What do you think?
Rate this book
The Shadow Reaper
The Shadow Reaper is a star-spanning tale of survival, doubt, and self-discovery in the 31st Century.
A starship caught inside the mysterious GodStorm slips through a dimensional rift. Shortly after regaining control of the ship in orbit around an ancient ringworld, the crew faces a creature they struggle to even prove exists. Soon, that terrifying battle for survival engulfs the primitive inhabitants of the ringworld below, where a small town stands in the shadow of a dragon, and a reluctant knight must make the biggest decision of his life.
The Shadow Reaper is a smooth blend of science fiction, fantasy and horror set in the Cosmoverse, a universe where one seemingly insignificant person can change everything—not merely in one city or on one world, but perhaps even across the dimensions.
A starship caught inside the mysterious GodStorm slips through a dimensional rift. Shortly after regaining control of the ship in orbit around an ancient ringworld, the crew faces a creature they struggle to even prove exists. Soon, that terrifying battle for survival engulfs the primitive inhabitants of the ringworld below, where a small town stands in the shadow of a dragon, and a reluctant knight must make the biggest decision of his life.
The Shadow Reaper is a smooth blend of science fiction, fantasy and horror set in the Cosmoverse, a universe where one seemingly insignificant person can change everything—not merely in one city or on one world, but perhaps even across the dimensions.
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
330 pages, Paperback
Published July 31, 2019
2 people are currently reading
1280 people want to read
About the author
Bob Whitely
3 books29 followersBob Whitely is an author, editor, game designer and commercial artist.
Passionate about blending genres, he created both the Cosmoverse and Toonaria Campaign Settings, two homologous, blended-genre universes. He also created the Cosmothea Roleplaying Game for his gritty Cosmoverse, and is developing Little Epics, a rules-lite roleplaying game for his seemingly light-hearted Toonaria.
After winning first place in a Dungeons & Dragons Monster Design contest, designing over two dozen board and card games and writing piles of stories, Bob decided it was past time to start sharing his creations and founded QT Games LLC.
In celebration of 40 years of adventuring in the Cosmoverse and Toonaria, Bob launched two new imprints: Cosmoverse Publishing and Toonaria Publishing. The Shadow Reaper was the first novel to be released under the Cosmoverse Publishing imprint.
He ran a successful Kickstarter for Arcane Synthesis: a Blended-Genre Anthology in 2014, and has also written and directed numerous plays and skits over the past eighteen years, acting in many of them both locally and abroad.
Currently, Bob is working on completing a bucket list of creative projects, after which he hopes to get out another bucket (he bought a truck load before realizing he’d never have time to fill them all.) He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he pursues his greatest passion, his adventures with his wife, sons and an adorable chiweenie.
Subscribe to Bob's newsletter at
Passionate about blending genres, he created both the Cosmoverse and Toonaria Campaign Settings, two homologous, blended-genre universes. He also created the Cosmothea Roleplaying Game for his gritty Cosmoverse, and is developing Little Epics, a rules-lite roleplaying game for his seemingly light-hearted Toonaria.
After winning first place in a Dungeons & Dragons Monster Design contest, designing over two dozen board and card games and writing piles of stories, Bob decided it was past time to start sharing his creations and founded QT Games LLC.
In celebration of 40 years of adventuring in the Cosmoverse and Toonaria, Bob launched two new imprints: Cosmoverse Publishing and Toonaria Publishing. The Shadow Reaper was the first novel to be released under the Cosmoverse Publishing imprint.
He ran a successful Kickstarter for Arcane Synthesis: a Blended-Genre Anthology in 2014, and has also written and directed numerous plays and skits over the past eighteen years, acting in many of them both locally and abroad.
Currently, Bob is working on completing a bucket list of creative projects, after which he hopes to get out another bucket (he bought a truck load before realizing he’d never have time to fill them all.) He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he pursues his greatest passion, his adventures with his wife, sons and an adorable chiweenie.
Subscribe to Bob's newsletter at
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 14, 2020
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.
Lance Bendrik is an XO on a ship for the Colonial Defense Fleet. In the first chapters, we get a lot of information about the different species as well as their mutations (or augments). We also learn a bit about the languages spoken and the worlds.
The crew is meant to bring back Architechnology but falls through a GodStorm--a storm sent by the gods. Between the find on the planet of Cathor and the GodStorm, things go very awry.
Of note is the fact that the crew starts falling ill from random sores that even Lance's wife (who is the medic on board) can't heal. And then they die.
Turns out, a Shadow Reaper is on board, and this is their M.O. After some very quick deaths, the story slows, changing the focus from Lance to Janys (his wife), to the Shadow Reaper, to other characters.
The Reaper has an eye on Lance and is intrigued by him. To be fair, the man IS intriguing. If nothing else, the GodStorm has augmented him in a way that he doesn't need to sleep.
I love the story of Lance and Janys.
When only three of them are alive, they escape the cursed ship in a lifepod. Despite their measures though, the Shadow Reaper follows them, and down to the kingdom of Vraedia. There, a bounty hunter (who turned from the Shadows despite him being a skree, which is a species that learns the art of the shadows) named Gaerdrik lives. He finds Lance's "body" and finds himself chasing after the Shadow Reaper. He has pretty awesome magical weapons. A former knight named Trendle ends up joining him.
Oh, and Lance.
It's a very unique and interesting and oddly-paced book.
One thing I didn't like is that the maps are all lacking information. As someone who constantly refers to the maps, I was frustrated. That's a personal issue.
There are quite a few evident and random typos and grammatical errors, including "...wanted the position ANYMORE than..." (instead of having it be two words), and "leaches" (instead of leeches).
Lance Bendrik is an XO on a ship for the Colonial Defense Fleet. In the first chapters, we get a lot of information about the different species as well as their mutations (or augments). We also learn a bit about the languages spoken and the worlds.
The crew is meant to bring back Architechnology but falls through a GodStorm--a storm sent by the gods. Between the find on the planet of Cathor and the GodStorm, things go very awry.
Of note is the fact that the crew starts falling ill from random sores that even Lance's wife (who is the medic on board) can't heal. And then they die.
Turns out, a Shadow Reaper is on board, and this is their M.O. After some very quick deaths, the story slows, changing the focus from Lance to Janys (his wife), to the Shadow Reaper, to other characters.
The Reaper has an eye on Lance and is intrigued by him. To be fair, the man IS intriguing. If nothing else, the GodStorm has augmented him in a way that he doesn't need to sleep.
I love the story of Lance and Janys.
When only three of them are alive, they escape the cursed ship in a lifepod. Despite their measures though, the Shadow Reaper follows them, and down to the kingdom of Vraedia. There, a bounty hunter (who turned from the Shadows despite him being a skree, which is a species that learns the art of the shadows) named Gaerdrik lives. He finds Lance's "body" and finds himself chasing after the Shadow Reaper. He has pretty awesome magical weapons. A former knight named Trendle ends up joining him.
Oh, and Lance.
It's a very unique and interesting and oddly-paced book.
One thing I didn't like is that the maps are all lacking information. As someone who constantly refers to the maps, I was frustrated. That's a personal issue.
There are quite a few evident and random typos and grammatical errors, including "...wanted the position ANYMORE than..." (instead of having it be two words), and "leaches" (instead of leeches).
January 23, 2021
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
Basically a Dungeons and Dragons campaign set in a spaceship.
Basically a Dungeons and Dragons campaign set in a spaceship.
July 27, 2019
This book is fantastic. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I loved the way it ended, and at the same time I was sad that it did have to come to an end.
August 27, 2019
A great science fiction novel that blends horror and fantasy. Not my usual genre of reading material but I was intrigued by the title. Bob Whitley takes us on one wild ride through the galaxy on a star ship traveling in the 31st century. A well written book. The author has a great imagination. We also have illustrations and maps to help us along this exciting journey of reading. Sit back and be prepared for a great science fiction novel. Thank you for the opportunity of receiving this book. I have already passed it on to a friend.
July 11, 2020
I got this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway, and I'm not entirely sure how to describe this book. It starts out as Sci-Fi, very Star Trek feel, goes into horror, and then moves to being fantasy. But I have to say, I was impressed with how well the author made that work!
The flow of the story was really interesting. It first followed different members on the ship, then switched to the shadow reapers perspective, then switched to perspectives of different people on the planet. It was really interesting how that worked and getting in the mind of the shadow reaper. The horror aspect of this story was wonderful too! I was reading part of this on my Kindle at night, and got super creeped out by the shadows in the room!
Overall I liked the book, but some things about this story just really bugged me. There were a ton of details given about things that seemed unimportant, or the details were given from a persons perspective, which made me question if they were fact or if they were just opinion. It seemed like architechnology would be really important in this book, and it goes on and on about it, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't important at all. The book ended on a cliffhanger for a sequel, so maybe it'll become more important then.
For the first chunk of the book I thought Humanus was just what they called Humans, but then you learn that they're actually different, but I'm not entirely sure how. They say they're genetically identical. And it seems like the only difference is that they're from different planets and have different beliefs. But they're different species somehow? Not sure.
There were also random things, like superheros being real, that were mentioned, but never really dug into. Which wasn't really important to the overall story, but come on! Superheros are real and that's just glossed over!?! I want more info! Also the God's from different cultures are real too... or I think they are. That was one that was a fact told from a persons perspective, so might have been opinion? But it was widely accepted by multiple races, so who knows?
Normally I would have given this a lower rating because of these things, but if you take out those extraneous details, the storyline itself was REALLY solid and pretty unique. It felt different than any other story I've read, and that was impressive. I'm going to recommend it to my fantasy book club and I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
The flow of the story was really interesting. It first followed different members on the ship, then switched to the shadow reapers perspective, then switched to perspectives of different people on the planet. It was really interesting how that worked and getting in the mind of the shadow reaper. The horror aspect of this story was wonderful too! I was reading part of this on my Kindle at night, and got super creeped out by the shadows in the room!
Overall I liked the book, but some things about this story just really bugged me. There were a ton of details given about things that seemed unimportant, or the details were given from a persons perspective, which made me question if they were fact or if they were just opinion. It seemed like architechnology would be really important in this book, and it goes on and on about it, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't important at all. The book ended on a cliffhanger for a sequel, so maybe it'll become more important then.
For the first chunk of the book I thought Humanus was just what they called Humans, but then you learn that they're actually different, but I'm not entirely sure how. They say they're genetically identical. And it seems like the only difference is that they're from different planets and have different beliefs. But they're different species somehow? Not sure.
There were also random things, like superheros being real, that were mentioned, but never really dug into. Which wasn't really important to the overall story, but come on! Superheros are real and that's just glossed over!?! I want more info! Also the God's from different cultures are real too... or I think they are. That was one that was a fact told from a persons perspective, so might have been opinion? But it was widely accepted by multiple races, so who knows?
Normally I would have given this a lower rating because of these things, but if you take out those extraneous details, the storyline itself was REALLY solid and pretty unique. It felt different than any other story I've read, and that was impressive. I'm going to recommend it to my fantasy book club and I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
February 21, 2020
What a Great book.Took me a minute to get into the world that is created here,but, i couldn't stop reading.like the horror aspect,too. What a Great imagination Bob has. Love the way his mind works! The illustrations were a great way to delve deeper into his world!!Great add to your book.I was literally on the edge of my seat through this book.Great ending!,But sad that it did.Can't wait to read some more.It would be foolish not to give this Book/World a read! Thanx for the chance to read it!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews