Age of War

Executive Summary: I thought this one started a bit slow, but once things got going it was really hard to stop listening. That makes it a pretty easy 5-star for me.Audiobook: Tim Gerard Reynolds is one of the main reasons I like Michael J. Sullivan so much. I love his narration so much that I pretty much don't want to read any of Mr. Sullivan's books simply because I like having Mr. Reynolds read them to me instead.Full ReviewI've been enjoying the First Empire books quite a lot. I miss Royce and Hadrian but this series has a huge cast of great characters that make it easy to love. I thought series started off with a bang in [b:Age of Myth 26863057 Age of Myth (The Legends of the First Empire, #1) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1507307691s/26863057.jpg 24657657] and had a solid continuation in [b:Age of Swords 32337902 Age of Swords (The Legends of the First Empire, #2) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481987017s/32337902.jpg 25336186].I was initially set to put this book in same category as Age of Swords, but as it went on it sucked me in more and more. The best books always make it hard to put down. When you do as much audio as I do, that often results in staring at walls or sitting in your car longer than you should just to squeeze in some extra time.This book had me find an extra 90 minutes of time yesterday because I refused to stop for the day without knowing how it ended. That's a lot of wall staring!With so many great characters, it's hard to pick a favorite. I think that's one of things that endears this series to me so much. A lot of the characters are broken in one way or another, but they persevere because honestly they don't have much choice.I think my favorite part of this book was the interactions between Raith and Suri. Raith had some really great one-liners, and they usually came during a conversation with her.As someone whose loved/roleplayed Elves for a long time, I struggle at times with Mr. Sullivans interpretation. Most of them are downright awful. I miss the idea of more playful/wise elves. That isn't to say they are all unlikeable, but this book fits well into the idea of “don't meet your heroes”.The world building continues to be interesting. Despite being a prequel to Riyria it's so far in the past that we basically know almost nothing. There are some pretty big mysteries I want answer to, and so far we haven't gotten much. We did learn a lot more about one character in particular, but it was one of those things where now I have a whole bunch of new questions rather than satisfaction at what I discovered.Of course this is book 3 in a now 6 book series, so there are a lot of pages for me to get some answers. I'm ready for [b:Age of Legends 22819354 Age of Legends (The Legends of the First Empire #4) Michael J. Sullivan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434746431s/22819354.jpg 42370596] right now. Especially since I know it's already been written (along with books 5 and 6). I know those all need additional editing/revision (and not to mention time for Mr. Reynolds to record the audio) but that doesn't make the waiting any easier. At least I can be happy knowing it won't be more than maybe a year until the next installment.