Dan Williams, following the success of his first novel, ‘The Lords of Leftovers, ’ offers the world a new, first-rate story in ‘The Lords of Absence, ’ an adventure tale of the near future. In a broken world struggling to put itself back together after the Fires, the two main characters, Trader and Joe Cruz, set off looking for two small boys who suddenly disappeared one morning. In their search to find the lost boys, they encounter murderous raiders, splintered towns, and a strange cast of characters who claim to be redeemers of society.