Freeport father and 6-year-old son publish fantasy novel ‘Beneath the Song’

It started the way a lot of good stories start at home: with a 6-year-old asking “what if.”

Noah Roberts of Freeport had an idea about people living their whole lives on an enormous world without ever knowing that the world itself was alive. His father, Chris Roberts, listened. What began as a childhood conversation between the two of them grew, over time, into Beneath the Song, a full-length fantasy novel that father and son are publishing together on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Chris Roberts shared the story in an email to the Emerald Coast Dispatch newsroom, one of the first stories a reader has sent us from Walton County.

“I’m especially proud of the experience we’ve shared and the opportunity to show Noah what can happen when he pursues his imagination,” he wrote.

What the book is about

Beneath the Song is Book One of a series the authors call Chronicles of the Forgotten Truth. They describe it as a dark epic fantasy mystery and a coming-of-age adventure.

The story follows Caiven Asterin, who lives in a place called Vale’s End. His society is run by the Unseen Accord, which requires a “Closing of Sight” that makes people forget what they have seen. On his 18th birthday, Caiven begins to see and hear a hidden, living world beneath the mountains around him. His father disappeared six years earlier after refusing to forget, and Caiven follows the message his father left behind to find out what the Accord has kept hidden.

At the heart of it all is Noah’s original idea: people going about their lives on top of something enormous and alive, without knowing it.

Watch the trailer

The authors released an official trailer for the book on YouTube.

How to read it

• Beneath the Song releases November 3, 2026, in Kindle ($5.99), paperback ($19.99), and hardcover ($29.99). The Kindle edition is available to preorder now; the paperback and hardcover editions will be available to order starting November 3.
• Pre-order: available now on Amazon.
• Free first chapter: readers can read Chapter One on the authors’ website, cnrobertsbooks.com.
• Contact the authors: [email protected].

Thank you, Noah and Chris! 💛

Noah, thank you for dreaming up a whole living world. Chris, thank you for helping him bring it to life, and for telling us about it! We can’t wait to see the book come out on Nov. 3. Freeport has two new authors to be proud of. 📚

Your story is also the very first one in Community Stories, our new little corner for the good things happening right here at home. Seems only fitting that a 6-year-old got it started. ✨

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