War Aeternus 3: The Culling

By: Charles Dean

Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

Struggling to recover from his losses in Kirshtein, Lee is swept back into the fray when a dangerous new Herald sets her sights on him. Hell-bent on reshaping the world in her own image and with her own ideals, she is willing to commit even the most immoral acts in her pursuit of righteousness. At risk of losing everything he has worked so hard to create, Lee has to find a way to defend the weak against a madwoman whose deranged sense of justice has twisted the limits of the game. 

To make matters even more difficult, Lee is forced to face these problems while dealing with an increasingly erratic system he doesn't understand and the Goddess of Blood's own strong-willed Herald. 

This is the third installment of War Aeternus, a popular LitRPG gamelit book that focuses on the adventures of Lee, a regular office worker stuck in a game-like world.

©2017 on Charles Dean (P)2018 Charles Dean

The weak must be eradicated

Lee and the surviving team return for book three, and all I can say is that this is a welcome return after the kick in the feelz that Dean gave us in the last book. One thing I will say about the Lord of Beards is that he knows how to entertain. After the events in the last novel, Lee is in a funk, and he isn’t looking to break out of it anytime soon. To say that the quality of his mercy is strained would be an understatement. This leads to one of the funniest scenes in the book, in which Lee and the amazing Miller rush to defend a monument Lee built at the end of book two. Sorry, spoilers and all that, so I can’t reveal anything, but there are two moments in which Miller steals the show. The first comes from the eating of the nobleman’s heart, and the other is the spear to the face and Miller playing thing off with the line, “Well, you said to kill anyone moving towards the statue.” I burst out laughing, and chuckled for another ten minutes after the scene was played out. I admit that I am a Miller junkie. And, if I am being honest, that is the only complaint that I have about this book. There is not enough Miller. He is missing for a big chunk of it, but it is for reasons that I cannot reveal. So, I just cherished every moment I had with him.

Thankfully, Lee keeps things interesting as he goes around killing blind children and old people, this is all about culling the weak, after all. While this might sound controversial, it is simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, horrifying, and moving as Lee is only doing what he must. Meanwhile, poor Augustus is getting his butt chewed off for having a herald who goes around killing other heralds. Even though that is pretty much expected of him. Augustus is probably my second favorite character, because he just does what he wants, and worries about consequence later, since he doubts they will ever affect him.

Dean also introduces a new character, Jade, who could be a Patty Duke styled cousin to the Bathrobe Knight’s Stephanie. She is a fun character who has no issue speaking her mind, lives as if she were in a Manga Anime series, and just so happens to see non heralds as NPC’s who are not real. Her POV is . . . . . . . . . . . . . .different , to say the least. You can tell that Charles had a blast writing her, and that Lee is in some serious trouble with her as a companion. To say that she makes life complicated for him would be an understatement. Dean is almost making a harem for Lee, who just isn’t biting. We have Ling, Brigid, and Jade, but for me Masha is the best and most practical choice for Lee in my humble opinion. I really like her, and think that he has an emotional tie with her that the others all lack. If I was going to play MFK with these ladies, I would marry Masha. I love Jade, as a character, but she is far too crazy town for me. Like I said, she reminds me of Stephanie, and while both I and my kids loved her, we wouldn’t want to marry her.

The story is fast paced, and we finally get back to Satterfield. Lee gets to know the game AI, and the herald he faces off against is about a bat crap crazy as you can get. I don’t think that there was ever a moment that wasn’t dragging me along at a break neck speed, an awesome fight was taking place, or danger didn’t loom off in the corner. This is a tightly written tale that fulfills every need for comedy, action, adventure, emotion, and big events. Dean just continues to step up his game. I see him improve in every book he has written, and I know that WA4 is going to be even more amazing. I have no complaints on the word front.

As for the narration, well I have to say that I have never heard Jeff Hays do better. I don’t think there is another person who could pull off Jade the way that he does. Are multiple reasons Jeff is amazing, and his ability to do believable female voices is one of them. Still, he hits the attitude and exuberance that is Jade like he lived with her as a kid. Between his performance of her and that of Miller I don’t know how Lee ever gets a voice of his own. Jade definitely steals the show. Annie plays a fine Brigid, and who I’ll call the crazy chicken lady (because that is all I could see when she transformed). She nails them both like she was a gas powered hammer. I really like their chemistry, these two don’t work so well together as they just blend flawlessly with one another. They go together like water and a Kool aid packet. Like peas and carrots. As always, the sound production is exemplary and the book is as clear as Crystal Lake right after summer break. SBT has the highest quality standards when it comes to storytelling that you could ask for.

War Aeternus: The Culling literally cut away every weak moment that it had, and left us with the most choice cut of pure Kobe Beef. This story had real meat on its bones, and I most happily dug in and asked for thirds when it was all over. I am giving this book a 9. It is solid, surprising, funny, and poignant. I could not have asked for or expected more.


Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. Getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review.

If this review helped, please press the YES below. Thank you immensely!!!

As seen on the LITRPG AUDIOBOOK PODCAST, please check it out on Youtube.com

Decent but

dear sweet baby Jesus stop with that stats at the end of each chapter. most the time it's the same stats. maybe just recount the changes that happened. These books are relatively short to begin with. 2 + min of stats we've heard already is annoying.

A live action masterpiece

First and foremost I’d to congratulate Charles Dean for his work on The series “War Aeternus”. I have finished all 4 books each as captivating and entertaining on its own unique way. A big shout out to the amazing work of Jeff Hays and Annie Aliecott from Soundbooth Theater. This is my 5th book I have finished from Charles Dean ( The Heroic Villain). This was my introduction to litrpg. I’m very pleased on how the scenes were painted to the point of its smallest details( especially battle scenes). Also I’m just going to put this out here, Soundbooth Theater is a masterpiece. I think the combination of both how detailed Charles is and how deep Jeff Hays gets into each character. The scenes are narrated to perfection. Where as in other narrative teams they need to point out certain emotions, Soundbooth theater is able to bring it to life with no description needed. You can feel how each emotion, mood is happening as its played out. There is a difference in describing and acting out the scenes. I’m very pleased with how they operate. I believe its a perfect combination like wine and cheese. So as a reader, I’d rather pay more for quality work to have Soundbooth Theater narratives. It’s such an amazing difference compared to other audiobooks. It can really ruin a good book to be honest, if the narrative team is not as competent and passionate with the work of the author. I seen it happen, and would just like to give authors and readers out there the outlook on both teams. Like I mentioned earlier I’d wait and pay more to have a team like Soundbooth theater work passionately and bring the book to life. I’m not knocking other narrative teams but if anything I want to motivate them to improve and use them as an example. I have waited to finish all 4 books before reviewing. I wanted to have an overall outlook on the series. Each book you become closer and closer to all characters. You can feel the transition and growth of each character throughout the series. I’d love to see maybe War Aeternus 5 one day. There was another post that made a good point, when we want a series to continue, a good way to do that is to promote all previous books. So that others readers are aware and can generate the demand for the author. So if you are a fan, like myself. I’m going to do my best to spread the word and preach War Arternus! Follow the God of alcohol and crafts! Bring as many followers as you can! For justice and Glory!

https://www.audible.com/series/War-Aeternus-Audiobooks/B07F6WKYF4

I love this series and want more.

More give me more, I really can't wait to find out what happens next. When book four drops it's mime.

Great narrative, but the MC is jerk!

Ok, finished the 3rd book and I have to say, what the heck happened!!!!

before I go and rant I will say that the series is worth a read. starts slow but gains speed and Its fresh take on litrpg is creative. I wish there was more of a back story on the what and whys but it's still a good read.

NOW, after finishing the 3rd book, I HATE Lee. he has become unlikable, his decisions are completely contrary to logic in any way. like all the time. at least in the 3rd book. the 1st he was lovable in a way and unknowing, the 2nd he was gaining speed and becoming confident, and then after one death he has lost sight of what the point of this war. people far above him telling/suggesting what to do and he does the opposite. straight up refuses to talk to his people and expecting them to fall in line or get out without any explanation whatsoever. he wants yes men, not people who have a brain. his emotions are crippling his ability to use common sense and ruins this book!
This bugs me because the author and narrator do a great job of getting you emotionally evolved. this being said, I want to smack Lee!

THIS IS MY TAKE on his behavior and other than the main character acting like an arrogant teenage monk who thinks girls and sex are icky, the other characters make up for it. jade is an absolute riot!!! I love her. she needs her own book for sure, and Miller is a star aswell. I got plenty of looks for laughing out loud at what they thought was nothing.

The narrator was brilliant and is now in my top 3 hands down. he has more so many variations to his voice that sometimes I swear theres more than one guy. he even has a different narrative voice than he did in other series. I love him and sound booth audio aswell. those guy are fantastic.

Great book and performance

This is another great addition to the series. The writing is superb and the performance is right on par. Looking forward to book 4.

Ugh... I can't stand Jade... so annoying!

But I guess that's the point... but totally distracting and sucks all enjoyment out of the story.

I did find listening at 0.90x speed, made it tolerable, somewhat.

Anime works well with the series, but this performance makes this book very cringy at times... I pushed through, though, and finally finished the book...

Too much realism

This series gets progressively more dark and serious and I am getting burned-out. I hope it improves.

Cant get enough

Love this series, every book just keeps on getting better. Jeff and Annie the best combo in Narration ever. Keep it up

best so far

best in the series so far definitely made me laugh Jeff Hayes and Annie Ellicott did a great job as usual and a few good twist during it

If you're this far along you already like it

Still an enjoyable tale but not quite as zesty as it once was for me.

GOOD BOOK

I have over 300 audible titles and I have to say that the narration and performance of this book is one of the best I've heard. It's a compelling universe with a great story and awesome characters