Lyon presents a collection of tales that form the mythology of a new epic fantasy series.

Upon his father’s death, Almon Plum-Kilmer, the last of his line, is guided by a ghost to the top of the Dragonbreath Mountain. There he meets the Supreme Historian, an elderly man whose memory contains the Provenance—origin stories of the land of Odessa. Almon learns of the twin gods Hexor and Heironomus, whose mutual enmity mirrors the balance between life and death. He hears of the goddess Ehlona, who slept with both gods and then gave birth to twin demigods Marus and Hazor, equally opposed in nature; Ehlona later became a witch and created the Timmutes, tiny “glowing orbs” with “a collective intelligence and frightening abilities.” The Supreme Historian next recounts how Marus founded an order of warrior monks to oppose his brother’s evil and how Hazor forged the ultimate weapon using blood magic and sacrificed his followers. Finally, the Historian tells Almon of the orphan Leopold, who was marked by Hazor and who tried to forge a kingdom—the first Empire of Odessa. Lyon writes in a simple, sprawling style, inviting readers to invest themselves in the subject matter. The dialogue is often stylized in the manner of epic, heroic fantasy, but the prose can be awkward at times; for example, the author has a tendency to use pronouns as if the object of one sentence has become the subject of the next: “Almon reached his arms under Erland’s and dragged him out of the sun….Being pulled away, he exclaimed, ‘What are you doing?’ ” This is a compendium in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion(1977) rather than a novel per se, and as such, it presents a plot that feels more like a tapestry than direct narrative. A storyline does emerge, but it remains secondary to the worldbuilding and character development, which Lyon handles astutely; most notably, he explores the idea that evil forces may just be the natural corollary of goodness brought to bear.

An ambitious and original work but one that lacks the narrative pull of a more traditional novel.