Aden Poly­doros’s first mid­dle-grade nov­el is a breath­less sto­ry in which young Zach Dar­ling­ton encoun­ters Ashmedai, the King of the Demons, along with a tri­ad of ter­ri­fy­ing mon­sters and even King Solomon himself.

Backed by his younger sis­ter and close friend, Zach, a not-yet-out gay kid who wor­ries about telling his par­ents and friends about his sex­u­al­i­ty, must save the world from the ter­rors unleashed by the antique ring he has bought at a local flea mar­ket. Zach dis­cov­ers that when he wears the ring, he can under­stand ani­mals’ speech. The rare pur­chase also releas­es Ashmedai, who teams up with Zach and his friends in their efforts to save the world. A secret soci­ety called the Knights of the Apoc­a­lypse attempts to sab­o­tage the ring’s pow­ers in order to bring about an ancient prophe­cy lead­ing to the End of Days; but Zach and Ashmedai steadi­ly defeat the forces of evil.

This dra­mat­ic and excit­ing tale is the first in a pro­ject­ed tril­o­gy that will fol­low Zach and his friends.

Zach’s per­son­al devel­op­ment as a gay Jew­ish boy who is forced to con­front both homo­pho­bia and anti­semitism will move read­ers while keep­ing them cling­ing to the edges of their seats. Those inter­est­ed in Jew­ish folk­lore will look for­ward to what’s to come of Zach’s adventures.