Jack is a high school student whose life is almost as boring and painful for him as it is for the reader-until he finds a magical ring that transports him into a world where fairy tale has been coded into fact. Jack stumbles into a civilization where every town is founded on a different animal-an animal that gives the citizens its name, its language, and even the ability to transform into its bestial likeness. Here the hapless sophomore finds himself the reincarnation of "the first Jack," the hero who once saved the Valley from the giants that brood in the mountains above. But if Jack is to...