A Sudden Dominance of Shadows is a collection of short stories by author Wade Alan Steele. Shadows sweeps the dark corners of the mind for the catches, barbwire, and hobgoblins that daily haunt our thoughts. From small town Minnesota where the shadows of the forest hide a forbidden exploration and a deadly accident, to the Big Apple and it's talking cockroaches and subway discomfort, Mr. Steele not only explores the scary things that make us human, but the little glints of humanity that make us wondrous. Shadows graphs our struggle to hold onto slippery sanity in the midst of life's brutal maelstrom, and win or lose-no one is left untouched.

A hero is built, not born, forged in the fires of chaotic happenstance and tempered by fear. Drayvus Varden, handsome elven scoundrel, assassin, and professional mischief maker, falls victim to a perilous case of mistaken identity and is forced to take a job escorting Katelyn Shar, the unfaithful wife of the regional governor, to the place of Dravyus' birth-the elven forest, Oldenhome. With her husband's men giving chase, Drayvus, Katelyn, and the drunken dwarven priest Tahlkin bicker and snark their way south through the Wild Lands, as an army gathers in the north set to begin a war that will change the face of Talandria forever. When Drayvus discovers that Katelyn is to play a part in the oncoming conflict, he is forced to either become a hero or let all he has ever loved wither and die-destroyed by the Plague Seed.