The Ascendancy - Tapa dura

When a beanstalk starts growing out of the rubble of the World Trade Center, chaos erupts in New York City. Jack Tott, a twenty-six-year-old musician, believes that if he climbs the beanstalk, he will somehow find the means to help save his dying sister. Caitlin Bingham, an archaeoastronomer, suspects that the beanstalk is related to the mysterious disappearance of Pachakutek, a planet she recently discovered.

But the lands and inhabitants in the world above the beanstalk are beyond anything Jack or Caitlin could have imagined. A strange cave, a huge thorn maze, a dapper five-foot-tall mosquito, a paranoid bird who is the last of his species, and an ancient Incan civilization are just part of the adventure that awaits Jack and Caitlin.

With a lightning-quick pace and basis in real events of the twenty-first century, The Ascendancy offers hope and a new mythology for the world at this volatile point in our history.