The Hollow Vale

Act I: The Crumbling Road - A Chronicle of Memory and Mist in the Last Days of Rome (The Tharion Cycle: Memory Is the Last Magic. Silence Is the First Language. Book 1)

By: Alexander Paul Burton

Narrated by: Alexander Paul Burton

Book One of the Tharion Cycle

In the mist-drenched marshes of a dying empire, the land begins to forget—and so do the people.

As Rome crumbles in Britain’s farthest province, a hidden girl with starlit blood begins to dream of a Bell that tolls not in sound, but in memory. Caelwyn has lived her whole life in Elderglen, veiled from the world, raised by a seer who speaks in silence. But when the mists thicken and the rune-stones begin to hum, she’s forced from hiding—into a world where names vanish, roads shift, and even time no longer flows as it should.

Across the hills and haunted fens of Tharion, a former legionnaire searches for meaning in a land that no longer answers to his gods. A child with no name leads travellers through the Wyrd. And in the mountains, something ancient is waking—something that remembers everything.

Drawn together by prophecy, silence, and the slow unraveling of the world, a fractured fellowship must find the last Bell—and learn whether tolling it will seal the Hollow… or summon it.

The Hollow Vale is the first book in The Tharion Cycle, a mythic fantasy saga steeped in folklore, lyrical prose, and the quiet magic of things that were meant to be forgotten. For fans of Tolkien, Le Guin, and Tamsyn Muir, this is a story where memory is sacred, silence is dangerous, and language is the last line between the world and what waits beneath.

©2023, 2024, 2025 Alexander Paul Burton (P)2025 Alexander Paul Burton

Fantasy

The Hollow Vale by Alexander Paul Burton is an excellent fantasy. Alexander Paul Burton did an excellent job with the narration. The story is entertaining, interesting, engaging, enjoyable, and more. I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Highly recommend

3 hours of bibble

this came highly recommended to me from my friends!!!!!! so i gave it a fair and honest chance, attempted to visualize the story as intended.

the author should have taken a break or drank water, you can hear the toll on his vocal cords as you progress in the story.

also i regret to say i was not drawn in by the plethora of word salad and odd pauses and sounds throughout the whole reading. i’m sure it’s not easy to be an author or orator… in any case this was 3 hours of ai generated bibble