Speakers of the Earth Book One — Richard Jones

Surviving on the hard-scrabble streets of Seattle in 2000, likeable and troubled Ray Holdman carries a secret--one that destroyed his father and has made Ray into a lifelong vagabond: he can communicate with trees.

After a chance meeting sets Ray on the road to nearby Mt. Tahoma, also known as Mt. Rainier, he enters the park's vast wilderness and soon stumbles on an unlikely cast of characters who seem to have the power to commune with--even work with--the forces of nature. But Ray's new friendships and growing understanding of his own remarkable gifts are pushed to the limit when he encounters a malevolent spirit intent on destroying the earth as we know it, and all those Ray is quickly coming to hold dear.

Equal parts ecological fiction and contemporary mythology, Speakers of the Earth is a riveting, hair-raising adventure from a storyteller with wisdom to share, and an impassioned ode to the beauty and more-than-human intelligence of the natural world.