The Last Emperor

A Progression Fantasy Epic

By: Maxime J. Durand, Void Herald

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

He has a year left to live... unless he gains the power to kill the Gods first.

Each year, the Nightlords choose a new Emperor to rule Yohuachanca. Delicious food graces his palate. The realm’s most beautiful women fill his vast palace. Four priestesses counsel him in all matters. The life of an emperor is good, luxurious, and short...

For at the year’s end, he is sacrificed to the Nightlords under the light of the Scarlet Moon.

Iztac is the piss-poor orphan chosen to be this year’s emperor. A sacrifice bound for the altar.

But the Nightlords have made a mistake this time. For Iztac is a sorcerer, whose soul journeys into the secret underworld to plunder the secret spells of the dead. There, in the darkness, hides the power to drag the Nightlords off their throne.

He has a year to find it, or perish for good.

Iztac may not be the first emperor, but he will be the last.

Don't miss this action-packed Progression Fantasy saga with a unique spin from Maxime J. Durand, bestselling author of Vainqueur the Dragon, The Perfect Run, and Apocalypse Tamer.

©2024 Aethon Books (P)2024 Aethon Audio

Top notch dark edgy harem???

I know that doesn't sound good, but the author does a great job of really building a super intense tension in almost every chapter along with solid world building pulling from meso america.

Highly recommend!

asd

Despite loving Maxime J Durands other works, my problem with this book is manifold to the point of returning.

First, is the culture of the book being Central Native American inspired. This isn't a problem in itself, but more in how Maxime uses it. In a series like Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, the culture is introduced slowly, and you're not expected to memorize a bunch of names you've never heard before all at once. Meanwhile, I've never heard so many Aztec names all at once. I have never realized how watching so much anime and listening to so many cultivation books has helped me remember Chinese and Japanese names until this book.

Second is I just don't like the protagonist. Someone who lusts after power to the point using his first spell causes him to lose sight of everything else might be fun in some books. Someone with strong morals who lets his heart guide him might be fitting for many books. But a book that requires you to survive by playing delicate political games while being unable to die but watch a whole bunch of friends be tortured instead... I just feel like I know how it's going to go, and I don't want to go there.

Third, this is one of my least liked narrators. nuff said.

Fourth, I don't really like the casual nudity or sexual stuff. I'm not a prude, but rape, blood, violence, polygamy and more are all better done one at a time, I think.

unique concept

I'm not very familiar on aztecian mythology or whatever the correct term for it would be but this falls deeply into that territory and luckily maxime does elaborate on the gods purposes in the book but going in I was pretty confused. I don't know how deeply I'll go into this series, it's a bit dark for what I want to listen to right now, but the writing is great. A deeply more serious tone than the likes of the perfect run and vainquer but with just as good if not superior writing. I definitely enjoyed the writing here more than Vainquer. Also, even though the author mentioned in Vainquer that he was mocking harems in that series, harems and concubines are a important part of this stories plot so 🤷🏻‍♂️ I'm starting to think Maxime just can't help himself lol.

Also the choice of narrator has me off slightly, he's not bad. I've heard him from the songs of chaos series, and he plays the coming of age teenager voice well but as I am no longer a teenager I feel sort of disconnected from the character in both cases. But the narrator does do the character justice in his role of emperor and the dark tones underlying every action, as it's easy to forget our MC is only 16.

Although I gave this book overall a 4 it's only because of personal gripes that may not apply to you.

It’s a Maxime J Durand book alright.

I loved "The Perfect Run," really liked "Vainquer the Dragon," but "Apocalypse Tamer" was a bit too silly for me. To give you an idea of my tastes. I thought this book was pretty ok, but probably not "for me."

I had a really hard time with the Aztec names of characters, deities, places, etc. especially when listening to the audiobook without the text in front of me. This book was basically a love letter to Aztec mythology like the Percy Jackson books are for Greek mythology.

It starts off really slowly, but by the end of the book I do want to know what happens next. Not enough to immediately buy book 2, but I will likely get it later when all of my favorite series are out of new books.