The Books of the Dead: Parts 1-6

Vesik 9-14 (Vesik Series Box Set, Book 4)

By: Eric Asher

Narrated by: Erin Moon

Damian Vesik is lost, trapped inside a corrupted shell of his own power. The Mad King is coming to claim his necromancer.

With time running out, it falls to Damian’s allies to save their chimichanga-loving friend as he teeters on the edge of oblivion.

Strap in for macabre thrills and supernatural chills in Eric R. Asher’s high-octane urban fantasy series!

The Book of the Ghost (book 9)

A battle lost. A friend fallen. Cue the heroic undead.

Vicky shouldn’t be alive. Knowing she has necromancer Damian Vesik to thank for her second chance, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to return the favor.

The Book of the Claw (book 10)

A pack torn. An enemy revealed. The werewolves face a long-forgotten foe...

Vicky, Hugh, and the pack must protect Kansas City from the rising darkness even as Nudd’s will threatens to crumble the city itself.

The Book of the Sea (book 11)

A kingdom fallen. A queen victorious. The return to a past long since abandoned...

With Damian trapped in the Abyss, Nixie ventures to a lost city in search of a powerful artifact known as the Eye of Atlantis.

The Book of the Staff (book 12)

A demon unleashed. An ally imprisoned. Zola risks a pact that could kill them all.

Zola Adannaya, necromancer and mentor to Damian Vesik, seeks an ancient artifact in order to save her student. Unfortunately, the only beings with the knowledge she needs are demons she trapped long ago.

The Book of the Rune (book 13)

A haunted mage. A weapon lost. Sometimes, the dead return.

Ward embarks on a quest through the outskirts of the Golden City, which is rife with Unseelie Fae and iron-touched alike.

The Book of the Sails (book 14)

A demon unleashed. A queen restored. A quest into a realm of fire and death...

The Burning Lands, once again, beckon Vicky as she and Zola fight to release Tessrian on the realm of the fire demons. But all is not what it seems.

©2019, 2020 Eric R. Asher (P)2020 Eric R. Asher

Eric Asher is a mastermind!

I absolutely love this series. I miss hearing Bill's voice , but Erin did a fabulous job! can't wait to finish the series

still a fantastic listen

new narrator does an excellent job with the stories. story is ongoing and always leaves me wanting more!!!

Blues Brothers without Jake or Elroy & cliffhanger

With the exception of a mean spirited taunt, acknowledging the cliffhanger from the previous book and then barreling on, here there be no chimichangas. Seriously, not one chimichanga joke in this six novella collection. Even worse, the main character of the series has a single, one line cameo. Seriously!

After eight full length books (available in a single 75 hour collection … if Audible decides to offer it again), there are ten novellas featuring the various supporting characters as they quest for Macguffins, oh excuse me, I mean artifacts, to bring our necromancer back from limbo. Only the author has randomly chosen to break up the ten novellas into two different collections, for no good reason that I can see except a money grab… or to be mean spirited. And, there’s no Table of Contents, which is lazy and just plain mean. Sensing a pattern? Me too: it’s a bad idea to care more about quantity than quality.

Honestly, without the excellence of narrator M oon, I think this would be a one star listen. She has an amazing range of voices, which is critical in this series with its gobs and gobs of characters. She also provides much needing coloring in between the very rough lines drawn by the author, so that flat characters fill in and come to life. For example, in the second novella, when they run into a stone giant, there’s zero history or description given. Is this someone like Korg from Guardians, Thing from Fantastic Four, or the Rock from Galaxy Quest? At least Moon gives him a gravelly (pun intended) voice to assist my imagination. Of course, as soon as the stone giant appears and utters a few menacing lines, he’s cowed by just a threat from our “I’m with the band” supporting character.

You’d better have listened to the previous books, and recently, because there are no recaps, backstories, or physical descriptions given for the ghost, wolf, witch, water naiad, mage, mentor necromancer, Gaia, bad Fae, good Fae, pirate, dragon … I think you get the picture.

“It is as they say, comparing cats to oranges.”
There are a few meager quotables and a smatter of humor. The most detail is spent on the Ents (because when you write kitchen sink UF, you poach far and wide). But nothing that drew me in.

And another random cliffhanger ending. Sure, some of the characters get together and use the Macguffins to, I don’t know, build the base of the magical super-Macguffin that will bring Damien back … in another collection of novellas. My OCD may compel me to get the final four novellas in the Book of the Dead collection (I will wait until the end of time for a sale, tho). For those that listened thru book 8, however, I recommend skipping novellas 9-18 and picking up with Damien in a full length book 19.

New voice, different characters

I love the finality of these books. Brings closure to many untied threads that developed in the Vesik world. The one distraction is that the reader has changed and with it, the portrayal of the characters. I couldn't help but miss the original reader, bringing the voice of characters like Leviticus, Euphemia, and Mike the Demon. The characters in this set sound different and with different intonations bringing about new character representing old characters.
EDIT: just opened Dreams of the Forgotten Dead, RIP Mr. Dufris.

this is where the writer lost his characters.

so up untill this point the books have been great. Unfortunately the writer took the story on a convoluted joy ride. The main character is in limbo so he is writing from the perspective of other charators. Ignoring his characters barely fleshed out motivations, he makes his "dolls" (because they are not fleshed out characters) follow his crazy maze of terrible logic...

Meh

I enjoyed the first set of books narrated by William.
Unfortunate that he was unable to continue the rest of the series. The new narrator did a very good job. For myself, I struggle to be captivated in the story with many female narrators. I will be listening to the book and realize scenes and conversations had changed while my mind had drifted onto thoughts in my head rather than what was happening in the story. It may just be me. William did a great job with voices and when that changed it was hard for me to feel like it was still the same story. After finishing books of the dead parts one through six, I’m not sure if I want to struggle through just to find out how the next book goes.