Shadow of the Father

Shadow of the Father, another installment in the Argaea Series by Kyell Gold, is the sequel to Pendant of Fortune. Following in the pawsteps of its predecessors, Shadow of the Father, like Pendant of Fortune, claimed victory over two Ursa Major Awards: Best Anthropomorphic Novel, and Best Anthropomorphic Illustration, both in 2010.

Shadow of the Father takes place in the time of Volle's son, Yilon, who becomes entangled in strange and mysterious affairs when he learns that he was the only appointed heir of Dewanne, who's Lord just recently died.

This novel includes ten beautiful interior illustrations by Sara Palmer.

Blurb
''Yilon, a young fox noble resents his assignment to the remote mountain kingdom of Dewanne to be their Lord, but thinks that bringing his best friend Sinch will help him feel more at home. Problem is, his best friend is a mouse. While foxes, mice, and other species live in harmony in the capital city, mice in Dewanne are an underclass, forced to live in a slum outside the city. Upon his arrival, Yilon and Sinch are separated, and this is the last straw. The young fox conceives a plan to get himself sent back home: he will "lose" a sacred relic, proving himself unfit to rule. His plan works--too well. The loss of the relic is blamed on the mice, bringing the city to the brink of war. To make matters worse (from his perspective), the Lady Regent insists he stay to clean up his mess, even though the palace steward agrees that Yilon should be sent home, and a mysterious enemy has decided that Yilon should be sent on to the next world. The simplest way out of this for Yilon would be to return the relic. Unfortunately, the only person who knows where it is is Sinch. And he's on the run from killers, too.''

Detailed Plot Summary
Coming Soon

Reception

 * What does it for me is the world building that Kyell [Gold] expertly displays in his books. They say God is in the details, and Kyell brings the world to life around the characters. Contained in these pages, or pixes, is a living, breathing world set in a quasi-midieval [sic] era where humans don't exist and in our place are foxes, mice, cougars, and bears (oh my?). [...] I didn't want to like this book. I didn't want to like the characters, who I felt had usurped the spotlight from the more deserving characters I was used to. I wanted more of their story, but I loved the world still, so I continued reading. Before I knew it, I was finished with the book and I realized that this scrawny little fox had joined his father in some dark corner of my heart, and you know what? I'm alright with that. In fact, I'd like some more, please.


 * --Xzygy, Top Customer Review (Amazon)

As quoted by Kyell Gold himself, "In the middle of writing [Shadow of the Father], Out of Position was released, making me worry that Shadow would be a letdown. But the more I worked with it, the happier I was, and I think it ended up a strong book with a good set of characters, a worthy follow-up to Out of Position."

On Amazon, Shadow of the Father ranks at 4.2 out of 5 stars, the same number as the first installment in its series, Volle. Goodreads awards it a similar cut: 4.27 out of 5 stars.