Book excerpt: In a city ravaged by crime, an orphaned boy, Caw, survives alone. Only Caw is never really alone -- because he is the crow Feral, with the power to talk to the birds that are his sole companions. When escaped prisoners swarm the city of Blackstone, Caw realises that they too are Ferals -- but with a dark mission to restore the dangerous spider Feral, the Spinning Man, to power. Now Caw and his crows must join forces with other good Ferals and take on the spreading evil, or darkness will fall ... and bite.