Starbreaker: Volume 4

Starbreaker

By: Luke Chmilenko

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

“Quake thee with thy tyrant’s gift.

Soulless flesh bars paths you seek.

Blossom wide the heart of stone.

Starbreaker awaken what lies beneath.”

—Prophecy of Aion Origin

The Blood Now Calls to Sylvas

The unimaginable has happened. Sylvas has taken in War, Blood, and Strife and bound it to his heart. A feat that has seen the Empyrean Alliance plucking him from the comforts of the Ardent and pulling back the veil that once masked everything. Now, for the first time ever, Sylvas can see his place in the galaxy, standing between the threats that seek to unmake it.

And make no mistake, they do seek to unmake it.

©2025 Luke Chmilenko (P)2025 Audible, Inc.

Finally

Author is finally coming into his own with world structure and character development. It’s getting good! And come on, Neil H. Is one of the most underrated narrators in the business.

The MC is a skizoid of his own making

From book 1, the MC had a nervous breakdown due to his traumatic part in the death of his world along with his sardonic love interest, Sylvas created a split personality of her in his mind as a way of coping with horrors he witnessed. This was an interesting aspect of the series until book 4 where his ghost in a cranium rebelled and wanted body-sharing rights which, Sylvas obliged, if reluctantly. This was a bit off-putting since she wasn't the personification of his girlfriend but one he constructed based on his limited interactions with her. So, Slyvas is now allowing this self-imagined second self switch to a female persona of his imagination. This makes the MC mentally unstable and changes the whole relationship and, not in a good way.

The actual story follows a somewhat predictable trajectory but with the addition of another mentor-character and another addition late in the novel.

I will probably continue the series, at least for another book but the whole duality personality aspect is making Slyvas much less interesting.

Neil Hellegers' performance kept me listening even through the Sylvas' mental lapses.

ew Mira

gotta agree with the negatives here. the incredibly toxic relationship between Silas and mira is getting very weird and cringy to hear

These characters are boring and rude

The choice to have the MC create an abusive, gas-lighting figment of his dead abusive ex was borderline creepy previously. The further choice to have that psycho take over the MC's body to be verbally abusive and physically creep on other people against the expressed wishes of the MC is just awful and ruins any interest in how things proceed.
The dwarf is just rude and obnoxious, wanting to be the biggest bastard she can be to everyone around her, because isn't that funny and so quirky.
The necromancer is just boring. Stereotypical "I have to be the very best, and the only way I know how is to be the most boring, stick in the mud, stoic bore."
The new "mentor" doesn't do anything. He's just another joke character. Ah yes a hairy human, let's make repeated jokes about how everyone wants to bang him and that he's the best chef ever after making curry. Once.
The MC is boring. He hasn't grown any in his view of the world or how he views others. He wants to save everyone because he's just such a nice guy. Now it's time for him to cry about his lot in life for the 54th time. What's that? The government that keeps screwing him over did it again? Well surely he won't just keep doing whatever they want him to do and make a decision for himself. Nope, he decides to join their "ghost" division because… someone told him to, I guess.
I wanted to like these books, the magic system is neat, the magitech world isn't seen often enough, and there was potential character growth for the MC, but every choice made by the author so far has reduced any interest in completing the series to 0.
Neil Hellegers is still a pretty good narrator doing what he can for this disappointing story.

Toxic

Enjoyed the series well enough to reach this far. But the level of toxic behavior from the MC's resurrected fiance became so intolerable in this book that I just couldn't listen any longer. I want fantasy books that let me escape that kind of drama, not soak in it.