By Lauren Root

October will be an exciting and horror lovers around Bishops! Not only is it Halloween, but the final installment of the Saint Akzena trilogy, Talion, will be available for purchase on October 6th!

The first two books in the trilogy, Pandemonium and Lampades, are already available on Amazon for those who want to get an early jump on reading the series.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Root

The Saint Akzena trilogy is written by François Fallon, a recent Bishop’s graduate. In fact, François credits a large portion of his success in writing the trilogy to Bishop’s. As an English Media/Film major, François was able to complete the book series he had long been thinking of. François’ inspiration for writing a trilogy is simple: “I wanted to finish what I started at age 13.”

When asked about how his time at Bishop’s helped him write the trilogy, François says: “The environment of Bishop’s itself sets the stage.” In fact, much of the scenery around Bishop’s and Lennoxville inspired the setting of Saint Akzena. When reading the trilogy, many of the pictures included were taken around the Bishop’s campus.

The trilogy itself is set in the Canadian wilderness, intentionally being vague about the location, so that Canadian readers could easily visualize the location through their own experiences with forests. François says, “If it wasn’t for the Bishop’s campus itself, then what’s within the books would be very different.”

The Saint Akzena trilogy has been a work in progress for a long time now. François first began writing this book at age 13 in October of 2008. At the time, François was bored with traditional horror stories. After reading Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, which is a collection of stories, François was inspired to write his own collection of stories.

So what is Saint Akzena? Well, besides the title of the series, it is also the name of the haunted, abandoned high school where the story takes place. “Akzena” is also the deity living below the school.

The first book, Pandemonium, is set in the early 2000s and follows the main character, Steve, who arrives at the Saint Akzena school and is able to explore its history before successfully escaping. Together, Steve and the reader explore Saint Akzena and begin to understand its complicated history. The title Pandemonium comes from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, meaning “all demons.”

The second book, Lampades, is set in the 19th century and follows main character Margaret as she discovers the interstellar witch coven of Saint Akzena.

The third book, Talion, took an additional amount of research. Since it’s a period piece, François says that he watched “Little House on the Prairie” to help better situate himself in the historical scene. Talion follows main character Orla through her journey at Saint Akzena and through her quest for vengeance against those who have done wrong to her. Talion is set in the 1860s.

The creation of the Saint Akzena trilogy helped François connect with people from around the world. Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square was the first person to read the manuscript of Pandemonium, since she was the professor of the Gothic literature class. In addition, François has been able to work with visual artists from around the world, Natalia Depreina and Erinthul.

The book series is published by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, which François says has been extremely helpful and upfront about the publishing process throughout this journey.

Keep your eyes open for October 6, when you can order the final installment of the Saint Akzena trilogy, Talion.