Riders in the Sky — Charles L. Grant

It is the time of the Millennium, of great battles between good and evil. The hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse herald the last days of Mankind.

The four novels of the Millennium Quartet reveal the cataclysms that await mankind at the turn of the century and vividly tell of the effects of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as they wreak havoc on the world. Death spread a wide swath of violence over the Planet. Famine devastated crops, fish, and domesticated animals. Plague returned as a mutated version of smallpox and decimated the remaining human population. Still, mankind has struggled on, most people completely unaware that they have experienced the effects of the Horsemen and not merely a combination of bad weather and freak genetics. Most people, but not all.

These are the survivors, no longer completely human-and the only people who can stand against the Horsemen: a preacher given the power to stop Death. Two teenagers who can see the truth in anyone's heart. A mother and her two daughters, who saw the man they all loved sacrifice himself to save them from Plague. A waitress who has decided she can't wait any longer. A would-be writer whose young son has become Famine. The young widow of a British nobleman-the only person who knows the earthly identities of all four Horsemen-has brought them all together. Now they prepare to do battle. With War as their leader, the Horsemen are preparing to lay waste to the world. They have gathered for a final strategy session on an isolated island in the Atlantic.

But their coming is no longer secret, and they are no longer unopposed. The defenders of mankind are coming. They may well fail to defeat the Apocalypse. But if so, they will die trying.