Review copy of audiobook received from the author in exchange for an honest review

 

Dawn Razed by Josh Erikson

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Ethereal Earth (Book #4)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Published: 13th December 2022 by Josh Erikson (self-published ebook) and Audible Studios

---

Dawn Razed might have taken its time, but it was worth it.

A self-published series that’s also superbly self-narrated by the author, the Ethereal Earth books (and audiobooks) are some of the best urban fantasy reads out there, in my opinion.  I’ve enjoyed these stories tremendously not only because they were so much fun, but because both character development and worldbuilding were excellently executed.

It took me a while to get back into the world given that it’s been quite a while since I’ve read the third book, Blight Marked. Fortunately, Erikson created a recap in a short story format called “Brief Gambit”, which really helped to jog my memory of the key events that occurred to our main protagonist, Gabriel Delling, since he discovered there’s a strange whole world of magical beings and creatures that co-exist alongside humans on Earth.

Each book has gone from strength to strength, with the pinnacle of the first arc culminating in previous book, which had an absolute stunner of a epic, climactic ending. Gabriel, or ‘Gabe’ as he’s more affectionately known as, has finally accepted his legacy, in his own way, and it had been incredible being on this journey with him. That it took three whole decent-sized books for him to come into his own was the right move by Erikson as the only way this could be achieved realistically was by giving him time and room to grow. Right from the start of this book, Gabe found himself being thrown into the role as the leader of his small group of found family as they sought allies to fight the impending threat of an all-devouring darkness. In the meantime, he still has to try to figure out what he actually can, or cannot do, with his powers, and time was not on his side. Gabe even had some badass scenes in this book that made me feel so proud of how far he has come. It was hard-earned, and it felt so right.

The key supporting characters were also equally important. Aside from the contribution of their unique powers and strengths to the larger cause, his relationship with Heather and friendship with the rest of them provide the much-needed emotional beats in Gabe’s character arc. The story in Dawn Razed was actually quite dark, and without heart, the narrative could quickly became way too intense. The highlight of this book for me was, without a doubt, of Gabe ‘winning over the enemy’. I would like to say that he did it in his usual way, but there was nothing usual with the way the plotline unraveled. But neither was it unexpected that Gabe did what he did. Ah, it was just so exciting and so good!

I’ve come to the point where I’m at a loss at describing the worldbuilding.  Yes, it’s urban fantasy in that it’s based on planet Earth, and there are magical creatures not dissimilar to vampires, witches, warlocks, elves, monsters, etc.  But you also have otherworldly realms, and cosmic powers that could threaten all of existence – hence the name of the series.   It’s quite unlike anything that I’ve read in urban fantasy so far, while not being completely unfamiliar.  And also thoroughly, fascinatingly well-conceived.

My introduction into the Ethereal Earth series was via audiobooks when I first received a review copy for the blog. While audio is not the typical medium in which I consume my books, I’ve listened to quite a number of them which were narrated by well-known SFF narrators such as Michael Kramer, Luke Daniels, Tim Gerard Reynolds and Ray Porter.  I genuinely thought that Erikson did a stellar job self-narrating his books. His ability to voice the characters distinctively, and to deliver all the right emotional nuances and inflections were all on point.  And he continued to demonstrate this proficiency well into this fourth instalment, which was by far the longest one yet.

If urban fantasy is your jam, and you’re looking for something a bit different, the Ethereal Earth series is definitely worth your time.

Review by TS Chan

---

You can purchase the book and/or audiobook from: Amazon UK | Amazon US

View all my reviews