Book 1

STARFALLER: SHADOWBORN

Dark fantasy where power has a price, loyalty has a ledger, and every choice leaves a mark. Enter a city that breathes, meet a lead who walks the line between duty and desire, and feel the pull of secrets that refuse to stay quiet.

Order STARFALLER: SHADOWBORN – Read a spoiler free preview

About The Author

Randal Rucker

R.C. Rucker writes dark fantasy that treats readers like partners. Expect clean cause and effect, pressure that reveals character, and a respect for quiet moments that matter. Cities act, loyalties strain, and fear arrives through suggestion rather than spectacle. When not drafting, R.C. Rucker is refining world notes, sketching the next arc, and talking with readers about craft, especially tension, setting, and moral complexity.

About The Book

Randal Rucker Starfaller Shadowborn

Atmospheric, morally complex, character driven. The world presses in from all sides, and competence meets consequence on every page.

What you will feel

  • Tension built from implication, not graphic detail
  • The hum of a living city, streets that test courage and rooms that remember promises
  • Choices that tighten the chest, victories that cost something real

What to expect, no spoilers

  • A capable protagonist who pays for power and pays attention to its cost
  • Alliances that offer shelter, then ask for something in return
  • Symbols that gather meaning and change what you think you know

Available in Different Book formats

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Blogs

Explore Blog

Read recent reflections on craft and theme, all spoiler free.

Power Has a Price: Why Morally Gray Heroes Keep Us Turning Pages

Perfect heroes rarely keep us up past midnight. Flawed ones do. Give a character real power, then attach a cost, and you create a kind of narrative gravity that pulls readers through every chapter. We lean in because power changes people, and because choices made under pressure reveal who they truly are.

The Allure of Shadow: Finding Beauty in Darkness (A Dark-Fantasy Reflection)

Darkness is not an absence; it is a presence. In dark fantasy, shadow is a living texture that shapes what we notice, how we feel, and who we trust. We are drawn to it because shadow promises discovery, the kind that does not announce itself with trumpets, the kind that asks for quiet attention. Beauty lives there, not despite the dark, but because of it.

MAR 03,2022 | By Admin

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Blogs

Explore Blog

Read recent reflections on craft and theme, all spoiler free.

Reviews

What early readers are saying

Early reader, advance copy“A city with a heartbeat, a protagonist with teeth.”
I felt the world pushing back on every step, then watched a capable lead push harder. The result is tension that never shouts, it simply tightens.
Book club organizer“Sharp, elegant, relentless.”
The fights are meaningful, the quiet scenes cut deeper than daggers, and the ending made me sit very still.
Librarian, genre fiction buyer“Dark without being grimy.”
The fear comes from what might happen, not from what is printed in detail. I slept with the lamp on anyway.
Fantasy reviewer, personal blog“Bonds, bargains, and a bill that always comes due.”
Every alliance felt earned, every cost felt fair, even when it hurt. I trusted the book, then it rewarded that trust.
Bookseller, indie shop“Worldbuilding that breathes.”
Streets, thresholds, and rules that make sense. I could navigate this city, and I was scared to. That is high praise.

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