Equandia is not just a planet; it is a living system. Each region has its own climate, its own people and its own signals. Tap a card to open its file: what it is like to live there, what you hear, what warnings the Earth gives and who notices them first.
Coastal town Element: Terran
A coastal town where farming technology and tradition live side by side: houses with gardens, boats in the bay and Miss Mendoza's school looking out to sea. The weather is gentle almost all year round. This is where Luna lives, along with her parents Isabel and Tadeo, and, very close by, Grandma Rosa.
Seagulls, boats pulling up to the dock, the school bell and the sea in the background. And some days, if you pay close attention, a hum that comes from down below.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
Every one of Luna's days begins and ends here in Book 1, and the story comes back to it in Book 2. Why does such a quiet town become so important? You find that out by reading.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Reefs and mangroves Element: Aquanis
Tropical heat, generous rains and 200 kilometers of reefs and mangroves. In Coral Harbor the houses are painted in bright colors and stand up on stilts, linked by walkways. Children take their first dive at age seven and learn that you look after the reef the way you look after family.
The waves breaking over the reef, the splashing among the mangrove roots and the dolphins' "dawn concert," which the fishers hear before they set sail.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
It is visited in Book 1, on a school trip that does not go as planned, and it turns up again in Book 2.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Tropical jungle Element: Vitalis
Heat and humidity all year round, and a river (the Great Yanama) that is the artery of everything. The community of the Roots village has lived here for a thousand years, in raised houses and hanging bridges up in the canopy. Their rule is simple: the forest provides everything if you respect it.
Howler monkeys at dawn and at dusk, rain drumming on the canopy and the steady murmur of the Great Yanama. When the jungle goes quiet, everyone looks up.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
Book 1 reaches its river, and Book 2 returns to the jungle. What does a river announce when it goes silent? The answer is in Book 1.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Windswept prairies Element: Ventus
A plain of golden grasslands so vast that the horizon curves. Windmills, silvery silos and the Annual Farming Fair that brings together farmers from all over Equandia. The summer is dry and hot, and the wind never rests. Gael lives out on these plains.
The whistle of the wind through the grass and the windmills, and the musical notes of the Singing Grass. Farmers can tell a storm is coming by the change in pitch.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
Luna travels to the plains in Book 1, right in the middle of the Farming Fair. What the wind did that day is left as a question. They also appear in Book 2.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Volcanic highland Element: Pyros
High-altitude cold, in spite of the name. High up stands the Pyrax volcano, the most active in Equandia, with three thousand years of recorded history and small eruptions every five to seven years. The scientists at the Volcano Observatory watch it month after month; Isabel, Luna's mother, is one of them.
The hiss of steam in the crater, little stones rolling down the slope and the cold mountain wind. The Pyrax is never completely silent.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
Book 1 climbs up to the Pyrax observatory. Can a mountain give warning before it roars? Chapter 4 has the answer.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Forest of giants Element: Vitalis
A forest of giant trees with a rainy season that soaks everything. On a terrace along the hillside sits the Yachak village: twenty round houses and a thousand years of knowing every tree and every signal. Their shaman, Wasi, teaches that the first Guardians were the animals.
Birds, frogs and insects in the thousands. The Yachak say that what matters is not the noise but the silence: when the forest goes quiet, something is happening.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
Book 1 visits this forest twice, and both times the forest has something different to say.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Dunes and salt flats Element: Pyros
By day the sun punishes and by night the cold bites. The communities live around wells and salt flats, and they know how to find water where there seems to be none: that wisdom is shared between villages, never sold.
The dunes sing when the wind combs through them. At night, a silence so vast that you can hear the sand moving.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
In Book 1, a remote desert village asks for help when its wells dry up. How you search for water where there seems to be none is what that chapter tells. The desert comes back in Book 2.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Coral islands Element: Ventus
Coral islands with white beaches and turquoise water; about a thousand people live on the main one. The fishers check the barometer and the birds before setting sail, because in hurricane season this paradise changes its mood without warning.
Palm trees stirred by the breeze, waves on every side at once and seabirds. On the day when only the sea can be heard, the grandparents check the barometer.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
Book 1 spends a few days here that start out like a vacation. Book 2 also looks toward these islands.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Ice field Element: Aquanis
A world of white and blue where the air hurts to breathe: ten degrees below zero on a good day. No one lives here permanently; scientific expeditions come to study the ancient ice, which holds bubbles of air thousands of years old. The old people called it the Glacier of Eternal Ice; its heart is the Crystal Glacier.
A silence so complete that you can hear your own heart. And all at once, the ice creaks as if it were singing from inside.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
In Book 1, Luna sets foot on a glacier for the first time and discovers that the ice sings. What its song says is better read for yourself. Book 2 also keeps a memory of this place.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Northern fjords Element: Aquanis
Enormous cliffs that drop straight into a dark, deep sea, with rain 250 days a year. The sailors live in stilt houses and houseboats, they read tides and currents the way you read a book, and they respect the Waterfall of Eternal Ice, which roars from kilometers away.
The distant roar of the ice waterfall, the rain of almost every day and echoes that bounce between the cliffs.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
The series has not yet gone this far north. The Guardians have it on the map; the story is still to come.
Meet the full series
Farming valley and capital Element: Terran
The farming and political heart of Equandia: farm fields, irrigation channels, markets and, at the center, Congress. Middays of strong sun, tourists taking photos in front of historic buildings and vendors selling mangoes and pineapples on the corners.
Markets, running irrigation channels, bells and far-off tractors. And at the center, the murmur of Congress when it debates.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
It appears as the story grows: Books 3, 4 and 5. If the Central Valley steps onto the stage, it is because what is happening is now the concern of all Equandia.
Read an excerpt from Book 3
Ancient city Element: Terran
An ancient city of stone among the mountains, with gardens on the rooftops and golden sunsets. They call it "the sleeping one" because it rests on a geological fault that has been silent for about eighty years. Its people learn, little by little, to listen to what sleeps beneath them.
Almost nothing, and that is where the name comes from. Footsteps on stone, fountains in the plazas and, far below, a murmur that few know how to hear.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
A chapter of Book 1 carries its name. Does the city wake up or stay asleep? That is not told here.
Read an excerpt from Book 1
Restricted zone Element: Ventus
Underground galleries where crystals grow that catch the light. It is a restricted zone: you enter only with permission and a guide. It is said that the planet's memories are kept here in the shapes of the rock.
The wind comes in and sings: each gallery has its own note. Those who have gone in say it sometimes sounds like ancient voices.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
No book goes into the caves yet. Maybe there is a reason they are a restricted zone.
Meet the full series
Underground world Element: Terran
Equandia's underground circulatory system: still rivers, arches of rock and chambers where the deepest seismic heartbeats of the planet resound. Only experienced Guardians go down this far, and never alone.
Dripping water, your own echo multiplied and, if you rest your hand on the rock, the deep heartbeat of Equandia.
Signal creatures and plants that show themselves around this region.
The Guardians mention them in low voices. The series has not yet gone down this far.
Meet the full series
