Esztergom was the mountain, the fortress city that clung to its rocky sides,
and the realm that fell within its shadow.

About The Book

Esztergom is a historical fantasy grounded in real medieval cultures, military structures, and mythologies. It explores how institutions decay from within—how systems become brittle under their own weight, and what happens when the beliefs that sustain them begin to fracture. In a world where even magic demands a price, the novel asks a simple question: what is the cost of a civilization outgrowing the foundations that built it?

Inspired by Scythian nomads, Slavic paganism, and Indo-European mythic traditions, Esztergom examines a society in transition—where old ways are surrendering to new realities, where divine and mortal powers collide, and where the collapse of institutions sends ripples through every level of life: the gods, the rulers, and the ordinary people caught between them.

The novel was recently featured on Reedsy Discovery’s “Best Fantasy Books” list, earning a 5-star review that praised it as:
“Skillfully woven into a riveting tapestry of human nature that brings a long-forgotten world of old gods and ancient, half-understood powers back to life.”

Written by Stefan Mailloux, a former soldier, archaeologist, journalist, and lifelong pursuer of what Theodore Roosevelt called “the strenuous life.” His travels—from the Bandiagara Escarpment of Mali to the Amazonian trails of Peru and most recently a trek to the Maya mountains in Belize to explore the ruins of the Mayans have helped form the physical, moral, and cultural landscapes woven into Esztergom.

Professionally, Mailloux is a technologist with over thirty years of experience in multinational corporations, building development teams and, for the past decade, leading technical communications groups responsible for large-scale process transformation and cybersecurity initiatives. He is the author of three guides on artificial intelligence and serves as an editor for an ANSI AI standard.

His experience, worldview, and belief in grounded, historical authenticity form the backbone of Esztergom.

This is his first novel.

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