Ashtown Burials

Lore & Background

The series is set in a world where the Order of Brendan, a secret society of explorers, protects against transmortals—ordinary mortals who have become immortal through means such as eating the Fruit of Life, drinking from the Fountain of Youth, or possessing powerful objects like the Odyssian Cloak or Dragon's Tooth. Transmortals often experience grief and violence, and many seek burial to endure life in sleep. The Dragon's Tooth is the most famous weapon capable of killing them.

In The Dragon's Tooth, siblings Cyrus and Antigone Smith inherit a set of Solomon Keys and a shark-like tooth from a dying man named William Skelton. They are inducted into the Order of Brendan at Ashtown, where they learn the tooth can kill immortals. The antagonist Dr. Phoenix, who transforms into a monster, is a transmortal with a tragic past, not to be confused with the misattributed name 'Mr. Ashes'.

Reader's Guide

Ashtown Burials stands out in young adult fantasy for its deliberate American orientation and its integration of historical and mythological figures as immortal transmortals. By featuring characters like Maximilien Robespierre, Gilgamesh, Arachne, and Captain John Smith, the series blurs the line between fact and fable, inviting readers to see history as a living, mutable narrative. The transmortals' grief and desire for death add a melancholic depth, challenging typical portrayals of immortality as desirable.

The series' reliance on physical and mental challenges over magic aligns with Wilson's goal to enchant readers with 'the wonder of here and the wonder of now.' The Dragon's Tooth, referencing Greek mythology, and the Solomon Keys ground the story in a rich tapestry of cultural references. Critical reception was positive, with Publishers Weekly offering favorable notice. The serialized fourth book, The Silent Bells, extended the series' reach into the 2020s, maintaining its relevance. Ashtown Burials thus contributes to the fantasy genre by reimagining history as a source of both wonder and peril.

Did You Know?

• The series includes a fourth book, The Silent Bells, published in serial format in 24 installments between 2020 and 2025.
• The Dragon's Tooth is a reference to the dragon's teeth of Greek mythology used by Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece.
• The antagonist Dr. Phoenix references classic villains such as Dr. Moreau and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Series Architecture & Publication Timeline

The Ashtown Burials is a young adult fantasy series penned by N. D. Wilson, spanning three traditionally published novels and one serialized installment. The Dragon's Tooth arrived in 2011, followed by The Drowned Vault in 2012 and Empire of Bones in 2013. A fourth entry, The Silent Bells, took a different publishing path, rolling out in 24 separate installments over a five-year window from 2020 to 2025. At the heart of every volume is Cyrus Smith, a young man who, together with his sister Antigone, belongs to the Order of Brendan—a clandestine organization shadowed by transmortals, figures drawn from real history and legend who have somehow escaped death. The series weaves together personal adventure with a sprawling mythology that stretches across cultures and centuries, positioning the Smith siblings at the intersection of the mortal and the undying.

The Transmortals — Immortality as Burden

The defining conceit of the series is the transmortal: an ordinary human who, through no single universal mechanism, becomes undying. Some achieve this by consuming the Fruit of Life or sipping from the Fountain of Youth; others gain permanence by wielding a potent artifact like the Odyssian Cloak or the Dragon's Tooth; still others are caught up in a blessing that curdles into a curse. Wilson deliberately selects semi-famous historical and mythological figures—Maximilien Robespierre in the first book, Gilgamesh of Uruk, Arachne, and Captain John Smith in later volumes—and grants them this unnatural longevity. A unifying emotional thread among transmortals is grief, which frequently tips into violence. In truth, many are exhausted by endless existence and actively seek the Burials, the Order of Brendan's eternal holding cells, where they can rest in sleep. When Cyrus Smith wields the Dragon's Tooth, allied transmortals have repeatedly begged him to end their suffering, underscoring that immortality in this world is less a gift than a slow, aching punishment.

An American Mythological Bricolage

Wilson has spoken openly about wanting to craft a young adult fantasy whose cultural DNA is unmistakably American, deliberately setting his work apart from the English-anchored worlds of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. He grounds the series in the physical realm, insisting that characters rely on bodily and mental sharpness rather than pure magical spectacle, and he hopes to draw readers into what he calls "the wonder of here and the wonder of now." The result is what critic Jeremy Larson terms a "mythological and historical bricolage": a patchwork assembled from figures and artifacts drawn from every culture and era. Marilyn E. Burton observes that characters of myth and legend from across the globe inhabit the same world as the protagonists, forcing readers to "reconsider the boundary lines between story and history, fact and fable." The Dragon's Tooth itself echoes the teeth from Greek myth that Jason carried on his quest for the Golden Fleece, while the villain Phoenix channels the duality of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the monstrous ambition of Dr. Moreau.

The Archer Motel & the Order of Brendan

The Dragon's Tooth opens in Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan, where Cyrus, Antigone, and their older brother Dan operate a dilapidated motel called The Archer, which sees almost no traffic beyond a permanent resident named Mrs. Eldridge. The inciting event arrives when a stranger, William Skelton, checks in and leaves Cyrus with a set of keys and a shark-tooth-like object before being murdered by attackers that night. Skelton's attorney, John Horace Lawney, then reveals that the Smiths have been named heirs, and the siblings are chased by a man called Maxi. They eventually reach Ashtown, a vast compound housing the Order of Brendan, a secret society over a thousand years old composed of influential individuals who explore and defend the world from evil. There, Rupert Greeves swears the siblings in under the stringent 1914 admission standards, and Mrs. Eldridge—unmasked as a watcher placed by their late father—becomes their mentor. The keys turn out to be the Solomon Keys, capable of opening any door, and the tooth is the Dragon's Tooth, a relic said to raise the dead and slay the immortal.