Synopsis:

Dark rumors and whisperings of unholy sorcery bring Rayden Valkyrie to the remote city of Sereth-Naga.

There she finds a populace cowering in fear of the city’s ruthless, mysterious rulers, who remain behind the high walls of their citadel.

An even greater mystery surrounds the city.

Something is prowling the darkness.

Something that has kept the enigmatic rulers for centuries from escaping Sereth-Naga to spread their wickedness to other lands.

Prowling the Darkness is a stand-alone novella that is part of the Rayden Valkyrie Tales.

This novella is a solid read, featuring high fantasy and a kickass female mercenary for hire with a hidden agenda.

Rayden works her way into the city walls of the citadel of Sereth-Naga and begins to uncover the secrets hidden within that are keeping all of the people in the city afraid. She then takes it upon herself to rescue the city in any way she can.

I found Rayden an intriguing character, not really knowing her motivations for things other than it being the right thing to do – I have a feeling that more of her origins will be revealed in later books.

The pacing of this book was surprisingly slow given that it’s a novella, the author took his time to fully immerse the reader in descriptions of the world and the characters.

The writing style is very formal and reminds me of classic high fantasy styles, especially in terms of the character dialogue. I can see this really appealing to fans of Ed McDonald’s Raven’s Mark series.

Stephen Zimmer is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and publisher of Seventh Star Press who resides in Lexington, Ky with his beloved and an office manager named Dubious the Cat. His literary work includes the epic fantasy Fires in Eden Series, the cross-genre Rising Dawn Saga, the sword and sorcery Rayden Valkyrie Tales, the horror genre Hellscapes short story collections, the cross-genre dystopian Faraway Saga series, and the steampunk Harvey and Solomon tales along with his new novellas featuring Rayden Valkyrie and Ragnar Stormbringer.

His movie credits include short films such as Swordbearer and The Sirens, and the feature Shadows Light. Forthcoming is Rayden Valkyrie: Saga of a Lionheart, a TV pilot project.

Visit Stephen online via his website at http://www.stephenzimmer.com
on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/stephenzimmer7
or twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/sgzimmer