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  • The Wraiths of War

  • Obsidian Heart, Book 3
  • By: Mark Morris
  • Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
  • Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (647 ratings)
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The Wraiths of War cover art

The Wraiths of War

By: Mark Morris
Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
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Summary

Alex Locke is desperately trying to hold on to the disparate threads of the complex web of time he has created. He travels to the First World War, living through the horrors of trench warfare in order to befriend a young soldier crucial to his story, then to the 1930s to uncover the secrets of a mysterious stage magician.

He moves back and forth in time, always with the strange and terrifying Dark Man on his heels, gradually getting closer to uncovering the true nature of his destiny with the obsidian heart.

©2016 Mark Morris (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about The Wraiths of War

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

I wish I'd liked it more

book three, and in all honesty it was so rambling and kind of boring I doubt I would have finished it if I hadn't felt an obligation to the trilogy! none of the action or suspense of the first too, just long confusing and with an irritating amount of narration. sorry!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I gave up halfway through.

the story drags on with nothing much happening and then when it looks like some plot is coming, all the characters are too stupid to ask the right questions. When it became apparent no one was going to work out what was going on anytime soon, I gave up listening.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tying up loose ends...

In a lot of ways this was probably the best book of the series. It felt like a very different story to The Wolves of London, as the supernatural element fell into the background and time travel became the main focus, but made for a satisfying end to the trilogy.

I think others who struggled with the 2nd book would do well to persevere with book 3. There were still some slow sections and far less action than the previous books, but the direction of the story surprised me in a good way.

I praised book 2 for handling the idea of time travel in a very classy way and not relying on lazy "time travel can fix everything" tropes. This mostly continues here (ignoring the first "plot line fixing" chapter) although at a faster pace, not staying in one place for too long.

By the time I reached the halfway point the main story line felt finished and I wondered how the book would use it's second half to wrap up the series. By the end the story is definitively finished, doing very well to answer all of the important questions and adding several revelations that I personally didn't see coming. You certainly won't view book 1 in the same away again!

Overall a satisfying conclusion to a very intriguing series - if you've started the journey I recommend you see it through.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Negative or honest review..?

Any additional comments?

Having read the previous editions of the obsidian heart, I was looking forward to this. It started off great, I loved hearing Alex's adventures in the trenches of France during the first world war. It was captivating. But then things seemed to slow down.

I became disinterested. All of a sudden the storyline slowed down and the events which took place after seemed menial and they lacked something for me. I don't quite know what, but it just lacked that bit of oomph that captivated me at the start of the book.

Overall I am quite disappointed, but I'm only being honest and it's only my personal opinion. Onwukwe is a master storyteller, he really knows how to bring a story to life and give such richness to the characters. It's for this reason I couldn't score this title lower, or dissuade others from giving it a try. Maybe it was owing to the length of time in between me finishing the last book in the series to picking up this one: but it just didn't cut it for me.

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4 people found this helpful

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

fantastic finale

this has to be read in context of the last book from The Wolves of London series. however the story is strong and the author intelligent. A perfect ending.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Tying up the loose ends, marred by lazy narration

The story does little but tie up the loose ends of the time travelling Alex with little extra suspense. However it was the narrator who annoyed me more. He sounded at times like he was reading a text in class with emphasis and breaks in totally the wrong places making the listener work to imagine what the author meant.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A stomping good yarn

In this final part of the trilogy I finally relaxed and stopped trying to guess what would happen. I let Morris reveal his imagination to me. Although the book's context is a storyline that readers became familiar with from 2 previous books this is Alex's journey behind the scenes into the mechanics of what it takes to sustain that storyline: Alex's life in 2010-2012. Surprisingly this involved travelling to the 40s and 80s. Detail of life in the 40s kept me excited. Finales are usually an anti climax but the Epilogue was satisfying. I was, however, left wondering where the obsidian heart came from and why it chose Alex, this simple man who wanted a simple life. That remained a mystery. But I didnt mind too much.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

A wonderful story with an ultimately satisfying ending. I enjoyed every syllable! Thank you, Mark

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Was it worth it?

I enjoyed the story but I can't describe it as thrilling, a little underwhelming really. The problem I have with this book, like the preceding two, it that there us too much filler. Every paragraph has an extra sentence thrown in for good measure. It is as if the author knew that the story was not strong enough to support three volumes; and I would agree with him. As with volumes 1 and 2, I listened to this at 1.3x speed, anything lower was frustrating, like listening to that friend who is trying and failing to remember a story and therefore you lose interest.

Was it worth it? I enjoyed the story itself even if it was spun out, a little pedestrian, and sometimes predictable. It was very well read and the characters felt real. Would I recommend it to somebody else? Given the 30 hours plus investment required, I don't think I could unless I knew it was their thing.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Dreadful narration

Dreadful narration, so bad that I returned the whole trilogy. I cannot give an opinion on the story as I did not get past chapter 3. Same tone for all the characters so almost impossible to differentiate between them. I have had to give the story 1 star in order to submit this review. That maybe unfair

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1 person found this helpful