Review: Hero Forged by Josh Erikson

Finally getting around to that audible library of stuff that I really want to listen to! 😀

This one comes very highly recommended by people that I have found have similar tastes to my own, and so off we go!

Gabe thought he had covered all the angles, but it’s tough to plan a contingency for accidentally trapping an evil god in your brain.

Gabriel Delling might call himself a professional con artist, but when walking superstitions start trying to bite his face off, his charm is shockingly unhelpful. It turns out living nightmares almost never appreciate a good joke.

Together with a succubus who insists on constantly saving his life, Gabe desperately tries to survive a new reality that suddenly features demons, legends, and a giant locust named Dale—all of whom pretty much hate his guts. And when an ancient horror comes hunting for the spirit locked in his head, Gabe finds himself faced with the excruciating choice between death… or becoming some kind of freaking hero.

Hero Forged is the first book in the new series, Ethereal Earth, a modern fantasy adventure that challenges the natures of myth, humanity, and what it means to be the good guy.

This is the story of Gabe Delling, who is a self-described conman living in Lincoln, Nebraska. One day, he is recruited by a contact of his to go on what seems like a pretty simple and straightforward job, which turns out to be a crazy summoning of a crazy evil god that ends up with Gabe having the aforementioned crazy evil god stuck in his head. He’s pretty partially possessed, as it turns out… and he finds out that he has to get the evil god out of his head before he goes insane or dies horribly… or both.

Meanwhile, the evil god’s evil wife is hunting Gabe down looking to extract her hubby, and Gabe and his companion Heather, a succubus who also got randomly summoned in the robbery/ritual, go on the run looking for ways to extract the god themselves without Gabe dying horribly.

This was a well written and really fast-paced urban fantasy which had plenty of twists and turns, ups and downs, and a few chuckles along the way. I cheered pretty hard for Gabe, who, for a conman, is actually quite an honorable and polite dude. I also wasn’t expecting to get all emotional while listening to this one, but that ending… no YOU’RE crying! 😭

Last, but not at all least, the narration. This is a book that is narrated by its author. This is also the first book narrated by its author that isn’t by Neil Gaiman or Stephen Fry (because I mean… come on) that I loved the narration so much as to be able to say that I loved it as an audiobook more than I probably would have in print. He gives each character their own flair. Each character is exactly as they should be, and he would know, because he wrote them, lol. He does believable accents too. Loved it.

So, all told, I really liked this one. I sat and listened to it in 2 days, which I haven’t been able to do for a while now. Really great characters given stellar narration. I had 4.5/5 stars of fun with this audiobook. Highly recommend! 🙂

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