Shadowshine: An Animal Adventure

by Johnny Armstrong

Overview

An animal adventure with setting in the transition from the ice age to the present epoch, Shadowshine, with all the philosophical musings of its quirky yet remarkable characters, is a story of perseverance and of camaraderie, of the battle between good and wickedness, and of strong and lovable players who never give up. And by an open-minded, intellectual approach, these players (known as the forest-folk) begin to uncover a dangerous flaw in the human species, the absence of its own identity when face-to-face with nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771834605
Publisher:	Guernica Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/01/2019
Series:	Guernica World Editions , #22
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Conservationist and retired medical doctor (pathology), Johnny Armstrong and his wife Karen and Opal (k-nine) live within a Nature Conservancy protected old-growth forest and woodland near Ruston, Louisiana. Shadowshine is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

…readers receive a solid adventure that is intriguing and hard to put down…Johnny Armstrong crafts an absorbing, fun story that will entertain even as it poses food for thought about the animals' relationships, choices, and evolutionary process. Adult enthusiasts of animal-based fiction are in for a real treat.—D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

This is an imaginative tale with a fully realized animal kingdom of colorful characters. The writing is original and often poetic, such as this description of "the large white tern who floated gracefully, like a ghostly marionette." The environmental message is serious, but the story is often light and loving as the animals with their very human traits attempt to deal with the sans-pelages, while also trying to intuit the meaning of a "peculiar celestial event." The event, observed by Stella, a wise upland sandpiper, seems to portend doom, but what, why, when? While a book narrated entirely by animals can be a tough sell, this tale is as delightful as it is dismaying and will surely resonate with a wide audience, particularly, those with a deep love of this earth.—Blueink 'Starred' Review

From the Publisher

2020-02-26
In Armstrong’s debut fantasy, a possum undergoes a harrowing journey to get help when savage bipeds threaten the existence of forest creatures.

Zak became an orphan when, as a baby possum, he fell from his mother’s pouch. As a family of gray squirrels adopted him, Zak is bilingual, able to speak “the Rodent language” incomprehensible to most “forest-folk,” consisting of the varied species who thrive in a dense forest. In the forest, there’s been concern about bipedal creatures called sans-pelages (roughly translatable as “without animals’ fur coats”), as they make campfires. But a leader named Mungo, one particularly sadistic sans-pelage, has been attacking other sans-pelages with fire. A possum named Zak offers to go on a journey northward to learn how other regions have dealt with these problems. He faces many potential threats other than predators, including glaciers and raging river currents. Things turn even more burdensome when it’s fairly evident that Zak is lost. Fortunately, he stumbles upon a few four-legged allies, from Elbon the skunk to Sark the mammoth-esque mastodon. Meanwhile, Zak’s bobcat pal, Sena, and others back at home may be in danger as Mungo continues to lead his army of warriors down an infernal path. Before long, the forest-folk will have to take a stand against the sans-pelages to save their homes. Despite the variety of predominantly furry characters, Armstrong’s novel is not for children, as there are a number of bloody confrontations. Nevertheless, this environmental story often manages to be lighthearted. Zak, for example, is a self-described poet with a sophisticated manner of speech and an unusual preferred exclamation: “Incomprehensible!” A sharp focus on the forest-folk wisely keeps the land, the time period, and the humans relatively vague. At the same time, the narrative periodically slips into the otherworldly, with characters interacting with spirits in the Shadow World. Armstrong expressively details the animals’ perspectives: an upland sandpiper who witnesses “an unbalanced sky” or Zak’s first seeing Sark upside down as he dangles from the mastodon’s trunk.

A memorable cast of animals leads a tale with a strong environmental message.

Kirkus Reviews

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