Skaikross · The prodigy
Corti Lisenia
Gifted, relentless, and certain that if she achieves enough she will finally be wanted.
The SoundShapers Saga · Book One
Roots of the Resonant
On a world where screams are weapons, a rejected prodigy, a beaten-down engineer and a hunted boy become the evidence in a trial among the gods.
For readers of
- Brandon Sanderson
- Robin Hobb
- James Islington
- Simon Jimenez
- Fonda Lee
- M.L. Wang
The premise
All magic is sound.
Every power on Arcelos is a sound, and every fight is over who gets to make it. The SoundShapers Saga is adult epic fantasy about the people a world decides not to hear.
All magic is sound, and the people who can’t make it are left behind. Corti was born to shape it, and the academy said no. Doremond shapes it underground, for a mine that shouldn’t exist. Spak has been hunted since the day he was found in the roots of a world tree. One hospice hallway is about to bring the three of them together. And far above them, a demigod is presenting their lives to a council of gods as evidence that their world deserves to survive.
“The answers were all waiting for her. All she had to do… was let someone die.”
The saga is about
The prodigies it rejects.
The workers it uses up.
The children it hunts.
The Soundless it leaves behind.
They’re bound together in a story told as evidence before a council of gods, who are deciding whether that world deserves to keep existing.
Hear it
The sound of shaping
A motif for each of the three peoples, written and produced by the author.
The books
The SoundShapers Saga
From roots to skies, from depths to heights.
Book One
In progressRoots of the Resonant
All magic is sound. Three discarded kids — a disgraced prodigy, a beaten-down engineer, and a boy no one can explain — are the evidence in the trial of a god, and the verdict decides whether their world gets to keep existing.
Discover the bookThe first arc
Four books, one trial
Book I
Roots of the Resonant
In progressBook II
Depths of the Dissonant
PlannedBook III
Frequencies of the Fallen
PlannedBook IV
Songs of the Soundless
Planned
Where to start
At the beginning. There is only one door.
- 01
Read
Roots of the Resonant
Book One of the SoundShapers Saga, and the start of everything.
- 02
Then
The world
Arcelos, its peoples and the trial that frames the story.
- 03
Listen
The Sound of Arcelos
The music the magic is made of, when the soundtrack is released.
Three points of view
Three kids the world threw away
One chapter each, in strict rotation, told as a single narrator's testimony before a council of gods.
Deepforged · The engineer
Doremond Guraton
His mind is brilliant, his words stall on him, and his brother hits first.
Whindant · The boy from the roots
Spak
Found as a baby in the roots of the world tree, and no one has ever explained why.
Fugue—A demigod of the Tempaeos who comes before the Tempaeonic Council with an appeal no one in the chamber wants to hear: that a condemned world, and the three lives chosen as evidence, deserve another hearing.
The world
Arcelos
A continent where every power is a sound, one corporation owns the grid that stores it, and the people who cannot shape are left to the slums.
The continent of
Arcelos
Resonanthia
Leagues
At the centre
Resonanthia
The great world tree of Arcelos. The Whindants live in its roots, and a religious order says the tree can hear them.
The physics
The laws of sound
Every effect in SoundShaping is physics. The rules are fixed, and the characters find the edges.
- All magic is sound
- There is audible sound — pitch, timbre, loudness, spread — and there is sonic energy, which carries mass, velocity and charge.
- Sonic energy seeks
- The first law. It flows toward whatever can hold it, and toward whatever is emptiest.
- Resonanthia
- The great world tree of Arcelos. The Whindants live in its roots, and a religious order says the tree can hear them.
- SkaiSight
- The most valuable company in the world. It owns the grid that stores and sells the world’s sound, and keeps 86 of every 100 resees it earns.
- The Soundless
- Those who can’t shape. In a world where sound is power, they’re left with the slums, the lowest jobs and the hospice beds.
- The ScreamShapers
- A cult of forbidden shaping, built on the belief that screams are weapons.
Three peoples, three ways to shape
Vessel, channel, instrument
Each sigil is that people's own Chladni figure — the pattern sound draws in sand at their frequency.
The vessel
The Deepforged
They store power in bulbs beneath the skin and release it through a catalyst in the throat.
The channel
The Whindants
Power breathes through their bark-like skin as freely as they open themselves, and not at all when they close off.
The instrument
The Skaikross
They shape with breath alone, and have the finest control of anyone.
The trial
The whole novel is evidence.
Fugue, a demigod of the Tempaeos who comes before the Tempaeonic Council with an appeal no one in the chamber wants to hear: that a condemned world, and the three lives chosen as evidence, deserve another hearing.
Every chapter is testimony, so the reader is sitting on the jury.
What sets it apart
Written by a musician, built like a machine
- 01
A magic system built from real acoustics
SoundShaping obeys rules a musician or an audio engineer would recognise: frequency, resonance, amplitude, attunement. It’s physics, not metaphor, and the conservation rules have consequences.
- 02
An economy that runs on magic
Stored sound powers a grid one corporation controls. The mines, the wages and the debts all follow from the physics, and the characters feel the economics in their bills.
- 03
Silence as a political technology
When power is sound, the disabled and the old become the Soundless. The saga is about who a society decides is disposable, and the people who refuse to agree.
- 04
A story that is itself the evidence
Every chapter is testimony in a trial among gods, so the reader is sitting on the jury.
- 05
Warm on top, dark underneath
Found family, banter, and a boy swinging through tree roots for fun, set against abuse, grief and an industry that strips a continent for power.
- 06
Written by a music producer
Anthony Petrelli spent years recording and producing music before building a world out of it.
The Tempaeon Chronicles
A larger universe
The SoundShapers Saga is one world within the Tempaeon Chronicles: a cinematic universe where fantasy and science fiction collide, told across books, screenplay and score.
Epic Modern Fantasy
The SoundShapers Saga
World: Arcelos
YA Sci-Fi Animated Musical
Tokyopolis
World: Earth
Children's Sci-Fantasy
Cholulo's Great Adventure
World: Choluloland
From the forge
How close is it?
Where every piece of the first book stands right now, updated as the work moves.
Book One
Roots of the Resonant
Draft · stage 2 of 6
- Outline
- Draft
- Revision
- Editorial
- Copyedit
- Release
Alpha draft in progress.
Updated October 2026
Art
Cover and map
Brief · stage 1 of 4
- Brief
- Commission
- Sketches
- Final
Briefs written; artists not yet commissioned.
Updated October 2026
Original soundtrack
The Sound of Arcelos
Themes · stage 1 of 4
- Themes
- Recording
- Mix
- Release
A motif for each of the three peoples.
Updated October 2026
Book Two
Depths of the Dissonant
Outline · stage 1 of 6
- Outline
- Draft
- Revision
- Editorial
- Copyedit
- Release
Planned.
Updated October 2026
Editions
Every way to own it
Signed and numbered first editions, a collector's binding, the audiobook with an original score, and the soundtrack on vinyl. Nothing is on sale yet; ask to be told first.
The author
Anthony Petrelli
Anthony Petrelli is the author of the SoundShapers Saga, adult epic fantasy where all magic is sound. Book One, Roots of the Resonant, is in progress.
Anthony Petrelli spends most of his time with his wife, Katherine, obsessing over their two hairless kitty cats, Albert & Yumi. When he’s not writing or hanging out with his funniest, fuzziest family, you can find him building software, recording / producing music, or buying special edition books while the unread books on his shelf cry.