Review: An eye for an eye
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2014
In his fourth in the Lost Civilizations series, author Vaughn Heppner turns up the sword and sorcery in "Gog." Readers meet the oft-mentioned Lod, a seraph of amazing resolve who considers himself the "knife of Elohim." Lod is a hero in the tradition of Conan the Barbarian. His fiery blue eyes tell those around him he's either crazy or possessed by the spirit of his belief in Elohim. Even the vile first born -- that would be Gog -- and their spawn fear him. They don't know why exactly. But in a land controlled by evil, Lod is the one who says to heck with it. At the outset, Lod cures a leper by touching him. That leper then understands that it's his destiny to help Lod escape the buried-alive confines where Lod has been imprisoned by Gog, a disgusting creature treated as a god by the cutthroats, pirates and criminals of rough-hewn Shamgar. Gog kills everything that displeases him. He's a subterranean dweller and polluted with evil. Heppner makes his readers want more than nothing else for Lod to kill the demon. But Lod is human. Heppner doesn't make his journey simple. Overcoming evil is hardly simple. I loved this tale. It's right in the vein of the best in sword and sorcery.