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Shadowalker
"There's a dragon watching me when I wake up." As the Death Lord's daughter, seventeen-year old Uriel is comfortable walking the lavender-scented tunnels of death. She's not pleased to be dragged back to the living realm of Meldin. It's a world of laser-edged swords and shape-changing dragons, where the Lord of the World has sworn to kill her father. Uriel needs a place to hide and, with a fortune-telling dragon, four scrying cards she drew in death, and the son of her father's enemy, she believes she's found one. Until the rumours start . . .
220 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2017
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Catch Tilly
8 books3 followersCatch Tilly is a former high school teacher now working as an author and script writer. It was after hearing students comment how realistic and empowering they found Morgan and Stormin’s story presented in a play on
bullying that she decided to write Otherwise Known as Pig. She is married with five children and has an MA in creative writing.
bullying that she decided to write Otherwise Known as Pig. She is married with five children and has an MA in creative writing.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2017
“There’s a dragon watching me when I wake up.”
From the opening words of Catch Tilly’s Shadowalker we know we are inhabiting a different world – one that requires the suspension of belief that reading fantasy literature always entails.
When author Catch Tilly tells us that “she spends every moment she can in her imagination,” it becomes clear that she revels in the other worlds that she is able to create so tellingly. So compellingly, in fact, that even readers who do not customarily enjoy this genre find themselves irresistibly drawn into the realm of Meldin, a world populated by dragons, shape shifters, fairy castles and laser-edged swords, scrying cards that can foretell the future, a Death Lord - and Uriel, the central character.
The ‘Shadowalker’ of the title is Uriel Taleri who, at seventeen, has died and been brought back, her mind erased and re-programmed, to find herself caught up in a complex maze of vendettas and warring families, of relations that she has not known, and of a father, the Death Lord, who occupies an ambiguous place within the power struggles that surround her. Uriel’s own confusions and uncertainties are experienced also by the reader, and at times I found myself re-reading earlier parts of the book to try to negotiate this complicated world.
Tilly creates Meldin with language and terminology particular to the setting, and the nine page glossary at the end of the book became an indispensible resource as I followed Uriel’s own journey to understanding. It would have been useful to have had further assistance in sorting out the characters and their relationships; some sort of a chart, or family trees that encompassed the ruling Houses of this world and the network of relationships and alliances, would be a helpful inclusion in future editions of the work.
That there will be future editions, or sequels, is important because, although Shadowalker ends with a point of resolution of conflict, it is clear this is only a stop along the way in a much bigger battle, and the book’s closing line opens the door to Book 2.
‘No, Shadowalker,’ I say to my reflection in a prison door. ‘It’s not over.’
Among the real pleasures in this book are the vivid descriptions that bring to life the other-world of Meldin. Uriel’s cousin, the part-dragon, part young girl Elouise Taleri, eating her ice-cream, is almost visible:
I watch this mythical creature – the unnatural union of hunting-cat and lizard: all silver black scales and deadly menace – scoop out another mouthful of berry-red cream with an elongated tongue that is slowly turning pink.
The place descriptions are themselves almost gorgeous in their detail:
‘The walls are covered in a porcelain-like substance unique to Quislayn, dyed a delicate gold. The curtains are sandsilk, a translucent green against the windows, the only fabric in the room to show embroidery, though the five vases are painted and two of the four table have sand-grain detail mosaics …’
It’s an intriguing world that the author has created and the rapidly moving plot keeps the reader (even the non-fantasy reader!) involved and interested.
Valerie Volk
From the opening words of Catch Tilly’s Shadowalker we know we are inhabiting a different world – one that requires the suspension of belief that reading fantasy literature always entails.
When author Catch Tilly tells us that “she spends every moment she can in her imagination,” it becomes clear that she revels in the other worlds that she is able to create so tellingly. So compellingly, in fact, that even readers who do not customarily enjoy this genre find themselves irresistibly drawn into the realm of Meldin, a world populated by dragons, shape shifters, fairy castles and laser-edged swords, scrying cards that can foretell the future, a Death Lord - and Uriel, the central character.
The ‘Shadowalker’ of the title is Uriel Taleri who, at seventeen, has died and been brought back, her mind erased and re-programmed, to find herself caught up in a complex maze of vendettas and warring families, of relations that she has not known, and of a father, the Death Lord, who occupies an ambiguous place within the power struggles that surround her. Uriel’s own confusions and uncertainties are experienced also by the reader, and at times I found myself re-reading earlier parts of the book to try to negotiate this complicated world.
Tilly creates Meldin with language and terminology particular to the setting, and the nine page glossary at the end of the book became an indispensible resource as I followed Uriel’s own journey to understanding. It would have been useful to have had further assistance in sorting out the characters and their relationships; some sort of a chart, or family trees that encompassed the ruling Houses of this world and the network of relationships and alliances, would be a helpful inclusion in future editions of the work.
That there will be future editions, or sequels, is important because, although Shadowalker ends with a point of resolution of conflict, it is clear this is only a stop along the way in a much bigger battle, and the book’s closing line opens the door to Book 2.
‘No, Shadowalker,’ I say to my reflection in a prison door. ‘It’s not over.’
Among the real pleasures in this book are the vivid descriptions that bring to life the other-world of Meldin. Uriel’s cousin, the part-dragon, part young girl Elouise Taleri, eating her ice-cream, is almost visible:
I watch this mythical creature – the unnatural union of hunting-cat and lizard: all silver black scales and deadly menace – scoop out another mouthful of berry-red cream with an elongated tongue that is slowly turning pink.
The place descriptions are themselves almost gorgeous in their detail:
‘The walls are covered in a porcelain-like substance unique to Quislayn, dyed a delicate gold. The curtains are sandsilk, a translucent green against the windows, the only fabric in the room to show embroidery, though the five vases are painted and two of the four table have sand-grain detail mosaics …’
It’s an intriguing world that the author has created and the rapidly moving plot keeps the reader (even the non-fantasy reader!) involved and interested.
Valerie Volk
February 9, 2018
It is clear that Tilly spends a lot of time in the world of Meldin. There are a lot of complex existing relationships and ideas that can take a newcomer some time to catch up with (no pun intended).
Fascinating and different, this book works because it is unlike other books in the genre, so much so that with elements of science fiction and fantasy together, it can be hard to be certain exactly which genre it belongs to. You can, however, be certain that there isn't another book like this one.
If you're excited by the idea of mixing some science fiction with your fantasy, and reading a unique story about a girl who can walk through death, then this one is well worth checking out.
Fascinating and different, this book works because it is unlike other books in the genre, so much so that with elements of science fiction and fantasy together, it can be hard to be certain exactly which genre it belongs to. You can, however, be certain that there isn't another book like this one.
If you're excited by the idea of mixing some science fiction with your fantasy, and reading a unique story about a girl who can walk through death, then this one is well worth checking out.
January 19, 2021
You wake with Uriel Taleri, the Death Lord’s daughter, in confusion. She’s in Yaram, a major city in the world of Meldin, she’s being watched by a dragon eating icecream, and her last memories are of the shadow world of Death which, being her father’s daughter, she can walk without fear. It’s the safest place she knows.
Tilly throws us in at the deep end, and for the first few chapters it is like arriving in a country you have learned nothing about before – it overwhelms your senses and entices you with its otherness.
Meldin is home to many races, each with their own honour codes and magics, which are held together by a strong and ancient social and legal system. But there is unfinished business after the Blood Wars of sixty years earlier, and Uriel, who comes from a world she can barely remember after her father had her brain rewired to learn the ways of the ruling race, finds herself caught up in the prejudice and machinations that continue to wrack Meldin. Her identity is known only to a few, whom she must decide to trust or do the only thing she knows to do when threatened – run. Will her new friends stand with her in her hour of need or will she end up dying another painful death?
Shadowalker is a compelling story, the world of Meldin richly fascinating, and Uriel a protagonist whose cause I took up from the start. The cast of characters is widely varied, from the types inhabiting any high school hall to the disconcerting and unpredictable shapeshifters and polymorphs, the Vaelen Heralds, and Uriel’s own divergent relatives.
This is the first of a number of books we can expect from Tilly exploring the world she and her husband have been sharing imaginatively for 26 years. And that’s a promise, for as Uriel says to herself at the end, ‘It’s not over.’ I look forward eagerly to the next book of Meldin.
Tilly throws us in at the deep end, and for the first few chapters it is like arriving in a country you have learned nothing about before – it overwhelms your senses and entices you with its otherness.
Meldin is home to many races, each with their own honour codes and magics, which are held together by a strong and ancient social and legal system. But there is unfinished business after the Blood Wars of sixty years earlier, and Uriel, who comes from a world she can barely remember after her father had her brain rewired to learn the ways of the ruling race, finds herself caught up in the prejudice and machinations that continue to wrack Meldin. Her identity is known only to a few, whom she must decide to trust or do the only thing she knows to do when threatened – run. Will her new friends stand with her in her hour of need or will she end up dying another painful death?
Shadowalker is a compelling story, the world of Meldin richly fascinating, and Uriel a protagonist whose cause I took up from the start. The cast of characters is widely varied, from the types inhabiting any high school hall to the disconcerting and unpredictable shapeshifters and polymorphs, the Vaelen Heralds, and Uriel’s own divergent relatives.
This is the first of a number of books we can expect from Tilly exploring the world she and her husband have been sharing imaginatively for 26 years. And that’s a promise, for as Uriel says to herself at the end, ‘It’s not over.’ I look forward eagerly to the next book of Meldin.
March 21, 2018
Shadowalker is a remarkable book. Saying “it transports you into another realm” dramatically under-sells it. Catch Tilly’s writing is both punchy and lyrical, the imagined world is extraordinary and her characters are fantastically realised (pun intended). From tweenage dragons eating ice cream to laser turreted castles and walking the lavender scented halls of death, Shadowalker is a high fantasy tale that is anything but normal.
The main character Uriel starts without much of her memory, having had her mind forcibly re-written by her father. Even so, her straightforward spirit shines through as she struggles to adapt to a new world. And what a world; Meldin is thoroughly original - a lush mix of fantasy, supernatural, and sci fi elements. It is clearly highly complex, with well-developed cultures, languages and mythology, but Tilly cleverly paces out the world building. I only wish we got more time with each of the supporting cast of characters – the roguish Zanar the elder, for example, who only appears in the realm of death.
If you’re looking for a satisfyingly imaginative fantasy story, this is a must read.
The main character Uriel starts without much of her memory, having had her mind forcibly re-written by her father. Even so, her straightforward spirit shines through as she struggles to adapt to a new world. And what a world; Meldin is thoroughly original - a lush mix of fantasy, supernatural, and sci fi elements. It is clearly highly complex, with well-developed cultures, languages and mythology, but Tilly cleverly paces out the world building. I only wish we got more time with each of the supporting cast of characters – the roguish Zanar the elder, for example, who only appears in the realm of death.
If you’re looking for a satisfyingly imaginative fantasy story, this is a must read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews