Author:
Corey McCullough is an independent copy editor, proofreader, ghostwriter, and author. He lives in western Pennsylvania with his amazing wife Vanessa and their two beautiful daughters. His favorite pastimes are reading, writing, playing video games, spending time with his best friend (Vanessa), and, most of all, being a dad.

A teenager’s wish to escape his stressful life just came true — with otherworldly consequences.

Nothing is going right for Justin Holmes. Like many seventeen-year-olds, he sometimes wishes he could just run away and leave everything behind. But he gets more than he bargained for when he storms out of the house after an argument with his father and accidentally steps into a parallel universe of swords, shields, magic, and monsters.

Suddenly, Justin is desperate to find a way back to his ordinary life in small-town America. His search for answers takes an unexpected turn when a strange old man and a powerful mercenary recruit him to rescue a kidnapped princess. But their rescue mission quickly takes a disastrous turn and becomes a life-or-death flight deep into the unknown wilds. Justin and his unlikely allies are on the run from dark forces wielding deadly, arcane power — demonic beings that seem to have suddenly arrived from somewhere beyond this world . . . just like Justin.

Justin may not be a fighter, but he is intelligent and strong-willed. He soon realizes that nothing in this world is what it seems. Even his allies’ mission may have all been a ruse . . . to get to him.

Ancient secrets are revealed that could shake the foundations of this alternate world . . . and might unlock Justin’s portal home.

The Fallen Odyssey is a contemporary portal fantasy novel for college and “new adult” audiences. It is the first of a trilogy but can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel. If you like epic, serious fantasy about dangerous quests in magical worlds, check out The Fallen Odyssey.

The Fallen Odyssey

Justin slipped the jab and circled right, keeping his guard up as he went. Ahlund threw an elbow. Justin blocked it with a forearm, then counter-struck-easily blocked, of course-and backed away.


Sweat poured down his face. His clothes were drenched with it. For hours, he and Ahlund had been fighting in the courtyard near the main hall. Beneath the shadows of Esthean's millennia-old stone towers, the two clashed in hand-to-hand combat. Deities carved into the edifices watched with unseeing eyes.


"Hours to learn one simple maneuver," said Ahlund, "and you celebrate this fact?"


Justin's lungs ached. After the prolonged effort of attacking, defending, and evading Ahlund for hours on end, his muscles were somehow both stiff and burning at the same time. "I'm better with a sword," said Justin. "Can't we fight with swords?"


Chapter 122: Melee (Part 1)