The Library

Novels & Books

Three eras. One universe. Each novel expands the Grim Shadows Universe — a sprawling mythos that stretches from dying fantasy empires to the cold void between stars.

The First Era

The Second Era

The Third Era

Timeline

Reading Order

Start from the beginning or jump into any era. Each stands on its own, but together they reveal the full scope of the darkness.

The First Era

Starfaller: Shadowborn

March 22, 2025 • 710 pages

The First Era

Arkest in Shadows

July 29, 2025 • 131 pages

The First Era

The Chronicles of Kane

October 5, 2025 • 413 pages

The Second Era

Black Arrow: The Long War

September 17, 2025 • 444 pages

The Third Era

The Carrion Empire

Coming Soon

The First Era

The World of Tanelone

Grimdark Fantasy

Grimdark fantasy in a dying world of warring factions, dark sorcery, and eldritch gods. The Dreaming Empire of Dor crumbles under dream-law and iron. And in the shadows, something ancient stirs.

Book 1 • R. C. Rucker

Starfaller: Shadowborn

The Grim Shadows are Arkest's deadliest mercenaries — silent, relentless, and loyal to coin alone. And Starfaller is their best assassin. Arkest, the City of Gates. A marvel of the world. Beautiful. Ruthless. Haunted. It devours the powerful and the desperate alike. Now, it teeters on the brink of collapse. Eldritch horrors stir beneath the cobbled streets. Cults chant the name of a god long lost to myth. And an ancient artifact, the Eye of Shadows, offers salvation — or the ruin of every soul it touches. As chaos consumes the city, Starfaller must lead the Grim Shadows into a war they cannot win. Armies will rise and fall. Secrets will be unearthed. And death will be a mercy. Because some things are older than the gods. And hungrier. Everything has a price. Especially your soul.

Dark FantasyMercenariesEldritch Horror

Standalone • R. C. Rucker

Arkest in Shadows

A Dark Fantasy Anthology from the World of Starfaller. In the city of Arkest known as the city of Gates — where assassins walk as nobles and shadows breathe with ancient hunger — there is no such thing as safety. Only survival. ARKEST IN SHADOWS pulls back the veil on the secret wars waged in the alleys, sewers, and spires of the Dreaming Empire's most dangerous city. Set in the world of Starfaller: Shadowborn, this powerful collection of short stories reveals the brutal lives and final moments of those who live — and die — in the dark.

AnthologyShort StoriesDark Fantasy

Standalone • R. C. Rucker

The Chronicles of Kane

Kane. Bounty hunter. Killer. Villain. He has been all these things — and more. Cursed with a body that will never truly die, Kane wanders the world of Tanelon seeking coin, conflict, and anything dark enough to drown the memory of his past. But immortality comes with a price. His flesh rots a little more each day, and the only things that keep the decay at bay are his "medicine"... and the taste of fresh human flesh. In the violent lands of the Dreaming Empire of Dor, Kane's name is whispered like a plague. Wherever he goes, death follows. Yet beneath the monster lies something far worse — a man who remembers what it was to be human. These are his travels through a dying world, his road into darkness and madness, and a dark fate he refuses to accept.

Anti-HeroDark FantasyImmortality

The Second Era

Year 2175

Lovecraftian Cyberpunk / SCP

A Lovecraftian cyberpunk nightmare where mega-corporations rule the Solar System, SCP-class anomalies bleed through reality, and humanity fights a war it cannot acknowledge. The darkness followed us to the stars.

Book 1 • R. C. Rucker

Black Arrow: The Long War

In the year 2175, humanity wages a silent war it cannot admit exists. Mega-corporations rule the Solar System. Cults whisper in the shadows. Black Monoliths bleed horrors into reality. Forces gather to enslave and devour mankind — and only one force stands between order and annihilation: Black Arrow. Operating from a hidden asteroid fortress, Black Arrow's agents are ghosts in the machine: assassins, soldiers, hackers, and operatives forged in secret projects the world was never meant to see. They do not exist. They are the hand that erases threats before humanity ever learns they were there. But the war is changing. Anomalies grow stronger. Corporations gamble with forbidden power. Old enemies stir after decades of silence. Cold. Relentless. Invisible. This is not a story of heroes. This is the story of the Long War.

Military Sci-FiCyberpunkCosmic Horror

The Third Era

The Far Future

Far Future Dark Age

A far-future dark age where civilization has collapsed into a sprawling carrion empire. Humanity has forgotten the stars — and the stars have not forgotten humanity.

The Carrion Empire

Coming Soon

The first novel of the Third Era is in development. A far-future dark age awaits — where the remnants of humanity cling to existence beneath the shadow of the Carrion Empire.

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