Unknown to the heroes, their route downriver to a seaside trading center will take them through areas under siege from evil forces including crazed goblins, malevolent witches, and the sinister dwarf Selznak.

Downstream, they encounter Miles the Magician, the carefree link men, and the elves at Seaside running the mysterious elfin ship, which is seen at rare, inexplicable moments.

Written and submitted as The Man in the Moon about 1978, it was rewritten, and the second half expanded following the comments accompanying the rejection by editor Lester Del Rey.

According to Blaylock, The Man in the Moon was influenced almost entirely by Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book The Wind in the Willows,[3] along with Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Brownies and the Goblins, and illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

[2] The manuscript text for The Man in the Moon, with additional commentaries, was published in 2002 at the suggestion of Subterranean Press in limited editions signed by Blaylock and Tim Powers.