- Title:
- The Giants’ Spear
- Author:
- Jamie Edmundson
- Release:
- January 3, 2020
- Format:
- Audiobook
- Narrartor
- Greg Patmore
- Bridget Thomas
- Series:
- The Weapon Takers Saga #4
I’ve been hung up on this series for a few years now, after 15+ listens across the 4 main books, it makes me genuinely sad to be done with it. A significant chunk of book 4 still feels like setup, chasing down the last of the weapons before the prize fight, and when “you” finally get there, it feels earned.
People are left behind, friends are lost along the way. It’s war, there are no happy endings, only the pieces that are left behind for the survivors to pick up. And I love this series all the more for it. Named characters aren’t killed off just to kill them, even unnamed character’s deaths have weight because of the journey they go on with the main cast.
I love the main cast of this series because of how real they all feel. I think that’s why I keep re-listneing to this books, and why having to move on to other books is like leaving behind a close friend. When they all have to go their separate ways at the end of the story, those who’re left that is, I feel the same emotions they feel.
The Weapon Takers Saga feels like a giant D&D game to me. A game I’ve never actually played, but it’s what I imagine D&D feels like. Where the party is all being dicked around by these asshole gods, toying with their lives, and they’re all answering the call because they feel a sense of duty and purpose. None of them know they’re the heroes of a story, they’re just rolling with the waves of bullshit that keep getting sent their way. When it’s all said and done, none of it really amounted to shit, not really. None of it needed to happen, the “gods” are simply jackasses with no empathy who don’t care about the lives of mortals, and treat them like expendible pawns in their game of chess.
The main cast, they have this indominable spirit, they refuse to surrender, and it makes them all feel more human for it. They don’t feel like characters who cease to exist the moment they’re off page. Each and every one of them feels as if they have their own goals, hopes, and ambitions, regardless of whether or not we the readers or listeners are aware of these goals. Every bit of world building, lore, history and culture in these books helps to sell that illusion, and that’s why they’ve lived rent free in my head for so long. This has easily becum one of my favorite fantasy series ever, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the stories set in this literary world.
The audio narration as always is incredible. The only thing I found to be odd, was Greg Patmore doing the internal narration for the women’s voices, when every time they spoke verbally, it was Bridget Thomas. I’ve purchased books 3 and 4 physically, and will later purchase 1 and 2, but I sometimes wonder if they’ll ever be read, because the audio narration is just so fucking good; which is a true rarity for audiobooks.