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Hero Forged

Ethereal Earth, Book 1

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Hero Forged

By: Josh Erikson
Narrated by: Josh Erikson
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About this listen

Gabe thought he had covered all the angles, but it’s tough to plan a contingency for accidentally trapping an evil god in your brain.

Gabriel Delling might call himself a professional con artist, but when walking superstitions start trying to bite his face off, his charm is shockingly unhelpful. It turns out living nightmares almost never appreciate a good joke. Together with a succubus who insists on constantly saving his life, Gabe desperately tries to survive a new reality that suddenly features demons, legends, and a giant locust named Dale - all of whom pretty much hate his guts.

And when an ancient horror comes hunting for the spirit locked in his head, Gabe finds himself faced with the excruciating choice between death...or becoming some kind of freaking hero.

Hero Forged is the first book in the new series, Ethereal Earth, a modern fantasy adventure that challenges the natures of myth, humanity, and what it means to be the good guy.

©2018 Josh Erikson (P)2018 Josh Erikson
Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Scary Paranormal Comedy Succubus City
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What listeners say about Hero Forged

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Really enjoyable UF!

This sucked me in by having a really fun sounding blurb and, for once, I felt like the story really lived up to what the blurb promised! The was a really fun UF. I felt like the author got the balance spot on between the darker aspects of the story and the humour. It also really helps that the main character, Gabriel, was a charming and likeable lead character so it was easy to get invested in his story as he got sucked into some crazy supernatural happenings.

This was narrated by the author, Josh Erikson, himself. That is usually a big no no for me as most authors are TERRIBLE audio narrators. I took a chance on this one mostly because it had such a fun sounding blurb and because I got the audio for a bargain price. It turned out to be a great decision as Josh Erikson might just be the very best author/narrator I've encountered so far. He was not just tolerable but actually good and fairly talented! He did not have the typical deep baritone voice most professional male audio narrators have but he was clear-spoken and affable sounding. He was also good at dealing with both the character voices and the general narration. His voices were great for all the characters in the story and he had the ability to voice act and so could convey the correct emotions into the scenes he was reading. The best compliment I can pay him as an audio narrator is that if I spotted him narrating a book he had not written himself I'd still be happy to buy it safe in the knowledge the audio had excellent narration if nothing else! I'm rarely a fan of authors self narrating but in this case I do hope that Erikson sticks to narrating the rest of this series himself as he did a great job!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant, Scary, Fun

I loved this story! It was the right amount of mystery, fantasy, horror and comedy that I needed to read after tackling ‘Ulysses’ for... some reason I thought was smart.

Either way, the characters are brilliantly thought out, even the small fry, and the story is clever without trying to be so smart as to confuse you. The ending twists included some I saw coming and relished when they did, and some I didn’t see coming and enjoyed discovering.

Overall, ten pishtacos out of ten!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really enjoyable and unusual fantasy story.

Very good and unusual story with well thought out characters and good world development. Really enjoyed the narration and cannot wait for the next book in the series.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Take a chance on this, you won’t regret it!

I’d been looking for a while to find a new universe to delve into and when I was unlucky enough to have Covid kick my arse for the second time, I stumbled across this little gem.

The first thing that caught my attention was the authors intro to the novel. It felt real and inspired me to give the thing a go due to its humour and humility. From there on in I was hooked. The premise of the story was great and the fact that the leads were not squeaky clean was a breath of fresh air.

The pacing of the story was pretty break neck, and I found myself racing through the chapters employing that ‘I’ll just read one more before I fall asleep and miss my alarm for work’ method that all great stories force you to do. I was invested in the characters extremely quickly and could often relate to the inner monologue of Gabe.

I recommend this book to anyone who has a heart and enjoys excellent story telling with well plotted twists and turns. In fact I’ve already convinced a friend of mine to take a chance on it.

Give it a go, you won’t regret it!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

genuine

This book is very original in its approach, which is rather refreshing in a lot of ways, combined with the earnestness of the writer makes it awesome. I'd it reccomend highly.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Bit rough around the edges but overall very good.

This was a very entertaining audio book, full of engaging characters and rich lore. It was well paced and had a plot that kept me gripped from beginning to end. There is lots of great tension building throughout, in which I was genuinely on the edge of my seat wanting the heros to succeed and I shared in their triumphs when they did. The author (and narrator) paint a vivid picture of the world that really helps to bring the characters and their actions to life in a very enjoyable way.

The book falls down a little bit due to the protagonist escaping death one to many times due to dumb luck. He's a con man, I would have liked to have seen a bit more clever trickery in his escapes. Also feels that sometimes the characters make decisions based on what the plot needs them to do rather than through their personal characteristics.

With the above being said through, it was still an extremely fun ride and I'm very much looking forward to the second book in the series!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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great book

This book is one of the best ones I have listened to in while. It puts a new spin on things that I enjoyed greatly.

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Enjoyable, irreverent, fun

I liked it, good spin on an old trope. Don’t get why the old gods would still have so much power though

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Overall great book!

Great book, great story and great narration.

I was a little sceptical at first with this book as the author, being a first time novelist, had no prior titles to go on in terms of credibility but I'm glad I gave it a shot. Strongly anticipating the next book of the series.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Stunning debut

Josh blends the amateur energy of passion with a seriously adept story that's been polished to a mirror sheen. This urban fantasy novel brings together a lot of influences, and eagle eyes will spot notes from some particular 90s movies - but the resulting work is never derivative, and the author's good humor and humanity shines underneath. Well done.

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