The Hollow Vale cover art

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)

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The Hollow Vale

By: Alexander Paul Burton
Narrated by: Alexander Paul Burton
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About this listen

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
Dragons & Mythical Creatures Epic Fantasy
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Listener received this title free

The author has exactly one technique which you will hear hundreds of times in the short runtime - they will say something happened (e.g a bell chimed) then they will say “It wasn’t loud, but it echoed” or how something “was not heard, but remembered”. Not X, but Y. Again and again and again. Sometimes three times in the same sentence, to the point where it almost sounds like he is arguing with himself. Nothing happens in the book - a collection of “characters” and their surroundings are introduced, are described in nauseating detail and then later on they meet and form a “fellowship” and set off somewhere together. Where? We’re not told. Their goal? We’re not told. Pointless. Also there are several pieces of what can loosely be described as "music" to further pad out the runtime.

The author also chose to narrate their work themself. I’ve listened to dozens of audiobooks which have been read by the author and it’s usually a bad idea. In this case, it was an abominable choice. The author cannot enunciate, frequently misreads words and has to repeat themselves (a professional would re-record the take) and sometimes can’t pronounce the words they supposedly wrote - couple of examples I caught were “paparet” instead of “parapet” and “implacable” being pronounced with a soft “C”.

I don’t have a single positive thing to say. If I hadn’t received this for free I would seek a refund.

Dreck

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