What is your opinion?
A great story to continue
"It was a very interesting story with a mix of Steampunk and Fantasy. Now I’m waiting for the rest of the story. What’s happening with the Assassins’ guild ? 👍😁😁"
Witty and interesting
"Definitely a great book! I’ve laughed out loud several times throughout this book. The plot twists are interesting and it’s a rare combination of fantasy, horror and humor yet it all works wonderfully! I only wish there was more of it as I love the characters"
Fantastic, great and amazing story. Detective and thriller.
"Amazing story. This story is one of very few stories i have given my full 5 stars. Usage of simple language accentuate the stories readability and made it more reader-friendly. There are certain logical inaccuracies which I overlooked as it a fantastic story line. Some of them are: 1. After a whole village is massacred, a king have not send any higher official to investigate but allowed two local detectives to investigate.In normal case, after such massacre concerning a whole village, either FBI /CIA or such special elite force( u got the idea) should have come for investigation. 2. Villain is cursed by Ronan as well contracted with daemon. Hero by his spell broke both the spell as well as contract which even the Ronan who cursed or the daemon contracted with has no power to do. So he is more powerful than daemon contract and Ronan curse. 3. During attack on police, a priest of assassin guild made all the steam power guns useless. Then how come dorf could use it. And my hypothesis is that it may be hero's mentor who have hired assassins to kill him."
Fun new world to play around in.
"Another fun story from this author. I love Jonas. I want to be Ivana. My only critique on this would be that far too often the characters lose themselves in wool gathering. A flash back can happen in an instant. It may take time in the reading but it doesn't always need to interrupt the action of the characters. Overall I love the story. I love this world. I could happily live here traveling in my Ronan Wagon telling fortunes. "
Shadow's Ascendance
"Fantastic book! I look forward to reading more."
Loved it👍💖
"This book kept me wanting more, and I'm honestly sad to reach the end!"
Shadows Ascendants
"Omg! I don't know a better way I could have spent my last week reading a book as great as this! so intriguing and the writer really knows what he is writing! if only I could purchase this in actual book form! I would pay $12.00. for it it is such a good book!!"
Shadows Ascendance
"I liked the story very much. The plot was good. The Author could have maybe written a prologue where he describes the different types of magical creatures and what their specialities is. A description of the different religions and powers of a caster and partial caster would have been nice. This would maybe save a lot of woolgathering by the Half Orc and the author could work in a little bit more action scenes."
Once upon a time of evil
"Very well written. Some of the back story draws out a little bit too far for me but, a good story nonetheless. I would recommend this story to anyone. "
A Magical Steampunk Crime Adventure
"Shadow's Ascendance by Mr. Walley is a fun adventure of blending genres and boundaries. It's half steampunk magical adventure--half hard-boiled cop drama. The protagonist, Jonas, is half-ogre, half-human. The cop team made up of Jonas and his partner, Dorf; the former heterosexual and magical while the latter is gay and technologically inclined. The blurred lines and contrasts of this story show real ingenuity in creativity and the story is well conceived, if not always well delivered. The plot begins strong. In the first act, we discover a woman of questionable descent is ritualistically murdered in the street by dark magical means. Our men investigate that murder and go into the countryside to do battle with magical minions. The second act is made of various witnesses, clues and murders as they work out what first murder is about while avoiding threats to their own lives. So far, so good. My first admission as a reviewer is this is the first steampunk book I have ever read, full stop. As a novice to the genre, it was nice to be able to rely on my knowledge of cop dramas when the steam and magic got a bit thick. There were times when the steam-punk and magical exposition annoyed me. Jonas has a tendency in the middle of action sequences to go into a deep explanatory soliloquy that would have been better delivered somewhere else in the book. For example, when Jonas is fighting the blood beast, he goes into a long explanation about magic mechanics with all the thrill of reading a Dungeons and Dragons manual. This would have been better moved to the chapter with the school kids at the cop shop specifically there to learn about magic. For me, the fast-paced adventure falls apart in the third act right at Chapter 33. It's difficult to explain my feedback without going into spoilers, but essentially, a character kills a witness in a critical moment who shouldn't have been killed (like an inverse of Hamlet; a character who should have killed a character at a critical moment but didn't), a romance is farcically forced that should never have been forced, a big reveal is made that isn't really that big of a reveal, and a big bad is killed in a rather underwhelming way by a scene stealing supporting cast member followed by a denouement of unfinished major plot lines. I'm disappointed to report I was left frustrated and underwhelmed after what was generally a very well-constructed first 250 pages. I hate to give negative feedback without support so I would suggest to the author that he try reading the book completely skipping over chapter 33, 34 and half of 35. None of those chapters were necessary. I think many of the issues could be resolved with a 'less is more' attitude toward editing. The story could be improved just by removing characters and plot lines that do not drive the primary plot. I would also suggest trying to rewrite the ending without the last-minute exposition involved in the big reveal and without intervention by the supporting cast. The results of the creative writing challenge could be surprising because I believe Jonas is capable of much more than what the ending gives him credit for. To end on a positive note though, I mentioned the scene-stealing supporting cast earlier and I wish to emphasise, I loved almost the entire supporting cast! The colour, emotions and mystery that Dorf, Mama Crea, Greg, Sean, Natalya, The Chief, Madame Darya, Nicolas even Stumpy interjected into every scene they participated in made me crave for more. Every one of them stole the show at every turn. It is so hard to pick a favourite. On the other hand, I know who I don't like at all, and sadly that is the love interest. It may all be down to a matter of taste but here is my feedback: I prefer my cop dramas to be bitter and scorned in love. The cop doesn't fall in love in the end and that's why he stays hardened to the world with a keen sense of justice. Furthermore, a copper that is scorned in love is more in keeping with detective noir genre which seems to be the theme being developed. Make more use of the cast of good characters at your disposal and minimise (or better yet, eliminate) the romance. That's not the genre I came here for, anyway. Taken in its totality, Shadow's Ascendance set up the reader for a fantastic adventure, a swarthy mystery and a beautiful and fascinating world, however, it's a story that loses steam and ends a bit deflated. However, I think that the diehard genre fans will not mind and I would not be surprised if Jonas and Dorf have a very loyal following in the future. I want to thank Mr. Walley for sharing his hard work on Inkitt. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Shadow’s Ascendance overall and Jonas made an excellent first impression on the world of steampunk with me. I am certain I will return again because of Mr. Walley’s great work."
