The Book Series

The Worldshapers podcast gets its name from Worldshapers, the new book series by the host, Edward Willett.

The series takes place in the Labyrinth, an extra-dimensional space in which there are multiple worlds, each shaped by an individual from our world to be whatever he or she wishes it to be…much like the worlds shaped by the authors who are the focus of the podcast.

Book 1: Worldshaper

Long-listed for the 2019 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, in the Best YA Novel category

Amazon U.S. | Amazon Canada | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Penguin Random House

Read the first two chapters of Worldshaper

From the Publishers Weekly starred review:

“This rollicking secondary-world contemporary fantasy opens with a bang…(the characters) grapple with the ethics of changing the world, the question of what makes people ‘real’ when the worldshapers can change everything about them with nothing more than a thought, and the need to save the universe. Willett…meticulously includes small details that make the constantly changing scenery feel solid and real…This novel sets up a fascinating, fluctuating universe with plenty of room for growth for the main characters, and readers will eagerly join their journey.” 

Booklist says:

Willett’s series starter is fun, quirky, and highly enjoyable, nicely laying the groundwork for future volumes.”

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes the first book in a new portal fantasy series in which one woman’s powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions.

For Shawna Keys, the world is almost perfect. She’s just opened a pottery studio in a beautiful city. She’s in love with a wonderful man. She has good friends.

But one shattering moment of violence changes everything. Mysterious attackers kill her best friend. They’re about to kill Shawna. She can’t believe it’s happening–and just like that, it isn’t. It hasn’t. No one else remembers the attack, or her friend. To everyone else, Shawna’s friend never existed…

Everyone, that is, except the mysterious stranger who shows up in Shawna’s shop. He claims her world has been perfect because she Shaped it to be perfect; that it is only one of uncounted Shaped worlds in a great Labyrinth; and that all those worlds are under threat from the Adversary who has now invaded hers. She cannot save her world, he says, but she might be able to save others–if she will follow him from world to world, learning their secrets and carrying them to Ygrair, the mysterious Lady at the Labyrinth’s heart.

Frightened and hounded, Shawna sets off on a desperate journey, uncertain whom she can trust, how to use her newfound power, and what awaits her in the myriad worlds beyond her own.

Book 2: Master of the World

Long-listed for the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, in the Best YA Novel category

Amazon U.S. | Amazon Canada | Indigo Barnes & Noble | Penguin Random House | Indiebound

Read the first two chapters of Master of the World

Publishers Weekly says:

“This lively, action-packed follow-up sees (Shawna Keys) trapped in a world inspired by the works of Jules Verne…

“Willett takes full advantage of the fanciful premise to deliver a fun setting populated by fantastic vehicles, mysterious islands, and heroic and villainous characters, all drawn from classic literature. In this larger-than-life arena, Shawna is often out of her depth, a heroine slowly coming into her power and responsibilities who struggles with the weight and consequences of her actions…returning fans will find it contains thrills aplenty.”

Read the whole thing.

Booklist says:

“Watching Shawna navigate and understand the Verne world is highly amusing and fun for readers familiar with his oeuvre. The Verne references are not the only fun, geeky element of the book: Shawna is comfortable making numerous nods to fandom of all kinds, and the specificity of the humor will delight those who share her interests. Plus, watching Shawna and her friend and teacher, Karl, fight against the Adversary for the better of the Labyrinth—the means by which all of the worlds connect together—is great. This series is for fans of any piece or part of geek culture. With the infinite possible worlds in the Labyrinth, every book should be a new, enjoyable adventure. “

Read the whole thing.

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes the second book in a gripping portal fantasy series in which one woman’s powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions.

Shawna Keys has fled the world she only recently discovered she Shaped, narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Adversary who seized control of it…and losing her only guide, Karl Yatsar, in the process.

Now she finds herself alone in some other Shaper’s world, where, in her first two hours, she’s rescued from a disintegrating island by an improbable flying machine she recognizes from Jules Verne’s Robur the Conqueror, then seized from it by raiders flying tiny personal helicopters, and finally taken to a submarine that bears a strong resemblance to Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. Oh, and accused of being both a spy and a witch.

Shawna expects–hopes!–Karl Yatsar will eventually follow her into this new steampunky realm, but exactly where and when he’ll show up, she hasn’t a clue.

In the meantime, she has to navigate a world where two factions fanatically devoted to their respective leaders are locked in perpetual combat, figure out who the Shaper of the world is, find him or her, and obtain the secret knowledge of this world’s Shaping. Then she has to somehow reconnect with Karl Yatsar, and escape to the next Shaped world in the Labyrinth…through a Portal she has no idea how to open.

Book 3: The Moonlit World

Amazon U.S. | Amazon Canada | IndigoBarnes & Noble | Penguin Random House | Indiebound

Read the prologue and first two chapters of The Moonlit World

Publishers Weekly says:

“Willett continues to use his innovative worldbuilding to play with genre tropes; there’s a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness to this desolate world that will please fans of dark fiction…entertaining.”

Fresh from their adventures in a world inspired by Jules Verne, Shawna Keys and Karl Yatsar find themselves in a world that mirrors much darker tales. Beneath a full moon that hangs motionless in the sky, they’re forced to flee terrifying creatures that can only be vampires…only to run straight into a pack of werewolves.

As the lycanthropes and undead battle, Karl is spirited away to the castle of the vampire queen. Meanwhile, Shawna finds short-lived refuge in a fortified village, where she learns that something has gone horribly wrong with the world in which she finds herself. Once, werewolves, vampires, and humans lived there harmoniously. Now every group is set against every other, and entire villages are being mysteriously emptied of people.

Somehow, Karl and Shawna must reunite, discover the mysteries of the Shaping of this strange world, and escape it for the next, without being sucked dry, devoured, or—worst of all—themselves turned into creatures of the night.

Beneath the frozen, gibbous moon, allies, enemies, surprises, adventures, and unsettling revelations await.