Shadow Cast: A contemporary fantasy on an alien planet

The Zyearth Chronicles

by R.A. Meenan

Some risk it all to save a friend. They must risk it all to save an enemy.

All Matt ever wanted was to become a Golden Guardian, like his father before him. With decades of experience in battle and his powerful wind magic, Matt excels in every task given to him. Well, almost everything - Matt struggles to follow orders. But sometimes following the Guardian Oath means violating those orders when it's important. However, Matt isn't a Guardian yet - and he may never be if the Master Guardian has a say in it.

Izzy Gildspine, Matt's partner, is also bidding for Guardianship, but she understands the Master Guardian's worries. After all, how could Izzy be a proper Guardian anyway? Her healing powers can't hold a candle to Matt's wind powers. It didn't matter how good she might be in battle - Making her a Guardian would just be a disgrace to the position if she didn't have elemental magic.

But when their world is invaded, Matt and Izzy have one last chance to prove they deserve the Guardianship. Only their enemy is not what he seems...

Now they have a choice to make - save themselves, their home, and their final chance at Guardianship, or risk it all for the life of an enemy.


Content Warnings: Mental abuse, body horror, blood and gore, death.

Genres: Ebooks

421 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2021

About the author

R. A. Meenan was born in London during the golden age of science fiction, but somehow time traveled to the Modern Era (some say a mad man with a blue box was involved). She was dropped on the doorstep of a house owned by anthropomorphic cats and though they were disappointed she didn't have furry ears and a tail, they took her in to teach her the ways of elemental magic. After setting fire to her furry cat friends' tails one too many times (final score - fire: 2612, cat's tails: 0) they called an exterminator and sent her out on her way.

Now an adult (physically, not mentally), she ride-hops intergalactic military spacecraft, combing the outer reaches of space and time, writing science fiction and urban fantasy stories based on her experiences. She's also hoping to find the perfect cup of coffee and a better way to grow dinosaurs. Humans kind of look at her funny, but she's managed to make herself an honorary ambassador for furry and anthropomorphic aliens and space dragons.

She carefully feeds and brushes her wonderful husband Joe and the pair have four furry children (which are really cats, but don't tell them that). She also spends her spare time teaching essay-writing haters, molding them into people resembling Actual Students and Lovers of English.

She may not win the hearts of stiff military men or students who want good grades for no effort, but she certainly captures the spirit and imagination of time travelers, magic users, nerds, Students-In-Training, and fantasy lovers.

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book via Reedsy Discovery, with thanks to them and the author. This books was in exchange for my honest review.

Review link: https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/sha...

Okay, I know I say this nearly every review, but I genuinely didn't know what to expect from this book. While the synopsis sounded straight up my street, the cover felt a little...Warrior Cats? Which I'm sure is a great series, but as a 24-year old, I was worried that it wouldn't be for me. Boy was I wrong! I loved this book.



When we meet our main characters Matt and Izzy they are training to become Golden Guardians like their fathers and their grandfathers before them, however, their application gets rejected. Whilst looking for an opportunity to prove themselves to the Master Guardian Lance, it comes in the form of an attack from a conflicted being named Ouranos. Ouranos is powerful, and he needs Matt, more specifically needs an elixir that only Matt can produce to separate him and his evil father who controls his body and his actions. When their search for Ouranos takes them into the dead zone of the Zyearth, they are tested beyond limits but this may be their chance to finally prove themselves to Lance. But will they be able to follow his orders and all come back alive?



I love ending the synopsis with questions, if you want to know the answer you gotta read the book. Okay, but seriously. This author is seriously talented. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a fantasy book but this has spurred my love once again. This author has a consistent and clear voice throughout this book, making each character distinctively their own. You grow to enjoy these characters and their relationships throughout the book and I found myself hoping for a happy ending for each of them. Ouranos can I just say, was an immediate favourite. I love the brainwashed antihero trope, think Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier energy.



Ouranos perked both ears. "Hope". He glanced up at the sky, the faintest blue light fighting back the night. "What a luxury to have hope again".


Are you KIDDING me?! How could you not just love him?



Overall I think this book is a really good late middle grade, entry into young adult bracket for fantasy. The magic, powers, characters and the world all make for a compelling read and I would definitely look for more from this author in the future.

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Shadow Cast’ is a contemporary military fantasy story. It is the first book of its series. The land of Zyearth is inhabited by species that are called Zufaunos. They are anthropomorphic animals, meaning they have furred hominids and porcupine-like quills as hair. The animals are very technologically advanced and bond with gems causing them to gain powers and even lives. They have colonized Earth and live alongside humans. So you can imagine how interesting the concept of the storyline becomes when you have the two co-exist next to each other.

The fantasy world is very well written and skillfully described. The story is perfect for the young adult reader.

I recommend this book to action-adventure fans and those who love alien planet storylines.

[livewugreactions · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read a fiction book for fun, but I got so engrossed in this one that I finished it in the course of a night and the next morning, presumably because I missed the rush of finishing a story. A friend got me the trilogy of this series from a convention, and I had been putting off reading it for about half a year now. I'm not super familiar with the genre that this book falls into (another reviewer described it as "military fantasy"), but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The worldbuilding is quite good, although I was jarred by the fact that humans and Earth still exist in this universe; as it seems that will be a critical element in the subsequent books, I am curious to see how the author deals with this in what appears to be a furry fantasy genre, as most other media of this type I have seen usually gets rid of the humans in the prologue or first act. The magic system is compelling, beginning with explorations of how power, both magical and sociocultural, are imbued in gems which are bonded with their users, giving them either basic elemental or healing abilities. This gets expanded once Ouranos and Natassa arrive Zyearth, and appear to possess a slightly different set of abilities based on their different set of gems. I am curious to see how these different sets of basically the same elemental abilities interact in the future, as it is hinted that they have different effects during the battle sequences.
I am worried about the use of time travel though, since opening that can of worms always forces the author to reckon with how agency and fate are frequently in conflict in time travel settings. So far, the time travel system appears to be taking a Prisoner of Azkaban approach, in which the actions of characters who travel back in time are already pregiven in that character's life; that is, the character will feel the actions of their future self and go on to time travel back to do those same actions. This model comports with the main time travel setup with Matt and Ouranos, but is less clear when it comes to the Black Cloak and the Summons of Natassa, both of whom give prophetic warnings to Matt and Izzy. If we accept that this world uses the Prisoner of Azkaban model of time travel, then the prophetic characters ought to be already introduced and familiar with how the story plays out. However, this also begs us to ask what the motivations of the prophets are; if the Prisoner of Azkaban model holds, then we can assume that there is one timeline, and the prophets know that their actions are necessary for events to turn out as they do. However, their actions also seem too auxiliary to the plot to necessitate their being: telling Matt that if he gets the guardianship then one of his close companions, that is Cix, will die does not seem to seriously affect Matt's actions in giving Cix a coup de grace during the final battle. Similarly, Natassa's summon (or whoever's controlling it) telling Izzy that she must listen to Natassa say Matt will be a willing sacrifice appears to affect Izzy's actions in superficial ways: I feel that she would have attempted to protect Matt from Natassa and Ouranos regardless. Perhaps this was necessary to force more exposition out of Natassa during her interrogation, but nevertheless the prophecy's affects seem weak. The prophet's actions, at least in my reading, only make sense if we abandon the Prisoner of Azkaban model and move to a multi-timeline one, in which crucial actions affect the outcomes of a timeline in significant ways. This would give the prophets motivations, as they might be aware of the consequences of not telling Matt and Izzy these details. However, that reading would clash with the neater time travel model of Matt and Ouranos' plot. In short, there is a significant danger that in the subsequent books, time travel will become too confounding of a factor on the plot.
As for character development and themes, I am similarly conflicted. Matt's main character arc appears to be moving from hot headed, individualist decision making (as he frequently leaves Izzy on her own due to the nature of his leadership position in the team) towards a more collaborative relationship with Izzy. This theme gets most developed during his time with Ouranos, as they develop a social bond and thus become somewhat emotionally codependent. They have to work together (kind of) to extract as much elixir from Matt as possible to break Ouranos' possession. However, I do not feel that this arc is resolved cleanly enough in the last few chapters. Perhaps this is an element of this genre that I don't yet comprehend, but Matt's emotional arc, that is his individualism which is in conflict with his relationship with Izzy, is mostly resolved through the final meeting after the final battle; that is, through talk instead of action. Now far be it from me, a discourse analyst, to argue that talk cannot construe the social world, but I feel that if they fought together during the final battle, then this would be a generically appropriate way to show how he had grown to trust her more as a partner that just apologizing during the meeting. I have a similar issue with Izzy's arc, which seems to stem from self doubt about not having similarly elemental offensive powers as Matt. Since she is a healer, she regards herself as support only, and does not feel that she is fully able to take on the guardianship role. I do feel that her development is better shown through actions, as she grows to use her hammer (which in the beginning she primarily carries for aesthetic reasons) as an effective offensive weapon, especially when paired with Natassa's fire abilities. However, this leads to two possible emotional developments over the story: either she embraces her ability as a healer and recognizes its potential above the offensive battle (read masculine and military) connotations of the guardianship, or she leans into the active, masculine leadership role and fights as Matt does. Throughout the story, it seems that the latter is more developed, as I described with her increasing use of the hammer and her taking on a leadership role after Matt's disappearance. The former, however, does also receive treatment by the text, as during the final battle she achieves her black bound potential by fully healing Natassa. This would seem to validate the arc of growing to accept her healer role as a valid guardianship ability. Still, this conflicts with the majority of the story exploring her growth as an active combatant. Perhaps there is a level of balance that she achieves that I missed, but I still think that Izzy's character arc is somewhat conflicted between her actions as a healer and as a combatant.
Given these critiques, I still have to say: this was a very fun book to read. At 400ish pages, it's not that short but not terribly long either, and I think the pacing is very well done, moving from slower investigative portions to intense battle sequences to dealing with the aftermath of battles. The buildup to battles, especially aboard the ship, is great, relying on tropes of space horror to create tension that gives a very nice payoff in the discovery of Roscoe's transformation into the shadow cast. I like the dynamics between the main team, and I do like the lowkey enemies to homosocial (as Sedgwick puts it) bond that Matt and Ouranos have; maybe enemies to lovers later on? I dunno, just saying. As a final note, I couldn't help but project in my mind's eye while reading, the Sonic characters onto the actual characters. Obviously this is because both the Quilar and hedgehogs are spiky animals, but there are more similarities than that. The description of Ouranos as a dark, brooding, literally black and red protagonist is so similar to Shadow, and the fact that he has to battle with his father in his head in order to finish his emotional arc is incredibly similar to Shadow's conflict in Shadow generations, where he also has to overcome his father Black Doom's influence to finally defeat him. When Izzy used her hammer I also could not resist imagining her as Amy using her Piko Piko hammer. The fact that the island of Sol exists and they have different jewels there also reminds me of Blaze and the Sol emeralds. I am not accusing the author of any unacknowledged borrowing from the Sonic universe; if anything, I find it charming and more of a validation of Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia, in that canonical texts within the furry fandom, here being Sonic, have influence and are poached (in Jenkins' words) to be used and reinterpreted in other works. In any case, I do recommend giving this series a read, and I will anxiously look forward to reading the other two books and seeing how this universe develops.

[Gordon Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a young adult Fantasy that I am having trouble connecting to a specific age group.

In general, it is well structured, with the layers of conflict set up neatly, most of them coming directly from the personalities of the individuals involved. The plotline is complex, involving reasonable problems with difficult solutions.

The main characters are sympathetic, and their personalities are realistic, considering the fantasy setting. Action scenes are detailed and powerful, and our emotional connection with the main characters keeps the suspense high.

The physical setting is well thought out and described in detail, but it is the laws of the magical environment that cause me a problem. The author starts out by describing a specific set of rules that govern the conflict, but then everyone starts breaking them. Every magical character is an exception to some rule or other. The reader is just managing to figure out the rules governing the magic when it turns out the rules don’t work. Very frustrating.

I also have a question about the age range of the intended readers. While the material, the level of language (words like “hell,” “damn,” and “indiscernible”), and the advertised reading age is the 13-18 group, the use of animal characters like cats, badgers, and stags would usually appeal to a much younger audience.

In general, the balance of the conflict tips towards teenage angst, when more experienced readers would probably prefer more external conflict.

This is a good read for younger teenagers who are willing to believe that a humanoid with a full set of stag’s antlers could function in an urban setting.

[Lightwreather · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, let me preface this by saying, Do not judge this book by it's cover. I'm serious. Whilst the cover may lend you the idea that this book is targeted towards higher elementary to lower middle schoolers, it isn't.
But otherwise, this book blew past my expectations.
From a narrative standpoint, this book handles the flow of the story pretty well. It's pretty fast-paced but it also manages to tie up most of it's plot points.
From a world building standpoint, this book does this extraordinarily well.
The interspersion of Latin and Greek words did add quite a bit to the story and it did bring joy to the geeky part of me. However, Using Earth as a planet name of a planet that cannonicaly is nothing like our planet Earth does betray a slight lack of creativity in naming the planet. However, this is personal and admittedly minor gripe.
The Characters are well written and are incredibly lovable.
All-in-all, this book is pretty great and it it did almost bring me to tears especially at the end at the death of Cix (a characther I genuinely liked).
Suffice to say, I will be awaiting a sequel for this series.

[Jonathan Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this book! To think that I grabbed it at a Sonic convention, this book completely surpassed my expectations. The characters were well written, and I found myself more than once having to force myself to take breaks from reading.
I thoroughly enjoyed the changing POVs throughout, and there were a few character that I wanted to spend more time with.
I will definitely be continuing with this series, as soon as I am able to purchase the other books!

[Michael Miele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been meaning to read Shadow Cast for a long time, but never got around to it until earlier this year. I was at first apprehensive once I had caught onto the fact that the main characters shared a lot of similarities to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. That combined with a lot of setup at the beginning had me nervous for how the book was going to play out. For anyone else who might be in my position, the book spins out its own universe and the Defenders and their military structure felt original. You can definitely feel the inspirations but R.A. Meenan does a great job of making the characters feel like their own people.

There were a ton of things I loved about this story. From the magic system of the Lexi gems to the focus on the interpersonal relationships between the Defenders. The absolutely sickening body horror of the Shadow Cast was amazingly done. Those descriptions are going to live in my nightmares! And a small warning for the squeamish that it does get intense when they come up in the story. I do think my favorite bits of the book are during the battles where the Defenders are working in tandem and are calling out the combo attacks that they’ve trained together to pull off. That went a long way to show the coordination and teamwork that they need to have to fight the big threats to Zyearth.

My main complaints about the book are in the pacing. The beginning of the book takes a long while to get going and combined with all the specific terminology that is getting thrown at the reader, I can see that turning some folks off the book. There were also a good few scenes in the book where characters would re-tread already covered ground or express and explain emotions that had already been communicated to the reader. It didn’t happen super often, but I do remember coming across a few of these passages and thinking to myself “Wait, didn’t we already talk about this?”. A very small gripe I have is that referring to the shadowy blobs as Shadow Cast felt very clunky to me. I got used to it after a while, but it was a rough start.

If you’re craving a science fiction/fantasy story with talking animals that doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war, I think this book is a great fit. If you’re a huge Sonic fan, and want something that has a similar texture but a whole different taste, then you should buy this book immediately.

[Mark Engels · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slow-starting story sweeps readers away with its heart-pounding, cataclysmic finale.

Fans of anthropomorphic characters and military magic users will surely enjoy this often heart-wrenching chronicle of trial and tribulation facing Zyearth's likeliest--and yet decidedly *unlikeliest*--heroes. Matt and Izzy, reared to replace their fathers as Guardians following their deaths in battle years before, grapple with eminently relatable anxiety trying to hold up under the crushing expectations each has placed upon themselves and upon each other. Flawed and faltering, their trials under fire lay bare the graphic horrors of war, manifesting in a cruel and ruthless supernatural invader and his nearly invincible army of Shadow Cast. Yet Matt and Izzy persist, their world's very survival in the balance, if only to save each other, their fellow "Black Bound." Through it all, these two embody a message for us all...to paraphrase Kamina from the epic anime classic Gurren Lagann: "Believe in the me who believes in you!"

This reader believes he has a lot of company looking forward with him to reading more in this series.

[Aeryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really enamored with the story throughout. It kept me wanting to know what would happen next, to the point where once I got past the first couple chapters, I couldn't put it down. The setting is also interesting, and I'm curious to know more about Zyearth and the culture, which I hope is explored in future books.

Matt and Ouranos were well-developed, though I felt like a couple of the other characters needed just a bit more to them for me to really appreciate them. As this book is a series, though, I am hopeful that more characterization will happen in future books. I'm looking forward to reading the second in the series!

I do have a couple MINOR issues, but they don't really affect my enjoyment of the book in a huge way. Mainly it's down to personal preference, and the major one is that the names of a lot of the characters don't jive with the setting in my mind. The setting being on a completely alien world with summons and magic, etc., just doesn't seem to support a character named Matthew. Just seems a little too human to me.

I'm glad to see furry-centric stories that don't center on romance, though, so I have to rate this one high!

[Colin Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

surprising in a lot of ways

This book was honestly a lot better than I expected. I got it to support the author and only just started to read out of boredom. I’m told it started life as a Sonic fanfiction and you can certainly see the elements there but this is definitely it’s own thing. It’s not pricey and it’s pretty good at staying engaging (even if it does suffer a bit from Danganronpa syndrome). Something I recommend you check out if you’re looking for something new in the less typical veins of fantasy.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings

Mixed feelings. Liked the world, liked the characters, didn’t like this current story arc.

The time travel and the summons were annoying as time traveling was meaningless and the summons didn’t really help at all.

The disjointed defenders lost battles over and over again easily....massacred and mine controlled.

Characters were very good and so was the world, but just didn’t care for the plot story flow.

[J.F.R. Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really enjoyable read with some great characters and a nice progression of the plot.
A few worldbuilding snags which I think could have been smoothed over a bit better, but these didn't really detract too much.
I'm certainly interested to see where the series goes!

[Victoria Waddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong World Building, Empathetic Characters, Engaging Storyline

Shadow Cast opens on Zyearth, where two quilar—golden-brown Izzy Gildspine and white-furred, blue-tipped Matthew Azure—are running off their anxiety. This day of the Defenders Advancement Ceremony holds particular drama for them both. Each is a descendant of a father and grandfather who were members of the elite Golden Guardianship, the third highest rank in the Defender military. And both deserve to follow in their progenitors footsteps. Yet for years, they have been denied their rightful place by Master Guardian Lance Tox. Why?

Izzy believes that Tox fears losing them. He had lost their parents in battle with red quilar, called Omnirs, and seems unable to forgive himself. Though Matt’s sister, Charlotte, would like Matt to stay away from military service, Matt knows he was born to Guardianship.

Both Izzy and Matt have lifelong trauma from seeing their parents die, but also have special magical powers connected to their experience. Both are sympathetic. Izzy’s powers reside largely in healing, and Matt controls wind. As they await the advancement ceremony, a shocking attack delivers an opportunity for them to prove their mettle. But as they defend both civilians and military personnel, a strange twist creates questions for Matt.

Ouranos, a tall, black quilar from the planet Athánatos (planet), is not simply an enemy. If he finds Matt, with whom he seems to have a strange psychic connection, he may free himself from his villainous father's control. But not without pain and damage to them both.

I don’t like reviews to give away too much of the action, but there are a lot of crazy fun battle scenes here—the magic is on, with both sides using their gems and power to bring forth tornadoes, fireballs, ice shards and more. Enjoy the tension and root for the ‘good guys’—Matt, Izzy and their friends Cix (a wolf), Roscoe and Darvin (stags), and Sami (an arctic fox).