Review: Death's Beating Heart

Death's Beating Heart by Rob J. Hayes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review now live at Grimdark Magazine

Picking up just moments after the ending of Sins of the Mother, Death’s Beating Heart brings us at last to the conclusion to The Eternal War..

Eskara Helsene has come out of retirement to help fix the mess that her daughter has caused. Sirileth has brought down one of the moons in order to prevent The Maker from entering their world. While this event saved Ovaeris from that terrible fate, slamming a moon down onto the planet tends to bring catastrophic results to most of it. Saving everyone from one disaster has only opened it all up for another.

Sirileth’s actions have opened a portal to the parallel world of Sevorai, where Eskara’s ancient horror originates. That’s the good news. What’s very horribly bad is that that world is being consumed by Norvet Meruun, also known as Death’s Beating Heart. Now that the portal is open, Eska’s world is now in the path to be consumed as well.

The Corpse Queen has to unite the leaders of the world to face this Beating Heart before it is too late. Problem is, the previous four books in this series have given everyone many reasons to distrust Eska and hesitate to grant her an audience.

There is perhaps no faster way I know of to lose someone’s trust than to tell them to trust you.

Of course, Eska aka The Corpse Queen is now officially retired, and the current queen of Yenheim is Sirileth, who just brought down the moon. The two of them together can surely convince the leaders of their continent to give their support, right? What could go wrong?

Still, evil looks and angry whispers are always better than thrown rocks and mbs with murder on their mind.

This was a great conclusion to the War Eternal and the story of Eskara Helsene. What began in Book One has brought the steady reader along on a life long journey, told from the perspective of what most would consider the world of Ovaeris’s premier villain. It has been a lot of fun, and this reader in particular will miss getting in Eska’s head and dealing with a world that fears her. It’s a great character study to get into the head of what most would consider a villain and see their true motivations.

Trust me, I have unwoven enough ghosts to know that most of those who believed they died glorious deaths would much rather have lived long, unfruitful lives.

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