Hiraeth: Promise of the World

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

On a rainy night, a young woman is transported to the enchanting world of Sol'h'meyr. Thrilled to be freed from the shackles of monetary survival and societal expectations on Earth, she embraces her newfound existence and magical powers bestowed. But the rose-tinted fantasy life she always dreamed of turns out to be a stark reality that poses to kill her if she doesn't adapt and let go of her past.

Essairyn battles both cripping nostalgia and imminent danger in her journey from the Spirit and Demon Forest to the human realm of As'pyze. Disillusionment leading to anger has erupted into violence across thedeceptively peaceful land. New friends and allies gather by her side, but tragedy and betrayal lurk closer than she realizes.Hiraethis the idyllic beginning tainted with dark shadows in theepic fantasy series,Singularity Cycle.

[ – NowCompletedwith upcoming minor revisions before second book – ]

+ complex character relationships and growth + realistic quirky magic system + unique mythical creatures + deeply developed world lore + evocative writing style + cute sassy fox sidekick

- Original Book Cover Art by Chryiss

Rewritten final version of formerly namedCanaanseries and first book,My World to Live. After a long wait and major changes, the first book in the series is retitledHiraeth: Promise of the World.

Thank you to all readers that joined me since I began posting this story two years ago. Your support is what motivated me to never give up my dreams. <3

[Major Tags:Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, Tragedy, Female Lead, Grimdark, High Fantasy, Magic, Mythos, Portal Fantasy, Isekai, Progression, Reincarnation, Secret Identity, Strong Lead, Epic Fantasy, Spirits, Demons, Monsters, Fairies, Dragons, Kingdom, Parallel Dimension, Mage, Knight, Royalty, Philosophy, Friendship, Slow Burn, Mythical.

+Major Tags not in Book 1 but later in Series: Supernatual, Science Fiction, Ruling Class, School Life, Time Travel, War and Military, Vampires, Dimensional Travel.

Minor Tags:Comedy, Horror, Artificial Intelligence, Cyberpunk, Dungeon, Dystopia, Loop, Steampunk, Virtual Reality, Villainous Lead. ]

Additional Notes:The series,Singularity Cycle, is a passion project dating back to 2016. The original version of the first book was published on RR in 2019 and has since seen multiple revisions based on reader feedback with this one as the final and official fourth version before the second book. While the entire series story has undergone major changes in the last year, all books have been planned since the beginning of writing. It is also my second wish to eventually make this story into a webcomic, either by myself or with a team if possible. Thank you for taking this journey with me, and enjoy reading!

( You can alternatively read books in the series as standalone fictions, but they connect to one another though a running theme and mystery that evolves and progresses with the main character. )

Alternate Blurbfor theSingularity Cycleseries:

Essairyn had never felt truly alive on Earth. It felt like something was missing ever since she was born, but even after nearly 20 years of mundane living, she could never pinpoint what this or the emptiness in her heart was.

Suddenly, she awakens in a grandiose, primordial forest and encounters mythical creatures beyond her restless imagination in a parallel world called Sol'h'meyr. She befriends, in particular, a sassy fox-spirit named Akari who reincarnated after three millennia.

Essairyn is gifted with abnormal magic, and Akari is being chased by those of her dark past. Together, they set out on an adventure in a world more dangerous than its beautiful facade could hide.

Finding new friends along a path riddled with tragedy, Essairyn must learn who to trust as deceit and betrayal lie behind kindly faces. Life in this deceptively promising world slowly spirals down a path of no return.

This is not a game, but cruel reality. Her simple adventure became the modest beginnings in a chain of disruptions that tore even the dimensional fabric of time and space. No one, not even Essairyn, was who she thought they were. And not even the fickle gods could change the time-worn destiny of the universes...

A single promise shook eternity’s existence.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: Chryiss

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.0/ 5.0
Followers: 91
Views: 23,261

Reviews

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Community Reviews(3)

BullerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It is what I see as the stereotypical action fantasy. This might be a very wrong assumption to have, seeing as I don't normally read either action or fantasy. Can't get my head behind the longer descriptions of combat, if you get what I mean.
Or it might just be the style in this one that had me in the back of my chair. Never really felt that shrill of anticipation like a few other action novels have achieved. Maybe it's due to the relative shortness of my reading or maybe it's due to something else. Nobody can truly know for sure. I just know that I'll leave it at that and give this fiction a solid 4.5/5
Genuine55Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Ok, right off the bat: grammar is fine. Nothing more to say.
Let me start out with my one and only real nitpick - the pacing of the story. I don't mind slow, really I don't. But the writing is strangely even. Constantly having the same sized short paragraphs make it difficult to not start skimming. The sentence lengths don't seem to vary much either. I get that this is an incredibly specific nitpick, but it's still off.
Now, on to the better parts of this work - the story and characters. First off, as a rule when I notice something about a story that I like, I'm going to always assume the author is a genius who did it intentionally, at least until I get strong evidence otherwise. If something is just an accident then you can't really go anywhere with the idea.
There are some odd characterizations, and points where character knowledge seems a bit inconsistent. While this could be an author mistake, It's way more interesting to see this as an unreliable narrator. Our dropped-into-fantasy protagonist has no idea what's going on, but she's faking it and pretending with the best of them, which in turn is opening up the story to some great character development and moving tragedy.
This works even better because in this isekai story our protagonist actually has a backstory. She isn't a cliche angsty, cynical amnesiac sent back to own the magic rubes. Instead she has an actual personality and goals that go beyond just reacting to her environment.
So I'm looking forward to seeing where this all goes.
luda305Royal Road
★★★★ 3.5
In many respects, this is a fairly standard isekai. Young disillusioned woman from earth gets dropped into a forest on a fantasy world and makes her way to civilization (and magic academy), picking up a spirit beast companion and another isekai'd boy-knight figure in the process. And, by and large, this is a fairly standard execution of that, with what is apparently rather broad and deep worldbuilding that is not a standard western fantasy.
If that's your thing, take a swing at it.
A few nits that might turn off more discerning readers. First, some of the action scenes seem to violate principles of continuity or, at least, everything is far more spaced out and happens strangely slowly. They're kind of weird to read. Second, there does seem to be some information leakage between the author and the characters, or between characters. Sometimes they just know something they shouldn't and other times they make some tremendous Sherlock Holmesian deduction that is completely unrealistic. This especially seems to be a problem as our little traveling group meets new people. Third, the protagonist seems oddly self-confident and certain innumerable times. Maybe it's a coping mechanism for uncertainty (fake it till you make it?), but that's not really clear and instead she comes across as an wise and experienced beyond what she actually is.
But, those are minor points.