friends.

But there is something eerie about his loyal, invisible new playmates: each shares the name of a child who has recently vanished from the sleepy Southern town. And terror grows for Step and DeAnne as the truth slowly unfolds. For their son has found something savagely evil . . and it''s coming for Stevie next.

A chilling suspense thriller from the bestselling Orson Scott Card, author of ENDER''S GAME

Books by Orson Scott Card:

Alvin Maker novels

Seventh Son

Red Prophet

Prentice Alvin

Alvin Journeyman

Heartfire

The Crystal City

Ender Wiggin Saga

Ender''s Game

Speaker for the Dead

Xenocide

Children of the Mind

Ender in Exile

Homecoming

The Memory of the Earth

The Call of the Earth

The Ships of the Earth

Earthfall

Earthborn

First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)

Earth Unaware

Earth Afire

Earth Awakens