Hephaestion

A Vampire's 2300 Year Love Odyssey

By: Stefan Pride

Narrated by: Darcy Stark

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-three centuries ago the second most powerful man in the world chose life as a vampire over the uncertainty of death. His childhood friend and later his lover was none other than Alexander the Great. Legend at the time had it they were one soul inhabiting two bodies. Conquering the known world by the age of 32, they influence the world to this very day. Hephaestion introduces the listener to the whimsical vampire whose zest for all life has to offer has not waned over the centuries as he waits for Alexander to be reborn. Meet his ghost writer, his friends in modern-day Boston, and learn about his life with Alexander before hew turned into an immortal by the mysterious Quermen: a race of unfathomable age. Never growing old they simply observe.

Afflicted with AADD, Hephaestion's narration as told through his writer, Stefan Pride, is at times historically accurate, often funny, sporadically sad, and liberally peppered with some of the most visually inspiring gay erotica to ever disgrace an audiobook. With the latter in mind this work of fiction should not be heard by anyone not of legal age or anyone who finds physical love between men offensive.

Hephaestion was originally published under the title Before Eternity, but has been re-edited to correct most glaring mistakes and sentence structures. Some of the story lines have been altered for the better. If you have acquired the original book be assured that the changes in this edition will flow smoothly into subsequent volumes in the Hephaestion series.

©2011, 2018 James Clay (P)2019 James Clay

I likes it, I want a sequel, interesting world

Despite being a vampire story it's actually the vampires back story as Alaxander The Greats Lover and Greatest General, nerrated by himself. VERY much a Interview with a Vampire but set in the time of Alexander the Great. Aside from PLENTY of HEA there's also lot's of interesting history here (Some of which I looked up). Frankly the rather fascinating Ancient Vampire society that features here deserves at least an entire book in its own, I am disappointed that there's no sequel as there's more then enough to build from.

A Vampire for all Times.

I really enjoyed this novel. It had all the right parts. The narrator has a timeless voice and my favorite part was the last chapter and the conclusion.

Great story

I love this story narrater did great I really enjoyed it. I recommend it haha

Hot Fun Romantic Ride

Listened to entire book in one day.seemed to be historically accurate for the most part. Hard to cram taking over the world in 7 hours and still be exact. What is described in flawless detail is the sexual intimacy between these two men. I’ll be listening to this book again. As always narrator/performer Darcy Stark is outstanding . I’ll read anything by Stefan Pride. All of his stories take the listener on an unforgettable erotic adventure. Only fault I can think of is that all of his stories need to be longer so I can spend just a little longer the world Pride weaves.

Well delivered, highly erotic Vampire Memoir

5 Blue Roses
5 BIG Blue Flames

Narrator Darcy Stark delivered a highly erotic, historically correct, yet stunningly original vampire memoir. This narrator is not new to me. I have listened to many of his audiobooks, and was not once disappointed.
The plot has substance and well planned characteristics of a blockbuster movie!

Warning: If you have a mental illness, please take your meds. If you like to use illegal drugs, please skip the acid and the mushrooms.
This is such a mindf#$k, it's better to keep the Xanax close by you.
The plot starts out with Hephaestion acquiring the services of a ghost writer.
(This is where my merry-go-round started.)
He meets him in current time, and this is actually our renowned author Stefan Pride.
I thought: "Ahh, that's cute. Many authors mention their fellow authors, books or characters. Nothing new nor weird here."
But, then my mind started to whirl.
It must have been the 2300 years of history, the sex and the overwhelming believe that this depiction of Hephaestion's life is actually very-very real.
I Googled and Wikipedia the shit out of this guy! Yip he does exist!
In my lust filled haze and overproduction of endorphins, I lost contact with reality........

My recommendation would be to listen to this audiobook to experience the same twilight zone conundrum.
If Hephaestion met with Stefan Pride, and we are listening to his memoir.
Then Hephaestion is real, he really is 2300 years old, because he is on Wikipedia!
We know Stephan Pride is real, because we are listening to his audiobook.
That means Vampires do exist, because Hephaestion actually knows Stefan Pride.

Who is Stefan Pride?

I could not find much about Stefan Pride on the web. 😭.
I contacted him and asked him to submit a biography for us.
After all, this is the closest I'm ever going to get to a real vampire.
Additionally. I find it extremely suspicious that a vampire looking for his reincarnated soulmate is contacting Stefan Pride.
This must be an indication that Hephaestion finally found Alexander reincarnated!
See his biography on my website.
Happy Listening

Loved it, but it's not really about vampires

I really enjoyed this audiobook, although it really doesn't involve vampires that much except for the very beginning where the narrator is introduced to us, and at the end where he is turned into an immortal. In between is an erotic history of the narrator Hephaestion's life with Alexander the Great before he was turned. It's a hot, erotic tale, and I found the whole plotline very creative and entertaining. I would have liked to hear more about what Hephaestion, now known as Harry, did after Alexander's death until he met the author, and what he did for the remaining 2300 years. Maybe Mr. Pride will give us some sequels.

I really like this narrator's voice and the smooth, even delivery. He really brings the erotic moments to life.

I received a free copy of this audiobook at my request and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

It grows on you...

Felt a bit like "first attempt at writing a book" in the beginning and the narrator also a bit "clinical", but both the characters, story and narrator grew on me and in the end I was really in to it. Some cool turns of events and the unsentimental diary style telling, really worked after a while.

what in the world

I cannot believe this book has decent reviews. It’s terrible. It focuses on nothing but poorly written, overdramatized sex scenes with basically every member of the Macedonian army and doesn’t tell us anything about Hephaestion’s vampirism. The people that turned him aren’t even vampires exactly. This was originally supposed to be part of a series but I guess it was dropped— and I can see why. It’s just bad. It’s BAD. I’d give anything if Audible would let me return it.

run of the mill

I got through about 4 chapters and stopped - I may pick it up again later. Author begins by shattering all the long-held myths about vampires - sun is no worry, no sleeping in coffins, all their "magic" is mind tricks they play on others...and what we're left with is just a pompous old vampire rattling off a bunch of been there, done hims. There was little sense of vulnerability, and not much depth to the character of Harry Alexander (and in 2300 years that's the most creative name he could come up with?) - just another old rich guy surrounding himself with beautiful young boys - it all just felt very derivative. The sex scenes were predictable and unoriginal, further flattened by the patrician narration - I know this is my own shortfall, but when a proper British accent starts talking about cocks and asses, I just start to giggle. Vampire fiction will now and forever be compared to the works of Anne Rice, and rightly so - she's the best, and this falls far short.