Terry Brooks is one prolific writer. In this, a continuing saga of Shannara, he tells what happens five hundred years after the Gypsy Morph led a small group of people to safety in a valley protected by magic. They were led there because the world had been destroyed by nuclear war.
In the time of the story, two young human trackers have discovered that the magic has broken and beasts from the other side have found their way into the valley. Simultaneoulsy, Sider Ament, the only surviving Knight of the Word, whose only job has been to travel the borders of the valley and ensure the magic is holding, also finds the rift and resuces the trackers Panterra Qu and Prue Liss.
Sider sends Pan and Prue back to their home to warn their people of the danger. After that they are to go to the homes of the elves, spiders, and lizards (the latter two are mutations from the nuclear devastation) and warn them as well.
The elves send two of their trackers, the Orullian brothers and Princess Phyrene to discover just how bad the rift is. In the course of their journey Prue and Pan are captured by an army of lizards, from the old world, who are in search of a new home. Prue is held captive while Pan and one of the lizard leaders return to Pan's world.
Brooks fertile mind has come up with another imaginative and wonderful story of the beginnings of Shannara.