Review: The Fifth Thumping Good Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2012
It just doesn't stop!  Heppner keeps writing one excellent novel after another in the Lost Civilizations series.  Yet again, Mr. Heppner gives us a thumping good read of the first order.  This is book five and it returns to the tale directly where we left off in book four.  Lod did not kill Gog, instead blinded his single eye.  While Gog can still retain his oracular visions, his loss of physical sight has driven him insane causing him to turn on those closest to him. Gog has sent his son Dagon, his grandson Chemosh, his great grandson Ut, and Nylah the Knife, who is an assassin to the isle of the behemoth.  They must capture Elohim's behemoth and control it so they can use it to war on the human world.  You see, Chemosh, Ut, and others with them are beastmasters with Nephilim blood.  Chemosh is also a necromancer.  Ut is a cannibal leper.  Nylah has a drug Gog gave her to control the behemoth if all else fails.Of course there's more to this story, out on the isle is a Heavenly artifact left behind by a bene elohim named Baal before he was defeated by the Shining Ones and sent down to Tartarus.  Dagon wants the artifact because it will make him a God on Earth - bigger than his father Gog.  Lod, Keros and Kemar must stop them, but Kemar is Dagon's prisoner.  Dagon and Nylah have been ordered by Gog to capture Lod and bring him back to Shamgar alive for his punishment.  Now the story really gets rocking.  There is much violence, necromancy, soul possession, excavation, ancient ruins, mind control, and a last raging battle.  Who will control the behemoth if any?  Who will find the Heavenly artifact and become a God on Earth?Again Heppner's characters jump off the pages in full 3D detail.  We get to see the cunning and uncertainty of Dagon, the arrogance of Ut, the down-to-earth, common sense and self protective instincts of Nylah, the power grubbing arrogance of Chemosh.  Even secondary characters such as the Rovian warrior band that helps Lod at first is represented as individuals such as Eber who is their war leader - an honorable and brave man who will put the cause of right over personal danger.  The pacing on this book was just as swift as the others but on this one, the ending was a bit rushed. Hmmm!  Don't know what to say about that, but the rest of the book is stellar.I would highly recommend all five of these books to anyone who likes epic fantasy, angels, mythology, or just a thumping good read.  I am on to book six.