Shadowstep

By: Drew Walker

Narrated by: Saethon Williams

As the third son, Khale Whitlock dreads being married off for his father's political gain. When the city of Lidend's mysterious organization of shadow assassins forces him into their ranks, Khale must learn to live a dual life in order to survive.

Playing his father's game by day and learning to control shadows at night, his unfamiliarity with the assassins' mechanized training contraptions leaves him exhausted, battered and bruised. Improvisation and lies become Khale's only tools with which to navigate his two realities and assuage suspicion from his family.

Coral Llewellyn is the daughter of a chancellor and foreign to a world that has forgotten the magicks of old. When her logical and orderly but boring life is thrown into chaos with a revelation about her heritage, she must wield the light of her magick, grow her mastery of its glow, and learn how to maintain the balance.

The combined powers of Khale's darkness and Coral's light may prove to be the only weapon capable of withstanding an ancient evil just below the city's surface.

An evil that has its sights set firmly on them.

Shadowstep, the first of a duology, is set in a Victorian-inspired world, and will appeal to fans of historic fantasy and steampunk themes.

©2021 Drew Walker (P)2022 Drew Walker

My new favorite author!

Good story with a couple of unexpected twists! Would love to see action scenes more often, and perhaps more "tension" between Khale and Coral - maybe a little quarrelling? I'm excited to see where the story goes next!

Narration portrayals of Bram, Wilburtson, and Hashar were excellent, smooth and natural. The other characters' speech patterns are too choppy and filled with weirdly-placed pauses. The voices of Khale's father and Coral's father, with such exaggerated enunciations, were so distracting that I ended up rewinding every time to actually get what the characters were saying.

Close to good but...

Marred by over-pronunciation and voice-characterization leaving the characters to come across vapid or worse