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Shadowmancy
On a mountain that does not exist, there is a school where they teach the impossible.
From his first day at the Academy, things have been difficult for Quay. Though he has surrendered his name, like every other acolyte at the magical school, Quay is the son of a disgraced professor, and he finds that his father’s old enemies are already lined up against him–while the professor’s own faction is just as suspicious. Quay refuses to take a side, but as his powers grow it becomes apparent that the damaged young boy may prove a greater threat than his father ever was.
Deep in the Library of Shadows Quay finds a way to survive his father’s treacherous legacy, but the price is high indeed.
“A mysterious and compelling read told in spookily disconnected first person narrative, delivered by a likeably unlikeable main character. A subtle and dreamlike tale.” – Sam Bowring, author of the Broken Well trilogy
"What happens when the ordinary and everyday is not kind? What happens when we take the hard road and make the harsh, bad choices? Shadowmancy explores this… with relish." – Gillian Polack, author of The Year of the Fruitcake
From his first day at the Academy, things have been difficult for Quay. Though he has surrendered his name, like every other acolyte at the magical school, Quay is the son of a disgraced professor, and he finds that his father’s old enemies are already lined up against him–while the professor’s own faction is just as suspicious. Quay refuses to take a side, but as his powers grow it becomes apparent that the damaged young boy may prove a greater threat than his father ever was.
Deep in the Library of Shadows Quay finds a way to survive his father’s treacherous legacy, but the price is high indeed.
“A mysterious and compelling read told in spookily disconnected first person narrative, delivered by a likeably unlikeable main character. A subtle and dreamlike tale.” – Sam Bowring, author of the Broken Well trilogy
"What happens when the ordinary and everyday is not kind? What happens when we take the hard road and make the harsh, bad choices? Shadowmancy explores this… with relish." – Gillian Polack, author of The Year of the Fruitcake
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2019
10 people want to read
About the author
Jason Franks
42 books34 followersJason Franks is a novelist and comics writer. His occult rock'n'roll novel Bloody Waters was an Aurealis Award finalist, and his dark fantasy Faerie Apocalypse a Ditmar nominee. His Sixsmiths graphic novels were shortlisted for a Ledger award.
Born in South Africa, Franks grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He has also lived in the United States and Japan.
Franks' upcoming work includes Frankenstein Monstrance, a comics miniseries with Tam Nation, and a sequel to Bloody Waters called Blackened Skies.
Born in South Africa, Franks grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He has also lived in the United States and Japan.
Franks' upcoming work includes Frankenstein Monstrance, a comics miniseries with Tam Nation, and a sequel to Bloody Waters called Blackened Skies.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 30, 2022
I was given this book, by the author in exchange for an honest review
This book is not something I usually read, Dark fantasy. But it was pretty enjoyable! I loved the pacing and the main character saw pretty decent development. The ending felt a little incomplete however, but do not let it take away from what the adventure of the book offers. Keeping my review vague because there is a lot here that happens that I don’t want spoiled. I will be giving this book 4 out of 5 stars!
Thank you Jason, for the awesome book!
This book is not something I usually read, Dark fantasy. But it was pretty enjoyable! I loved the pacing and the main character saw pretty decent development. The ending felt a little incomplete however, but do not let it take away from what the adventure of the book offers. Keeping my review vague because there is a lot here that happens that I don’t want spoiled. I will be giving this book 4 out of 5 stars!
Thank you Jason, for the awesome book!
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June 14, 2020I’ve long been a fan of Australian author Jason Franks. His previous books, Bloody Waters and Faerie Apocalypse were both weird, but in the best possible way.
Shadowmancy continues the weirdness. It is a dark, dark tale about a boy who goes to wizard school – but this ain’t the wizard school your mama told you about! Learning happens without teaching. Dangerous deals are done. And power is bought in the most cutthroat of marketplaces.
Franks grounds his writing with a sense of place, a visual sensibility enhanced by the illustrations. The pacing is great, the characters vivid, the choices bold.
I’d love to describe the book more, but in some ways to describe it is to ruin the experience of engaging in it. The book does not represent a long read, and I highly recommend going into it as cold as you can, without preconceived notions of what a book about magic schools should be.
As always, Franks delivers! At this point, I’ll pretty much read whatever he produces on spec – no matter what the subject matter.
Shadowmancy continues the weirdness. It is a dark, dark tale about a boy who goes to wizard school – but this ain’t the wizard school your mama told you about! Learning happens without teaching. Dangerous deals are done. And power is bought in the most cutthroat of marketplaces.
Franks grounds his writing with a sense of place, a visual sensibility enhanced by the illustrations. The pacing is great, the characters vivid, the choices bold.
I’d love to describe the book more, but in some ways to describe it is to ruin the experience of engaging in it. The book does not represent a long read, and I highly recommend going into it as cold as you can, without preconceived notions of what a book about magic schools should be.
As always, Franks delivers! At this point, I’ll pretty much read whatever he produces on spec – no matter what the subject matter.
October 2, 2022
Usually I have trouble engaging with books without characters I can sympathise with, but this book goes about subverting expectations all over the place. Yes, it starts with a young teen entering a school for magic, the existence of which he has only just discovered, but from there on in it departs from any other story about magic schools you've ever read. Of particular interest is the meticulously imagined magic system.
October 21, 2022
This was a little different to the books I normall read, but I found it quite addictive. The story drew me in from the first couple of chapters - after that I had trouble putting it down. Highly recommended.
April 17, 2024
A dark, enthralling tale as compelling as a fever dream. Sorcery, a sinister mystical wizard/magic academy, and a chosen one. But there are no cliches here. This story flips conventional tropes on their head to create a fascinating story that is original and spellbinding. Highly recommended!
September 10, 2020
Shadowmancy is a extremely interesting book. I really enjoyed the whole journey. It started out as a Harry Potterish story and turn dark quickly.
February 15, 2020
Jason Franks’ third novel actually started life years ago as a short comic-book story he wrote for the first issue of the Kagemono horror-comic anthology. That story covered mainly the ending of this book, which (naturally) fleshes out the backstory that led up to it. The basic premise – 13-year-old joins a secret magic school – may sound familiar, but Hogwarts this ain’t.
Indeed, Franks openly draws his inspiration more from Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea than Harry Potter, and possibly from Richard Stark’s Parker series in that protagonist Quay is a joyless sociopath focused solely on the immediate job at hand. It’s not exactly “Parker Goes To Earthsea” (and that wouldn’t be a bad thing), but it’s in the ballpark. All that said, this isn’t pastiche – Franks has a clear sense of the characters and the dark, gritty magical world in which they operate.
It’s a well-paced story that keeps the pages turning. The main weakness for me is that Quay really is an unlikeable person even for an anti-hero, although to be fair, Franks excels at writing these kinds of characters – and in this case, a plot twist near the end actually explains why Quay is the way he is in a way that makes sense. So if you like your wizards angry and badass, this is definitely something you should be checking out. (Kudos also to Nicholas Hunter – the artist of the original comic – for the keen illustrations.)
Indeed, Franks openly draws his inspiration more from Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea than Harry Potter, and possibly from Richard Stark’s Parker series in that protagonist Quay is a joyless sociopath focused solely on the immediate job at hand. It’s not exactly “Parker Goes To Earthsea” (and that wouldn’t be a bad thing), but it’s in the ballpark. All that said, this isn’t pastiche – Franks has a clear sense of the characters and the dark, gritty magical world in which they operate.
It’s a well-paced story that keeps the pages turning. The main weakness for me is that Quay really is an unlikeable person even for an anti-hero, although to be fair, Franks excels at writing these kinds of characters – and in this case, a plot twist near the end actually explains why Quay is the way he is in a way that makes sense. So if you like your wizards angry and badass, this is definitely something you should be checking out. (Kudos also to Nicholas Hunter – the artist of the original comic – for the keen illustrations.)
August 29, 2019
Jason Franks, who wrote the marvellous Bloody Waters and the dark, darkly funny and unexpected Faerie Apocalypse has given us a new story, expanded from a 6-page comic published in 2008. This fine history for Shadowmancy means that the novel is illustrated with some striking black and white art from Nicholas Hunter throughout.
We have so many stories about schools of sorcery, from the mystical mysteries of Dr Strange’s Himalayan retreat with the Ancient One, Hogwarts with its breathtakingly cavalier approach to duty of care and student safety, Pratchett’s The Unseen University and countless mountain-top Shaolin monk and ninja training camps from the movies.
Franks distills all of these tropes down into the sinister Academy, residing on a hidden mountain, where students attempt to absorb the Arts without being directly taught. The venerable Chancellor who gives the young Quay a chance to study there, after Quay’s father broke the most fundamental rule (don’t have a family) retains echoes of Dumbledore/Gandalf/Ancient One but he’s also his own scheming self.
That’s one of the joys of this book: all the echoes of fictions past, which draw on our collective memory of magic schools and give a frisson of recognition before taking sharp turns in its own direction, delivering a dark and gritty study of a boy who thinks he will out-learn them all. Quay is a misanthrope and sociopath, and still Franks makes him work as the central antihero.
Chosen One and teen hero tropes are inverted, sometimes messily, and the prose gives eloquent insights into philosophies of art, mind and power.
Shadowmancy is a crunchy little book, thoroughly enjoying, in its dark and brooding way, the dismantling of mystic-mountain-school pop culture. (Franks does like to invert tropes, which is a thing I love about his writing).
If you want to read about a magic school and what it’s probably really like, or if you just want dark fantasy fiction written by an author with a grip on his craft, I recommend this book with a Wahoo!
We have so many stories about schools of sorcery, from the mystical mysteries of Dr Strange’s Himalayan retreat with the Ancient One, Hogwarts with its breathtakingly cavalier approach to duty of care and student safety, Pratchett’s The Unseen University and countless mountain-top Shaolin monk and ninja training camps from the movies.
Franks distills all of these tropes down into the sinister Academy, residing on a hidden mountain, where students attempt to absorb the Arts without being directly taught. The venerable Chancellor who gives the young Quay a chance to study there, after Quay’s father broke the most fundamental rule (don’t have a family) retains echoes of Dumbledore/Gandalf/Ancient One but he’s also his own scheming self.
That’s one of the joys of this book: all the echoes of fictions past, which draw on our collective memory of magic schools and give a frisson of recognition before taking sharp turns in its own direction, delivering a dark and gritty study of a boy who thinks he will out-learn them all. Quay is a misanthrope and sociopath, and still Franks makes him work as the central antihero.
Chosen One and teen hero tropes are inverted, sometimes messily, and the prose gives eloquent insights into philosophies of art, mind and power.
Shadowmancy is a crunchy little book, thoroughly enjoying, in its dark and brooding way, the dismantling of mystic-mountain-school pop culture. (Franks does like to invert tropes, which is a thing I love about his writing).
If you want to read about a magic school and what it’s probably really like, or if you just want dark fantasy fiction written by an author with a grip on his craft, I recommend this book with a Wahoo!
August 21, 2019
Not your average or normal magical fantasy story. This book will take you on a journey that is engaging and hard to put down. The story moves quite quickly. This is set within our world and not our world, taking a journey to an academy, that is not like, but still similar to all other magical, wizardry, witchy academy's. Though it is a short book, it packs heaps in to its pages and the pictures scattered throughout the story adds a visual to the story and helps to transport the reader. Highly recommend, especially for those looking for something a little different and not expected. A great weekend read.
September 9, 2019
Jason Franks has a knack for casting bad boys (and girls) as main characters while keeping them interesting and making you root for them. This novel is no exception.
With a constantly accelerating pace, there is not a word wasted. Everything Franks sets up pays off in spades. The magic system is fascinating, characters’ motivations believable, and the writing is in places not only entertaining but gold standard. My favourite scene was one in which the main character finds himself in a 2-dimensional world; the world was incredibly well-realised and the character’s interactions made sense with it.
Definitely a book worth reading.
With a constantly accelerating pace, there is not a word wasted. Everything Franks sets up pays off in spades. The magic system is fascinating, characters’ motivations believable, and the writing is in places not only entertaining but gold standard. My favourite scene was one in which the main character finds himself in a 2-dimensional world; the world was incredibly well-realised and the character’s interactions made sense with it.
Definitely a book worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews