Soul Blade

The Sword of Light Trilogy, Book 3

By: Aaron Hodges

Narrated by: David Stifel

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The Three Nations are crumbling.

Darkness is gathering.

Only one remains to stand against it.

Eric stumbles through the wilderness, searching, hunting - desperate for sign of his sister. But the girl is gone, stolen away by the power of the Soul Blade. With each passing hour its hold on her tightens, her spirit fading before the onslaught of its magic. If he cannot save her soon, it will claim her soul. And he will have to kill her.

Meanwhile, Gabriel is lost in the darkness. It is his whole world now, its presence absolute, suffocating. Time, hope, sanity, all have long since slipped beneath the waves of his despair. Only it remains - the unrelenting voice of the demon. It haunts the darkness, mocking him with false promises of freedom.

How long can he resist its call?

©2016 Aaron Hodges (P)2016 Aaron Hodges

Very good series.

The was an excellent conclusion to a series that I enjoyed very much. The characters felt very real and believable. I listened to the entire series in a week.

The narrator was quite good and consistent throughout the series. 5 stars for the performance.

I requested and received a free copy of this audiobook from the author, publisher, or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review. I was NOT required to write a positive review and this reflects my honest opinion of the work.

Great finale

A worthy finale to a great series. Can't wait to start the follow up books

Wonderful

An amazing story, that is extremely enjoyable to listen to. Eric is running out of time, looking for his sister. If not found soon, something bad will happen. Received this audio book as an ARC, super all around

The conclusion to a captivating series

Soul Blade (The sword of Light Trilogy #3, my eleventh read/listen from author Aaron Hodges is another re-read of an excellent book. I'm on an Aaron Hodges binge It was attention-grabbing and enjoyable as is all Hodge's writings. I was given an Audible copy of this book & am voluntarily reviewing it. The final book in the Sword of Light series. Aaron Hodges has moved high on my TBR list and since I own more than a dozen books by him that won't be a problem. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

Solid conclusion to a great fantasy trilogy

This was quite a climactic ending to Hodges' Sword of Light trilogy. The stakes were pretty set by the end of the previous book, but the obstacles facing the protagonists loom even greater in this final story. Since I had read the Legends of the Gods trilogy first, I had a few spoilers, so a few twists I kind of knew were coming.

I believe this was the first trilogy Hodges wrote, so this seems to be his third book. In that perspective, he seems to have settled a little more into how he wanted the pacing of the book to proceed, and this one moves along at a pretty strong pace. Things pick up pretty quickly and don't really relent too much.

There were quite a few loose ends Hodges needed to tie up and resolve in this book, and I think he covered his bases well (I really hate it when authors leave things unresolved), so when the final epilogue closes, the ending feels right. With that said, I think you could get away with only reading this book and not the rest of the books in the trilogy, but you'd really be missing out on some of the character development and some of the twists which were set up very early on.

David Stifel continues a solid job with the narration. He has a very masculine voice and when I first heard him I wondered how he would handle female characters, since i figured his voice would just sound weird if he tried to sound like a woman. I was surprised to learn that he doesn't even really try, but he does tweak his voice so that each character (even female ones) have a unique voice. It actually works really well and I found myself pulled into his narration. Some reviewers have complained of the pacing of his words, but I didn't really notice anything wrong with it (note that I tend to speed my audiobooks up a little).

All in all a fun read. Pretty solid fantasy fair and quite enjoyable. The characters were nicely complex and nuanced and all their actions flowed naturally from their characters. Consequences of actions made sense, and no characters were suddenly (and stupidly) higher powered or weaker than they had been portrayed earlier. The magic system used was pretty consistent throughout the trilogy, even if some of how it worked was a little vague. If you enjoy a good fantasy story, this should be an enjoyable read.

[Note: I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.]

The Sword of Light Trilogy

This series will capture your heart. It moves quickly and has a lot of twists and turns. The characters are well developed and while you may think you know how this will end it may surprise you.

Excellent story, great characters

Where does Soul Blade rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 25

What other book might you compare Soul Blade to and why?

The fist 2 books in the trilogy. The Trilogy concludes with conflict both external and internal, love and loss, death and rebirth, and let us not forget, some pretty kick-ass battles

What does David Stifel bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Did not read the printed version. He did a great job on all of the characters

Any additional comments?

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

Good listen

Any additional comments?

3rd installment was a good listen. I've listened to some really good stories lately, this one is OK. Narrator did a fair job, some of the female characters were difficult to listen to.

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”