Why is The War Eternal on my TBR

What is included in this series?

The War Eternal is a completed quintet written by Rob J. Hayes. Titles of each book in this self-published series are unique, starting with Along the Razor’s Edge, The Lessons Never Learned, From Cold Ashes Risen, Sins of the Mother and Death’s Beating Heart.

The author

Rob J. Hayes is a prolific fantasy author, mostly (if not exclusively) indie published. Over time, I have been adding all the first books of his series on my TBR yet I never started reading these stories. Until Along the Razor’s Edge. As a first time reader of Rob J. Hayes, I have been enjoying a remarkable journey so far - and granted, this seems to be the most recent series he wrote (so he had time to improve his story telling abilities), yet the ability to tell this story is wonderful.

The story

This story focusing on Eskara Helsene. She is retelling her story, from the day she was in the Pits, after her side lost the war that brought her to the prisoner camp; we are also enlightened to the consequences of being on the losing side of war. This is a graphic story, gory and terrifying. There are horror elements sprinkled in (for example Ssserakis) and they are truly scary.

“At just fifteen years old, I had fought in the greatest war mankind has ever known. I had been one of Arran’s most powerful Sourcerers, celebrated by our allies and feared by our enemies. I helped bring prosperity to my emperor’s lands, destruction to its foes. and mow I was a prisoner, my power gone with my Sources. There was only on a place the Terrelans would send a prison as valuable as I - the Pit.”

Make no mistakes, this is not a story of redemption, quite the opposite. This is purely a story of hate and revenge, both feelings fuelling Eska’s decisions at every turn. This is also a place where morality is a luxury few people have and very few people want to have. The people that Eska needs to face are often ruthless and do not have to be accountable for their actions.

It is a story that is mostly told from Eska’s perspective (yet not exclusively). So far, I have read the first two books and I am curious to see if this process will continue.

World building

One of outstanding elements of this story, so far, is world building. The human political landscape is relatively straightforward; the Terrelans conquered the entire land and this is the only political power left. Yet, there is plenty of tension through the introduction of gods. Now this gets slightly spoiler-y so keep going at your own peril, but there are two types of gods (and the use of gods is very clever as it connects and fuels the magic system) and they do not get along.

We also have magic; hard magic system with its rules so well defined and complex at the same time. There are specific rules about each power and ability. And then we also have the scariest character of all, the Iron Legion. And this is where I will stop talking about him (as this is a major spoiler and very satisfying when it comes up).

Final thoughts

In essence, this is an interesting story, with a complex world building and very anti-heroes characters that are fighting their own war against powers that are significantly stronger than they are. For these reasons I am enjoying every single book I have read so far; I do not recall the last time when the main character was propelled by anger (it is also atypical to have anti-heroes as protagonists; I only remember Mark Lawrence portraying a villain as the main character in The Broken Empire series) and this makes it a refreshing approach to fantasy.

I just cannot wait to continue working through this series and make sure that I keep the hype high!