Shadow Slave, Book 1

Witness the rise of the Shadow Slave in this gritty, dark fantasy adventure where a nameless street rat must rise to challenge the gods themselves. Growing up in poverty, Sunny never expected anything good from life. However, even he did not anticipate being chosen by the Nightmare Spell and becoming one of the Awakened — an elite group of people gifted with supernatural powers. Transported into a ruined magical world, he finds himself facing off against terrible monsters and other Awakened in a deadly battle of survival. What's worse, the shadow powers he received happen to possess a small and potentially fatal side effect. But that won’t stop him. Born a slave. Destined for the grave. He chooses to survive. No matter the cost… One of the most popular web-serials of all time, Shadow Slave has more than 250 million reads and listens. Shadow Slave is the #1 most-read series on Webnovel with more than 102 million reads and thousands of 5-star ratings. Now, the hit series gets a new life and progresses to a deluxe hardcover edition with Book 1: Child Of Shadows! "One of my favorite new reads! The world and magic system design are unbelievably intricate and impressive, and at each turn I couldn't wait to see what was around the corner." —Will Wight (New York Times bestselling author of Cradle) About the Series: A dark progression fantasy series known for its deep world-building and complex power system. It follows the story of a shadow-ability wielding young man named Sunny as he navigates a brutal world where humanity must battle terrifying creatures in a nightmare realm to survive. Sunny is a calculating anti-hero who relies on intelligence and adaptability rather than raw power. For fans of: He Who Fights With Monsters, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Solo Leveling, Overlord, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Cradle, Red Rising, Shadow & Bone, The Beginning After the End, and Lord of the Mysteries.

Guiltythree is the pen name of the popular web-based author who created the award-winning dark fantasy series, Shadow Slave. Some say that he chose that pen name because Guiltyone and Guiltytwo were taken; others say that he is actually three raccoons in a trench coat. We will never know the truth. Guiltythree received a classical education but eschewed teaching Ancient Greek and Latin to pursue an exciting career as a game writer and narrative designer instead. At some point, he felt that there was too much excitement in his life and brought his deep practical knowledge of game design and writing to the progression fantasy genre. His long-running series, Shadow Slave, combines the hopelessness of a dystopian cosmic horror apocalypse with the beauty and optimism of a lighthearted fantasy adventure. It has garnered hundreds of millions of views, retained its place as the most popular series on the WebNovel platform for several years, received several prestigious international awards, been translated into multiple languages, and is being adapted into a graphic novel. Guiltythree’s hobbies include reading and wondering about how he ended up that way. He blames his dog.