Asher Paterson and The Portal Realm

The opening chapters dive straight into the life of a young boy named Asher Paterson. He lives in Neptune City, New Jersey. Asher has just turned thirteen, but for him there's not much to celebrate. It is also the death anniversary of his late mother. He lives with his grandmother in an old wood-built house. To say their relationship is not great is an understatement.

Life is difficult for Asher, for not only does he have to deal with the lack of a mother, but also an absentee father. Away often on his many travels, his father spends his life exploring foreign lands in search of histories hidden secrets. His dad is an archaeologist devoted solely to his work. At present, his dad is on the verge of his next big find in the Valley of the King's, Egypt.

Left to wade through the turbulent waters of life on his own, Asher must deal with the difficulties of adolescence. He has just started 7th grade at Neptunica Middle School. Daily his life is plagued by the school bullies, one tall, ginger haired boy and his smaller, rounder accomplice. Besides the school bullies, he is starting to have feelings for a certain captain of the school dance club, a blonde-haired girl he has taken a liking to. Still trying to find himself as a person, Asher lacks self-confidence. But what he lacks in confidence, his dirty fair-haired, quirky friend makes up for.

One picture postcard from Egypt, puts Asher on an unavoidable trajectory. Invited to Egypt to be with his dad he sequentially stumbles across the tomb of a long dead high priest. What he finds inside leads him on a journey between worlds, to a place known as The Portal Realm. Suddenly, he finds himself wrapped up in a chain of events more than three thousand years in the making. A chain of events that will see the universe itself hang in the balance. In the process he comes across a kooky old man known as Geatiric, The Gatekeeper, a talking, little winged creature bearing remarkable resemblance to a fox and a deceptive new friend missing one golden horn.