The Journey — J.R. Rain; Piers Anthony

When a village's coming-of-age tradition sends Floyd on The Journey, he soon encounters a fantasy world rife with mythical creatures and real danger.

The Journey has no rules, other than to return home with stories. Unfortunately, Floyd's adventure has barely begun when he finds himself on the run from a press gang who mean to make him a galley slave. But with the help of a magical elf in disguise, Floyd escapes and finds himself aboard another ship, this one bound to the far east. It is here where Floyd befriends a fellow passenger named Jonathan Swift, a young writer suffering from debilitating writer's block. And when the ship wrecks on an uncharted island, Floyd soon finds himself a prisoner of a magical people no taller than six inches. Suffice to say, the tiny Lilliputians and their strange customs are just the inspiration that Jonathan Swift needs to write again.

Floyd's odyssey takes him from the Middle East to China and finally to Xanadu, where he must save a woman imprisoned by a demon, and where he must make the ultimate decision, a decision that will decide his destiny. Will Floyd choose wisely?