Unholy War

The Moontide Quartet, Book 3

By: David Hair

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

Length: 28 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tensions are mounting after a devastating battle before the walls of Shaliyah, birthplace of the Prophet. The East is rising, bringing equal measures of hope and despair to the magical world of Urte.

For some, Salim's victory is a call to arms; for others it is evidence of a world gone mad. While the armies of East and West clash in brutal conflict, emperors, inquisitors, Souldrinkers, and assassins all have their attention turned elsewhere as they hunt the Scytale of Corineus. The immensely powerful artifact is the key to ultimate power, and it's in the hands of unlikely guardians: failed mage Alaron Mercer and market-girl Ramita Ankesharan, who carries the child of the world's greatest mage. The fate of the world hinges on destruction should the artifact fall into the wrong hands.

©2014 David Hair (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Published by arrangement with Quercus Editions Ltd (UK).

Bit of a Letdown

The world is well crafted, and has a sort of primal ferocity that reminds me of game of thrones. But the author makes a few basic mistakes that severely undercut the value of the series.

First, he's afraid to kill his Main Characters. Even with all the blood and guts and sex and death, the main characters get out of every situation without a scratch, sometimes with the plot going to ridiculous lengths to protect them. They also seem to be immune to guilt, and almost every single one of them has murdered at least one person in cold blood, then apparently forgotten about it.

Less importantly, The magic system is terribly designed. The way its constructed, it can do virtually anything. Even if, by the strictest sense, something falls outside one of the sixteen schools of study there's an easy fix- just mix a few random schools that are slightly related, and it suddenly works.
Which wouldn't be a problem, except its such a magically driven series. Causes dozens of minor plot holes.

On the hole, it was good, but nothing new. Game of thrones and wheel of time have a baby, which then only inherits only their more mediocre aspects. I expected more: The series feels like it has a Lot of potential, but its three books in and still delivering mediocrity.

Irritating helplessness

After building up expectations, the final fight was just pathetic. It left me with a regret of having picked up this series.

MOVER OVER GAME OF THRONES

David Hairs world has really come alive in this third installment of the Moontide Quartet, the world building and character development is excellent.I blasted through this book in two days and cant wait for Ascendant's Rite. like most epic fantasy series we get several character point of views and after about six POV's the narrative can start to get a little disjointed and hard to follow, Hair combated this well by creating alliances between most of the main characters allowing him to combine narratives and let the reader/listener just enjoy the story.

the magic systems are well developed and very interesting . in fantasy novels how the magic works is just as important to me as how the characters work, Hair did a really good job of developing both at the same time and not allowing anyone thing to become stagnant.

cant wait to see how it ends this would make an excellent series for HBO or even movies

Nick Podehl was incredible, great narrator he was one of the main reasons i started this series and he didn't disappoint...if you haven't checked out anything else by him i would check out "The name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss" or " This book is full of spiders by David Wong" your ears will thank you

worth the credit and your time!

Can't wait for next one

Great addition to an exceptional series. One of my favorites of the fantasy genre. Would recommend it to anyone.

What is this... a soap opera?

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I despise when authors use cliff hangers to hook you into the next book... it's a cheap tactic and caused what was otherwise a decent read to be un-recommendable for me.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The final battle would have been great if it had been chapter 1 of a new book and we could look forward to how the protagonists recover from the terrible event. Instead I got left feeling like I wish I'd never started the series, and if I had it to do over I wouldn't have. I'm now unlikely to ever start another of his series, perhaps picking it up when it's fully completed.

The best story I have listened to in many years.

David Hair is an incredible author and is doing an amazing job with this quartet of books so far. I rate his skills as a writer and the quality of this story right up there with George RR Martin and Patrick Rothfuss's works. The real difference is that Mr. Hair seems to share Brandon Sanderson's writing regimen and Has been putting out his books quite quickly, which is absolutely wonderful.
Don't miss out on this series of books it is highly entertaining.
I forgot to mention the slam dunk narration of Nick Podehl. He is so damn good at what he does!

5-Stars

Flawless story. The lives of the characters from multiple storylines are intricately woven. The author has given it even more depth and richness, skirting the borders of love, war, violence, death, mystery, humor. The narrator- only one person? Hard to believe. Just listen and try not to forget it's only a story.

Flying Under The Radar

The “Moontide” series is excellent, receives little attention and I get to look smugly at those who have not read or listened to the books.

Enjoyed listening very much

Narration by Nick Podehl was as good as always.
I greatly appreciated the story, great character development, multiple storylines that converge and separate, tremendously coherent and thought out background lore and consistency. Looking forward to read the last book of this installment.

Dont read this.

struggled to finnish, what a let Down from the other ones, to bad. liked the other ones.

I lost the plot!

Perhaps it's the way I listen to audiobooks in small snippets, that caused me to lose the plot on this one.but once I had lost the plot, I never really got it back.
It was a long old book to listen to what I have to say that I was glad when it was over.

Gripping listen

Where does Unholy War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Quite high I listened to the first book and instantly bought the second and waited impatiently for the next

If you’ve listened to books by David Hair before, how does this one compare?

Nope never I am a new listener/reader to David Hair

What does Nick Podehl bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I haven't got the patience or time to read a book so the audio book is perfect

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending because it has made me want to read the next book

Any additional comments?

The series of the moontide quartet is a very gripping listen I would recommend this series to anyone

Fantastic

I love this narrator he brings it to life and a well written book with huge depth to it.

So many real life issues used to create the characters. Fantastic 3rd book

Character

The narrator did a fabulous job. Lots of personalities to portray and easily recognisable. Liked the way he developed the moods throughout.