Fate Lashed was a really good follow up to the book Hero Forged. Once again, I listened to the audiobook, and once again, Josh Erikson did a fantastic job at narrating the book. Fate Lashed continues to follow the story of the conman Gabrielle Delling, and his succubus friend, Heather.
I didn’t much touch on their relationship in my review of book one; they’d only just met each other then and there was still a lot for them to work out. Now, they have a very complicated relationship with some fantastic chemistry. The two of them are a joy to watch as they figure out how they fit in each other’s lives.
Once again, Gabe turns out to be the most reluctant hero you could possibly find. He’s roped into this epic quest to save the universe from an evil god and “the darkness”; however, he isn’t too sure if the people he’s working for are much better than the evil god. There’s a lot of good character growth for Gabe throughout the story as he deals with his inner demons, the loss of a loved one, and much more.
The world building and lore is also very well done. Fate Lashed is set on Earth, but there are these things called Umbra which are sort of like magical creatures created by our imaginations. This means that fairytale and storybook creatures aren’t uncommon, however, they’re often a bit different to what someone would expect as different tales from different areas have impacted how they’re viewed.
I only really had one complaint with the book, and that was that I didn’t always remember who recurring characters were or how they’d been important in Hero Forged. It would’ve been good to have a bit of a recap of what happened in book one, or when a recurring character reappeared a brief summary of how we knew them.
Overall, I really enjoyed Fate Lashed. The audiobook was done fantastically, the characters compelling, and it was really good fun to listen to. I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy:
- Urban Fantasy
- Reluctant Heroes
- Charismatic MCs
- Banter between characters
