Summerland is a 2002 fantasy young adult novel by American writer Michael Chabon. It is about young children who save the world from destruction by playing baseball, the central theme and symbol throughout the novel. Summerland weaves elements of a World Series, parallel-universe road trip, and a hero's odyssey. The book received mixed reviews; The New York Times called it "bewilderingly busy" and likened it to "the novelization of an animated action film". Plot summary The story begins on a small island off the coast of Washington called Clam Island. The central character, Ethan Feld, is on one of the island's baseball teams despite being terrible at the game. He encounters a gracious werefox, Cutbelly, who explains the Lodgepole, a giant tree connecting all worlds, to the ignorant Ethan. Cutbelly explains that Coyote is planning to destroy the Lodgepole, an event called "Ragged Rock", by destroying Murmury Well. He takes Ethan to the Summerlands where they meet small Indian-looking people called ferishers. Coyote captures Ethan's father and forces him to create another batch of 'picofiber' to form the hose with which he is going to poison Murmury Well. Ethan enters the Summerlands with fellow baseball team members Thor Wignutt and Jennifer T. Rideout, in pursuit of his father and to prevent Ragged Rock. On their travels through the Summerlands, the three assemble a baseball team and play their way across the land, meeting players from legend and literature, and a couple from their own world. Mythology Many links to different types of mythology are evident in the novel. The two most prevalent are Norse mythology and Native American mythology. Certain examples are subtly referenced, such as in the name of the Felds' car, Skidbladnir, known in Norse myths as the legendary vehicle of Freyr, so well crafted it can fold up and fit in his pocket. Also, the name of Thor Wignutt is a reference to the Norse god of storms, Thor. Coyote introduces himself as Loki, Norse god of chaos at one point, and the term "Ragged Rock", meaning the end of the world, translates to the Norse Ragnarok, the final battle in which the world is destroyed and reborn in the Skaldic poems. Finally, the Lodgepole, tree of the worlds, is based on Yggdrasil, the world tree of the Norse, and Murmury Well (the well Coyote means to poison) is Mimir's Well. The names and actions of Coyote