Unbeknownst to Nere, her parents have genetically engineered her and several other children to breathe under water so they can live free there someday. In a small seaside community in what was Southern California, Nere lives with her scientist mother and a pod of trained dolphins. Several centuries after global warming has devastated the planet, a tyrannical government has taken control of the West Coast of America. Leopards and tigers and bears, oh my: already shows signs of lumbering on to a shelfload of sequels. Still, both cast and conflicts fall into easily recognizable types, and if the main plotlines haven’t advanced much by the end, at least Ghost has lost some of his naïveté. Though technically accomplished, Tarkela’s unlabeled headshots fronting each chapter are more decorative than helpful in this regard. Along with trotting in a fourth young panda to muddle the triplet business, Hunter adds to the teeming cast of named animals a red panda, a whole troop of squabbling monkeys, a pair of cranes, and two big cats keeping track of who’s who is a struggle.

Meanwhile Ghost, an all-white bear of little brain raised by snow leopards and recruited as muscle by sly, supposed Dragon Speaker Sunset Deepwood, uneasily begins to wonder if he’s on the wrong side…particularly after he’s ordered to kill Pepper (not to be confused with Rain’s friend Pebble), a new arrival who claims to be one of triplets. Picking up in midstream a tale that will test the ability of all but confirmed Hunter fans to suspend disbelief, this sequel to Creatures of the Flood (2021) pitches panda sibs Leaf and Rain Prosperhill into separate sets of adventures and visions that strongly hint that they will indeed grow up to be liaisons between the mystical Great Dragon and the wildlife of the Bamboo Kingdom. Receding floodwaters inch separated panda triplets closer to reunion and shared destiny.

The Shattered Horn by Erin Hunter