The Benchland —a shelf of fertile land set high on the wall of a river canyon, accessible only through a large cave that provides protection against the harsh northern winter. The Benchland and its cave are deserted now, but a thriving colony lived there about 3,000 BC. They left a huge trove of paintings on the cave walls—a pictorial diary, now an archaeological and historic treasure. The Benchland is a place of mythic values—security, beauty, and depth of spirit. It served four generations as homeland, fortress, and temple.

The people, the place, and the paintings are the subject of five stories we call Benchland, published in three volumes. Rockslide describes the colony's beginnings; Spirit Chamber and Ring of Fire tell of the Benchland's painters, healers, farmers, hunters, metalworkers, potters, warriors, and seers—and of a team of modern caver/scientists who visit the cave repeatedly over a dozen years, exploring and documenting. Their first trip leads them to the Benchland's most remarkable feature—a source of wonder, deep within the cave—the spirit chamber.

The spirit chamber! For aeons a place of total darkness, it is spectacular in torchlight or caving lights, with an intense presence that brings its visitors peace and wisdom—and vivid dreams that can be disturbing. The spirit chamber was sacred to the original inhabitants, the center of their religion and culture, and it affects the modern visitors, binding them to the original settlers, bringing about physical impossibilities that make the scientists question their sanity.

The series is written for adults but is suitable for strong readers as young as twelve. Although we think of the books as a sequence in the order we wrote them, they can be read in any order.