Shadowflight [Paperback]

Richard Abel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Wayne Abel was born on February 2, 1975 in the city of Temple, Texas. A single father of two, son Thane age nine and daughter Kirin age five, he has spent more than four years realizing his ambition to become a published writer. The author would like to thank his family for the support they have shown him over the frustrating journey that publishing a book can entail; most notably his brother Don without whose input, critiques and suggestions the story would have suffered greatly. Lastly, and the greatest of which, he thanks God who has given him the freedom to create, even if it was with the stroke of a key and not the wave of a cosmic hand.

Product Details

• Paperback: 702 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413439160
• ISBN-13: 978-1413439168
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,523,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you like fantasy, this book is just for you, December 5, 2004

By 

Amanda Gates "Mandy" (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadowflight (Paperback)

After hearing about this from a friend I decided to pick up a copy and was pleasantly surprised. This book offers a lot for the fantasy lover: gods made flesh, sentient swords, undead dragons, a pet manticore (picture a Piers Anthony lion-with-a-scorpion-tail), vampires, shapeshifters, and a good number of interesting characters. My only complaint is that we don't get to see much of the main character, a man called simply "The Walker." Also, there is a lot of jumping around between characters but never so much that you get lost. I suspect that we will be hearing more form this author very soon as the book states that a sequel is due out next year: "The Circle of Scythemoon" according to the last page. And what a last page it is! More is revealed about the main hero (or is it antagonist?) in the last sentence than nearly the entire book, but it defintely has me wanting to read the next book to find out what it means. A nice read, if a bit wordy at 700 plus pages (whew!) but well worth the somewhat inflated cost. Recommended!

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad at all, April 4, 2005

By 

Randall Jenkins - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadowflight (Paperback)

Wasn not to sure what this was but decided to get it and it was pretty good. Lots of violence, cool action scenes, cool characters and lots of detail in the story. Favorite charcater has to be the big guy with a mechanized arm, Lock he's a badass. If you liked the Lord of the rings movies or books you will love this one, but it also has some science mixed in with the magic. Very involving and hard to put down I finsihed it in about a week even though it is very long. Theres also a neat dictionary at the end of the book that shows all the different definitions of places, charcters and even stuff like weapons and races, very cool stuff in case you get lost in all the lore, and there is a lot. Can't wait till book two. Buy this if you love fantasy:)

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A word from the author, December 6, 2004

By 

Richard W. Abel "ashtongue" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadowflight (Paperback)

Well of course I am going to rate my own book five stars for shameless self promotional purposes (hey I'm an independent publisher, gimme a break), but the preceeding reviews have been very fair and at the same time exceptionally generous! Shadowflight took me four years to complete, written at a time in my life when I was dealing with divorce, single parenthood, unemployment and severe depression. But there's always a bright side and as such I was able to throw myself into my writing, devoting hours on end to finessing my work and streamlining the plot as best I could. It all came together over a frantic weekend during a marathon writing session as I hammered out the last fifty pages. Then began the editing process that took several weeks before I produced my -ahem- first final draft. After submitting the manuscript to the likes of TOR, Wizards of the Coast and DAW I finally decided that, in this case, patience was NOT a virtue whereupon I began saving money to finance a self publishing campaign. In a partnership with Xlibris Publishing, a subsidiary of Random House, I submitted a more finely tuned version that eventually made its way into print and represents the very book you are about to order (wink-wink). I served as editor on this project as well (my virgin outing if you will) so forgive me for all the times spell check failed to catch what I missed! This book is definitely a labor of love. If it were to sell no copies at all, except to my supportive friends and family members, I would still consider it a success because I set out to accomplish one thing: to become a published author. Wealth and riches would be nice (just call me if you'd like to buy the movie rights :P) but not nearly as important as the completion of a dream. My heart felt thanks to those who have and will contribute to my dream as they share their thoughts and opinions, however positive or scolding, about "Shadowflight."