The Golden Enemy

In a changed reality, a curious boy confronts an ancient anger

Boy Jaim’s world is a peaceful place where war and violence are a distant memory and man and beast live together as friends. Although his contemporaries prefer to fly far above the surface of the earth, Boy Jaim is an explorer who yearns to chart the mysteries of the forest floor. And so, accompanied by his dog, Doubtful, he ventures into the woods and finds something he believed the world had left behind: hate.
 
Doubtful smells the beast first—a powerful animal, dangerous and full of rage. It is a bear, come to take revenge on humankind for slaughtering its brothers long ago, and its violence forces Boy Jaim’s people to take up weapons for the first time in generations. But when the bear begins communicating with Boy Jaim, he finds they have common cause and will have to work together to survive.

Alexander Key (1904–1979) started out as an illustrator before he began writing science fiction novels for young readers. He has published many titles, including Sprockets: A Little Robot, Mystery of the Sassafras Chair, and The Forgotten Door, winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Key’s novel Escape to Witch Mountain was adapted for film in 1975, 1995, and 2009.