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

It came from his sword like a great, reaching arm: a solid flow of aurym that collided with the crater wall like a battering ram. Justin had been aiming for the cythraul on the crater's edge, but hitting the wall was just as effective. An entire portion of the cliff-side was instantly burned away. More was dislodged by the shockwave, blown outward in a typhoon of rock and earth. Several cythraul were caught in the blast. Others plummeted, and coblyns and enemy soldiers spilled over the broken edge.


It was as Justin watched the aftermath of this attack that he realized how they were going to escape Esthean.


Justin turned. A ball of daemyn was coming straight for him. He raised his left arm as a shield, and the blast spiraled into him like water down a drain.


"Go!" Justin shouted at Ahlund and Kallorn. "Gather any survivors!"


"And what're you doing?" Kallorn demanded.


"Digging us out of here," said Justin. "Go!"


Chapter 165: The Battle of Esthean