Book Review: Herald

A thousand years ago, humanity’s greatest heroes killed God.

Across the land of Helesia, the iron grasp of the Godless Kings is failing. Demons stalk the deep forests, monsters break free of their prisons beneath the World Vein, and terrors of the old world rise again.

Deep in the wintry village of Riverden, Renira Washer lives the dreary life of a laundry girl, dreaming of excitement and adventure. But in her blood, hides a secret: the angels are not all gone.

When a stranger from her mother’s past appears with a dire warning, Renira’s peaceful life is shattered and she’s thrown headfirst into a millennia old war between Heaven and earth.

Only the Herald can ring in the Fifth Age.
Only the Herald can bring the God back to life.

History is written in blood. The future is forged in holy fire.

-Goodreads

Book Information

• Title: Herald
• Series: Age of the God Eater #1
• Author: Rob J. Hayes
• Page Count: 788
• Genre: Fantasy
• Rating: 5.0/5.0
• Date Read: August 1st, 2024

Opening Thoughts

Herald by Rob J. Hayes was the first of the three new Godless books that I had a chance to dive into. This was at the recommendation of the author for reading order. If you aren’t familiar this was a Kickstarter project where Rob released the first book of three different trilogies. I only held off on this due to knowing it was the largest of the three by a considerable amount and I’ve had several other rather large reads lately as well. I finally took the plunge in late July and I wasn’t disappointed.

Pacing

In my opinion the pacing was right in the sweet spot with this one. It didn’t seem too slow or fast. I did opt for the audiobook version to help get this one off of my queue and read. I believe this was my first listen of narration by Eva Kaminsky and it honestly didn’t take long for me to settle in and enjoy her storytelling. This doesn’t happen very often for me and new to me narrators. I often need to restart an audiobook a couple of times before I can dial in with them. That wasn’t the case with Eva’s performance. She did an excellent job bringing this epic story to life. I did emersion read this one a few times with the audio playing while I followed along visually with the Kindle version. I’m glad that I did this as there are not only a ton of characters but I would have not gotten the spelling right on several of them if I only listened.

World Building

The world building was epic to say the least. If this is only the beginning of this world we are in for a true treat by the time all three of the trilogies are finished. I will not try and begin to list the various aspects to this world but it’s vast. The most intriguing feature is the relationship between the divine, immortals and mortals in this world. That alone sets quite the stage. Then add the different geographical regions, political intrigue, and there is plenty of meat to chew on here. This is not a happy fairytale type of world. It’s dark, depressing and just barely hanging onto hope.

Character Development

The character development was also done very well. I already mentioned there were a lot of characters in Herald. With that, comes a lot of character arcs to follow as well. Between Renira as our main protagonist, the angels we follow closely and the Hostain family in general, all kept things entertaining and interesting throughout the entire book. There is so much depth to the characters and their history being revealed in book one. There are some great twists involving our characters so keep your head on a swivel with this read.

Roundup & Recommendation

I’m not sure if I’m ready to say this was my overall favorite by Rob J. Hayes at this point but it’s certainly in the conversation. This has got me thinking about this and I should spend some time looking back at all of the books I’ve read of this author and maybe create a top 5. That will be for another post though. I’m sure you can tell I loved this book.

As far as recommendations, if you like those epic and gritty fantasy worlds with depth to the world, the characters and the histories, do yourself a favor and pick up of copy of Herald. As I said, this is only the beginning as it’s the first book one of the three trilogies all set in this amazing world.

Scoring

World Building 5/5
Pacing 4.75/5
Character Development 5/5