Review: The Final Lost Civilizations Novel - Simply Excellent!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2012
The Saga of Lod is the sixth and final book in the Lost Civilations Series.  And what's a series it is!  I have finished the six books in the series in five days - I couldn't stop!  One person I know put it best.  He said that these books are addicting.  I completely agree.  They are compelling, interesting, satisfying and thoroughly addicting.  I'm at a total loss at what next to read.Book six goes back in time to Lod's life after he escaped from Shamgar where he was a slave and rat bait.  It was in Shamgar that he first received Elohim's vision regarding killing Nephilim and burning Shamgar to the ground.  He has now become the blade of Elohim; righting wrongs by killing Nephilim who prey on human.  In the first episode we find him in the slave pit of Moloch, a First Born, fighting for his life for the entertainment of Nephilim and Giants.  Next we find him in the mines of Tartarus.  Mining silver for one of Moloch's son.  Moloch wants to first break than kill him, but his son has some ulterior motives...  Next we find Lod high in a mountain fastness.  He is helping the people build a high hidden stockade to be safe from the headhunters.  They are unexpectedly attacked by a Nephilim and his slavers and necromancer; leaving Lod pinned to a wall by a huge javelin and left for dead as they march most of the village away as slaves.  Next Lod shows up as a mercenary for the commander of Assus.  He is set out to spy on the Zimrians with an Arkite named Hull.  It will be the time of the Blood Moon of Esus (a First Born), and the commander wants to know what the Zimrians are up to.  In grand style, Lod does his best for Elohim and stirs everything up.Throughout the book, Lod is either the hunter or the hunted.  There are times when he is both.  He is always true to his role as the blade of Elohim and strikes fear even into the hearts of the First Born.  Unfortunately, even though he saves two eligible women, he never gets to settle down and enjoy them.  They like him, they think he's a hero and they owe him their lives - so let the boy get lucky.  Even the Giants and the Nephilim get lucky.  Why not Lod?  Sarah would have loved him.  Mari would have loved him.  Mari and Sara both had courage.  Each would have been a good wife.  Mari probably would have hunted with him.  He should marry Mari in the next book.And about the next book, to answer your question Mr. Heppner, please reconnect Lod with Joash and Lord Uriah, Adah and all the rest to fight the rot Gog started in the cities of men, like Capthalo, Dishon, etc.  Because Gog has gone insane it will make it hit or miss with his allies.  Of course, many are dead, either by his own hand, by Lod, Keros, the Behemoth, or have decided to leave like Nylah and the Reavers.  I'm sure that between Gog and Yorgash in Poseidonis something interesting could be hatched.  Now that many of the older Giants are dead and some of the Gibborim and the slith, I'm sure that Yorgash would like to get a dog in this hunt, so to speak. Just one readers opinion.Again, we have a new cast of characters (except for Lod).  Heppner builds each character with loving care.  Each character in each of the stories is finely crafted to be an individual with appropriate thoughts and feelings that make them all 3D and genuine; whether human, First Born, Nephilim, necromancer, etc.  Even secondary characters are fleashed out, such as Hull the Arkite, who will risk much for gold but not much else, or Balak, a pit fighter, who tries to kill Lod, but when Lod won't cut off his head because he is too humane, Balak has a change of heart about being a slave to the First Born and Nephilim, and with his dying breath, helps Lod to victory.  These characters are all credible and believable.  And even though Balak had a change of heart, it  was credible given the circumstances in the story.  There were no WTF moments anywhere, no innappropriate behaviour moving the story forward.The pacing in the stories was as swift as ever; broken by heightened by stretches of dramatic tension.  At one point in time you think Lod is dead.  That is not good.  With all four stories you dive in and get lost, only to dive back out again when one is finished.  You quickly dive back in again, not wanting to be unconnected with Lod and this glorious world.  When you finally dive out at the end of the last story and know that the experience is over, the first thing I did before writing this review was to look at other Vaughn Heppner books, hoping for something similar.  There's a hole where this series used to be.  I need to find something to fill it.Anyway, I would heartily recommend all six books in this series to anyone who likes epic fantasy, angels, mythology, or just a thumping good read of the first order.  Just buy it!  You won't be sorry.