Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.
This is a guest review for Shadecursed: The Bestiary Book One by Aeryn E. Christie as written by Andrew Hindle.
Meadow the faun has never wanted to do anything other than enjoy his life, eat, play, rock out in a band, and occasionally shake his fist at the gods. Unfortunately for him, he’s the only person who can save the whole planet.
After a goddess vanishes, the world’s plantlife begins to wither and die, consumed by a mysterious creeping shadow. Unable to hide away from his destiny, Meadow and his friends—Benji the manticore, Ptery the banshee, and Luka the human—must venture across a whole continent to discover the truth of the missing goddess before it’s too late. Each of them have secrets of their own, though, which could jeopardize this all-important quest.
Plus, there’s an even bigger problem. The elusive Shade who stole the goddess away seems to be all-powerful and may have even managed to imprison the other gods. And it seems to have a pack of gnolls on its side that will stop at nothing to end this adventure before it’s even begun. With nothing less than the planet at stake, what choice does Meadow have?
Recently I picked up and read Shadecursed, book 1 of The Bestiary series, by Aeryn E. Christie. I reviewed it for my humble little blog but when A Month of Rain and Reads arrived I thought it would be a fun one to share for lovers of wildly imaginative and vivid fantasy this hopefully warm and cosy autumn. Or, you know, warm and cosy spring if you’re in the southern hemisphere. Whatever.
I loved this book and its characters, and the very world it was set in. As one would expect from an author who is also a pretty darn impressive visual artist, Shadecursed is a rich and madly colourful tapestry of worldbuilding, people and creatures. The series is well-named, because Kyrnis is filled with flora and fauna (no pun intended, there are fauns) of every fantastical kind, and they are all reimagined by the artist. Banshees and liori (liori are manticores [male] and sphinxes [female]), trolls and gnolls, gods and magic, and so much more. This is a huge story and it is crammed cover to cover with the sort of reckless, exuberant creativity I crave.
Reading the book was relatively slow-going for me. It wasn’t just its epic-level chonkiness, and it certainly wasn’t because it was bad. On the contrary, it was the pure enjoyment I took in finding something I wish there was more of – and this is why I love indie books so much! I wanted to linger over every scene, and read more down every tantalising tangent. Intricate world-creation and species backgrounds aren’t for everyone, and neither is the sort of combined fantasy and sci-fi on display here (it is an old world, but it’s had its technological revolution and feels like it’s found a balance … the mandatory bygone disasters and assorted gods notwithstanding), but for me it was just grand. When people complain that The Lord of the Rings is just people walking across a country and telling random stories about its prehistory, I’m usually the one who’s like, “yeah! I know! …why are you making that face?”
Am I comparing this book to The Lord of the Rings? I mean look, it’s not controversial to point out they’re both books, right? And you know what The Lord of the Rings didn’t have? A sick guitar solo, there I said it.
In short, Meadow the faun and his literal band of friends set out on a road trip to get their musical fame and fortune started, and also save the world because there’s a dread god-slaying force afoot in the mystical plane and it’s making the plants manky (among other things). And it’s impressive how seamlessly those levels, those two gears, work together.
It has a map (made by the author)! We love a map. On this map, I’ve scrawled a red line to show more or less where this book takes our adventurers. As you can see, there’s so much more to explore!
The book is interspersed with songs, not in a distracting or clunky way but as separate little chapters to break up the monotony of the table of contents. And they’re good songs! Could this author be the elusive triple threat? Writer, artist, songwriter? I mean, that’s a rhetorical question, she literally is. Anyway, that’s the synopsis. Let’s check the meters.
Sex-o-meter
There isn’t really explicit sex in the story (mainly because all the characters are different species, not that that’s necessarily a show stopper), for all that there are definitely interpersonal relationships and admiration, and soupçon of horny. It’s fine. It’s not the point. Three fauns out of a possible three satyrs (if you know what I mean) for Shadecursed.
Gore-o-meter
While I wouldn’t exactly call this a grimdark in faefic clothing, it’s pretty solid on the violence and body horror. From people being turned into “monsters” against their will to an assortment of dismemberments and poisonings, it’s enough to register at three flesh-gobbets out of a possible five on the gore-o-meter, which is three and a half more gobbets than I would expect from a book with a main character named Meadow the faun.
WTF-o-meter
The WTF is strong with this one, and I love it. The world is so deliciously bizarre, and so lovingly detailed, I could picture it in my mind as the characters travelled through it. It was weirder without the map, which I only really took note of after I’d finished reading – and it really can’t do the world justice anyway (although it is an excellent map). The magic systems, the creature lifecycles, the spheres of mortals and gods and dreams, it is all extremely strange, alien and yet well-told so the reader doesn’t feel out of their depth. There is a ton of unanswered questions here and I look forward to seeing where the series takes us.
My Final Verdict
Four stars! Check this book out if you ever wondered how much of a fucking flake Mister Tumnus would be if he had a smartphone, or how a cross-country road trip can be improved by adding a large A.I. mechanical truffle pig (spoiler: it improves it by about 17%), or what Middle Earth’s central energy grid would look like if Saruman had gotten his military industrial complex off the ground without those eco-terrorist ents wrecking his shit. It’s my review I’ll say what I like.
About the Guest Reviewer
Andrew Hindle, known variously as Chucky, Hatboy, Edpool and other nicknames seemingly intentionally formulated to ruin his marketing and branding efforts, has been writing stories since the age of about 8 and has no intention of stopping any time soon. When he’s not writing books, he’s writing a wide range of articles and reviews on his blog. When he needs to pay the bills, he writes technical documentation for an assortment of tech and industry customers. He lives in Finland with an incredible family who tolerate his bullshit and deal with him in the sarcastic manner he deserves.
- Website: Hatboy.blog
- Bluesky: edpool.bsky.social
- Find Andrew’s Books on Amazon
