Esrahaddon

The Rise and Fall, Book 3

By: Michael J. Sullivan

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds, Michael J. Sullivan, Robin Sullivan

Length: 29 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

A hero to some. A villain to many. The truth forever buried.

The man who became known as Esrahaddon is reported to have destroyed the world’s greatest empire—but there are those who believe he saved it. Few individuals are as divisive, but all agree on three facts: He was exiled to the wilderness, hunted by a goblin priestess, and sentenced to death by a god—all before the age of eight. How he managed to survive and why people continued to fear his name a thousand years later has always been a mystery...until now.

From the three-time New York Times best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan, Esrahaddon is the final novel in the Rise and Fall trilogy. This latest set of stories sits snugly between the Legends of the First Empire series and the Riyria books (Revelations and Chronicles). With this tale, Michael continues his tradition of unlikely heroes who must rise to the call when history knocks, demanding to be let in. This is the 19th full-length novel in a body of work that started in 2008 and spans four series.

©2023 Michael J. Sullivan (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Fantastic!

Another fantastic book in the world of Elan, by MJS.

It starts with the most touching and inspiring author’s note I’ve ever read.

While this book is technically able to be read on its own, it is the third book in The Rise and Fall series. This series is one of four series in the world of Elan and the timing of it takes place after Legends and before Riyria.

The one part I’d like to point out about the timeline is that for readers who read in publication order, we’ve already read the end of the series. We know things that will happen in the future, which includes things that will happen to characters in this book. And yet, Michael has managed to keep this story engaging, link past storylines to future storylines, make the facts and storyline line up, answer questions, slip in Easter eggs, and keep us engaged and guessing the whole way through. This is a remarkable feat!

If you read Farilane and enjoyed it, I’m confident you’ll love this one too. And I’ve yet to hear of a fantasy lover who doesn’t think Tim GR isn’t the bees knees. Thank you Tim, for being the voice in my head when I read anything by Michael.

And thank you Michael and Robin for keeping my favorite kind of fantasy alive.

Need more books

This series is the best fantasy series out there. Incredible story and incredible characters. The amazing story and setting just keeps getting better and better with each new book he writes. Tim Gerald Reynolds captures every character perfectly.

Great background story

I really enjoy these prequels that flesh out the history of the first novels. I love the writing too. Great stuff!

I didn’t want it to end

This book was so captivating I didn’t want it to end. The characters were familiar but I had no idea how they would act or what to expect even though I’ve read every single previous book.

Now I just want to see what happens to the Prince and if miraculously Estaharden has a place in the next book.

Loved this audio version.

I love the narration, I think if I was reading this I would not have come up with as good of voices fro Esrashaddon’s Uncles ‘s voices. They were perfect. I look forward to these books. Thank you for keeping this series alive.

Great story

This story fills in the events that lead up to Ryiara Revelations. It was fast paced and enjoyable to listen to.

Great Book

I've been listening too this whole series so far and this book is as good as any in the series and the narration is fantastic as always, he makes an already great story even better if that's possible I highly recommend this series

Great Confusion

There is a difficulty with the whole set of Michael’s works. I started, as most do, with the Riyia series. While I have enjoyed all the books very much there is an inherent confusion in that one starts toward the end of the timeline and keep getting taken backward in time. Having experienced these books over years, it’s already difficult enough to keep the threads straight with the time gap between releases of each title. Now we’re introduced to information which is background to nine books from years ago. So as Robin so kindly offered to send the references to Esrahaddon in Theft of Swords, it requires the reader to go back to many years and books ago to find out that info from the latter books are necessary to understand the previous. So, while I enjoy the books, it’s somewhat annoying for the author to expect us to remember details from a previous book read two years before, but now I’m supposed to go back half a dozen books or so in order to remember something about a mention of Esrahaddon in something I read years ago? Really? So, again, while I enjoy the books, if one is going to have an endless series perhaps it might be more helpful to write it in chronological order. The idea that something mentioned six or seven books ago, which would have just been a mysterious piece to a puzzle then, I had to wait eight years, or whatever to find out the puzzle piece is frustrating. Michael needs to put down a list of which order to read these books so they make sense to the reader at the time they read it. A prequel as a standalone is one thing, but we get here a trilogy, then a series of prequels. Write the blasted books in order!

Only complaint is it’s over!!!

Wonderful story, narration, love how it intertwined with the other books. I do want more!!!!

Fantastical story

So excited to read Ezrahaddon’s story and to add more pieces to the puzzle. Wonderful!