This week on View from the Gutters our topic work is Umbral, Vol. 1 & 2, by Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten. Umbral is a fantasy story starring a young thief named Rascal, who has befriended the young prince of her native kingdom.

Things take a turn for the worse, however, when on the day of an eclipse the Umbral—a race of shapeshiting shadow monsters—return, slaughter the royal family, and take their place. Rascal finds herself on the run from the Umbral, along with a shifty (and possibly immortal) wizard, a smuggler, and a drunken scholar.

In our recommendation section, our hosts nominated The Royals: Masters of War, Princeless, Nimona, and Birthright for discussion on the next episode, and our selected title is The Royals: Masters of War.

Our hosts for this episode are Andrew Chard, Tobiah Panshin, Kayleigh Fleeman, and Brant Gillihan-Eddy.