The Stars of Ashen Realm, Episode I: “Echoes Through the Rift”

By: James Rietz

Narrated by: Zi Robinson

The Stars of Ashen Realm: Episode I — Echoes Through the Rift

By James A. Rietz

In the fractured future of 2478, Earth’s civilizations no longer share a single sky.

After a cataclysm known only as The Shattering, entire cities drift across splintered dimensions—each realm stitched together by dying wormholes and unstable light.

Dr. Lyra Vance, a brilliant astrophysicist haunted by the disappearance of her lover Elias, decodes a hidden pattern pulsing through collapsing wormholes. But when she activates her experiment, the universe answers with a tear in reality—casting her into the Ashen Realm, a world where forgotten magic breathes through the veins of quantum machines.

There, Lyra encounters Kael, a mysterious warrior who carries her lover’s face but none of his memories. As she delves deeper into this realm’s secrets, Lyra uncovers an ancient order guarding the balance between science and sorcery—and a cosmic intelligence that remembers her name.

Haunted by echoes of herself from other timelines, Lyra must choose between rewriting the laws of creation or surrendering to the gravity of love that defies time itself.

Mystery meets metaphysics.
Romance burns across dimensions.
Science collides with sorcery.

The Stars of Ashen Realm: Episode I — Echoes Through the Rift begins an epic saga of loss, creation, and rebirth—a sweeping tale where every heartbeat becomes a universe, and every choice reshapes the stars themselves.

©2025 James A Rietz (P)2026 James A Rietz

Great narrator, not quite my genre.

I was taken to a different place in a different time. And then to several dimensions.
I was a love story, of sorts. Definitely for young adults. Good, but not for me.
The narrator has skills. She sounded as though she could flick a switch from one gender to the next. Bravo! Nice listen. I actually recommend it.