The book starts with a story about two characters, seemingly very different to each other, both seeking out a witch for a love potion of sorts. But let me try and give you a little bit more detail. To be honest with you, I don’t want to give too much away, because the delightful thing about this book is the way in which the underlying (or maybe I should say overarching?) story of the book is gradually presented to the reader. For a reasonably short book, Dewi has managed to pack in so much content that I actually feel the need to read it a second time to connect the dots I missed in my first reading of it. There is mystery and intrigue, merged with magic and mythical creatures like wraiths. We get to see different facets of society, explore the difference between cities and rural communities, discover the threats that lie in wait for lone travellers, and realise that even the scholars might not be all that they seem. The stories introduce us to a wide cast of characters, from lords to thieves, and warriors to witches. Sometimes a story introduces you to a new character, sometimes it’s an aspect of the history and culture of the places along The Shield Road, and sometimes it’s an event that pushes the characters together in ways you might not have expected. However they all have threads of an underlying story, which are woven together as you read through them one by one.

The Shield Road is a collection of short stories that could, potentially, be read as standalone pieces. And whilst it took me a while to get used to the different style of storytelling, once I got into it I really enjoyed the book. It helped that it is a fantasy book, because I love exploring different worlds that authors create.

I’m not usually one to read short stories, however having got to know Dewi on Twitter I wanted to support his work and so bought a copy of the book when it came out.

He’s had several short stories published this year in anthologies such as Chimera* and Heads and Tales*, as well as self publishing his own collection in The Shield Road. For starters, his name is pronounced “Deh-wee” (like Debbie), there was quite a lot of surprise on Twitter when he decided to tell us all this! Anyway, Dewi is a master map maker, creating maps for a variety of other writers, as well as a fantasy writer who specialises in short stories. If you’re a part of the Writing Community on Twitter there’s a good chance that you’ve heard of Dewi, but if not let me give you a quick intro. Where used they will be indicated with an asterisk* *Ad| please note that this post uses affi liate links.

The Shield Road by Dewi Hargreaves