Shards of Amber: A Horror Story Collection

by J.W.G. Wise

Eighteen tales of horror delve into the world of the horror audio drama Wrought of Amber.

PRINCESS EMERALD IS GONE

Twelve-year-old actress Emily Carmichael was the star of the children's TV show, Virtue Vista Valley, until she went missing on a Saturday afternoon in 2009. Four days later, police found her remains on the property of Wesley Graveline, one of Virtue Vista Valley's writers. Graveline confessed and was executed, and the case was closed. More than a decade later, Alex Carmichael questioned the official story of her sister's death with her podcast Wrought of Amber and shed light on the unexplored corners of her family's tragic loss.

This collection of stories expands the story to dark corners beyond Alex's reach.

Set in the world of Wrought of Amber and Weeping Cedars, these eighteen short stories add to Alex's version of events by uncovering secrets she could never know and staring into darkness she could never imagine. Shards of Amber includes the tales of a killer who poses his victims, a model train set that appears mysteriously in an office lobby, an actor who must endure dreams of drowning, and the tale of an aspiring young writer who finds something unexpected in the West Virginia woods.

Join the search for Emily Carmichael, but be careful not to cut yourself on the shards.

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2025

Reviews

[Tilt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the carefully interwoven stories in Shards of Amber. This collection is a fantastic addition to the audiodramas that started with Weeping Cedars (WC) and continued in Samite and Wrought of Amber. For fans of the WC universe, Josh Wise delivers many satisfying narrative pay offs while ambitiously weaving between stories that blend technology, the occult, horror, and humor. The stories further build out the pantheon of beings and players and their multigenerational conflicts. Some new questions are posed and new conflicts and players introduced. The breadth of the WC world is staggering and this return to key players and moments in the WC was a pleasure to read.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weeping Cedars is one of my favrourite audio drama podcasts, a slow-burn small-town cosmic-horror epic that was followed by Samite and Wrought Of Amber, set in the same world. This book is the audio version of a series of short stories that accompanies Wrought Of Amber, letting the listener in to all sorts of nasty and terrifying angles to stories the protagonist of the AD only sees hints of. It's dark, sometimes pitch-black, stuff, also intricate and complicated, and very much in love with leaving large gaps for the reader to puzzle over, while scattering clues and references and hints throughout the text that connect them all up, going back to both Samite and, of course, a visit to Weeping Cedars itself. Not reccomended to be picked up by a newby, but do go and check out the series, and if you make it all the way through, this'll be waiting.