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Lost Civilization #6
The Lod Saga
Lod the fanatical pit slave ranges the Pre-Cataclysmic Earth to confront the Nephilim, the offspring of the fallen angels.
Where once seething Lod has passed, no one who lives forgets. Now, down the trails of past battles, Lod travels again. To the Stadium of Swords in Nod, where a god sits among his beauties, watching the slaughter in his glory. To the choking depths of the mines of Tartarus, where Lod faces a primeval terror that once roamed the stars. To the camp of a slave-hunting giant, seeking the perfect vessel to bear his seed. To the tree of death itself where Lod retrieves a woman to love.
THE LOD SAGA is the sixth book in Lost Civilizations, a fantasy by bestselling author Vaughn Heppner.
*These early tales of Lod were previously published as three separate novellas: THE BEAST OF ELOHIM, MANUS FARSTRIDER and THE SWORD OF ESUS.
Where once seething Lod has passed, no one who lives forgets. Now, down the trails of past battles, Lod travels again. To the Stadium of Swords in Nod, where a god sits among his beauties, watching the slaughter in his glory. To the choking depths of the mines of Tartarus, where Lod faces a primeval terror that once roamed the stars. To the camp of a slave-hunting giant, seeking the perfect vessel to bear his seed. To the tree of death itself where Lod retrieves a woman to love.
THE LOD SAGA is the sixth book in Lost Civilizations, a fantasy by bestselling author Vaughn Heppner.
*These early tales of Lod were previously published as three separate novellas: THE BEAST OF ELOHIM, MANUS FARSTRIDER and THE SWORD OF ESUS.
- GenresFantasy
259 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 18, 2011
42 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Vaughn Heppner
145 books569 followersYou can visit Vaughn at www.vaughnheppner.com
I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine.
I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.
I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine.
I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 26, 2015
Lod lives on...
More adventures of Lod. His faith is his driving force. His desire to slay first born is powerful. I've already downloaded the next book in this series.
More adventures of Lod. His faith is his driving force. His desire to slay first born is powerful. I've already downloaded the next book in this series.
April 6, 2023
Nice group of 3 short stories featuring Lod in his continuing battles with the Nephilim. The first tells his story of being a pit-fighter, then we find him condemned to the silver mines and finally doing battle with Esus.
An interesting look at some of his back story.
An interesting look at some of his back story.
May 28, 2019
Can't get enough of poor Lod
As all the previous books poor Lid can't seem to get a break, someone always needs rescued. Very good book.
As all the previous books poor Lid can't seem to get a break, someone always needs rescued. Very good book.
April 30, 2012
The Saga of Lod is the sixth and final book in the Lost Civilations Series. And what's a series it is! I have finished the six books in the series in five days - I couldn't stop! One person I know put it best. He said that these books are addicting. I completely agree. They are compelling, interesting, satisfying and thoroughly addicting. I'm at a total loss at what next to read.
Book six goes back in time to Lod's life after he escaped from Shamgar where he was a slave and rat bait. It was in Shamgar that he first received Elohim's vision regarding killing Nephilim and burning Shamgar to the ground. He has now become the blade of Elohim; righting wrongs by killing Nephilim who prey on human. In the first episode we find him in the slave pit of Moloch, a First Born, fighting for his life for the entertainment of Nephilim and Giants. Next we find him in the mines of Tartarus. Mining silver for one of Moloch's son. Moloch wants to first break than kill him, but his son has some ulterior motives... Next we find Lod high in a mountain fastness. He is helping the people build a high hidden stockade to be safe from the headhunters. They are unexpectedly attacked by a Nephilim and his slavers and necromancer; leaving Lod pinned to a wall by a huge javelin and left for dead as they march most of the village away as slaves. Next Lod shows up as a mercenary for the commander of Assus. He is set out to spy on the Zimrians with an Arkite named Hull. It will be the time of the Blood Moon of Esus (a First Born), and the commander wants to know what the Zimrians are up to. In grand style, Lod does his best for Elohim and stirs everything up.
Throughout the book, Lod is either the hunter or the hunted. There are times when he is both. He is always true to his role as the blade of Elohim and strikes fear even into the hearts of the First Born. Unfortunately, even though he saves two eligible women, he never gets to settle down and enjoy them. They like him, they think he's a hero and they owe him their lives - so let the boy get lucky. Even the Giants and the Nephilim get lucky. Why not Lod? Sarah would have loved him. Mari would have loved him. Mari and Sara both had courage. Each would have been a good wife. Mari probably would have hunted with him. He should marry Mari in the next book.
And about the next book, to answer your question Mr. Heppner, please reconnect Lod with Joash and Lord Uriah, Adah and all the rest to fight the rot Gog started in the cities of men, like Capthalo, Dishon, etc. Because Gog has gone insane it will make it hit or miss with his allies. Of course, many are dead, either by his own hand, by Lod, Keros, the Behemoth, or have decided to leave like Nylah and the Reavers. I'm sure that between Gog and Yorgash in Poseidonis something interesting could be hatched. Now that many of the older Giants are dead and some of the Gibborim and the slith, I'm sure that Yorgash would like to get a dog in this hunt, so to speak. Just one readers opinion.
Again, we have a new cast of characters (except for Lod). Heppner builds each character with loving care. Each character in each of the stories is finely crafted to be an individual with appropriate thoughts and feelings that make them all 3D and genuine; whether human, First Born, Nephilim, necromancer, etc. Even secondary characters are fleashed out, such as Hull the Arkite, who will risk much for gold but not much else, or Balak, a pit fighter, who tries to kill Lod, but when Lod won't cut off his head because he is too humane, Balak has a change of heart about being a slave to the First Born and Nephilim, and with his dying breath, helps Lod to victory. These characters are all credible and believable. And even though Balak had a change of heart, it was credible given the circumstances in the story. There were no WTF moments anywhere, no innappropriate behaviour moving the story forward.
The pacing in the stories was as swift as ever; broken by heightened by stretches of dramatic tension. At one point in time you think Lod is dead. That is not good. With all four stories you dive in and get lost, only to dive back out again when one is finished. You quickly dive back in again, not wanting to be unconnected with Lod and this glorious world. When you finally dive out at the end of the last story and know that the experience is over, the first thing I did before writing this review was to look at other Vaughn Heppner books, hoping for something similar. There's a hole where this series used to be. I need to find something to fill it.
Anyway, I would heartily recommend all six books in this series to anyone who likes epic fantasy, angels, mythology, or just a thumping good read of the first order. Just buy it! You won't be sorry.
Book six goes back in time to Lod's life after he escaped from Shamgar where he was a slave and rat bait. It was in Shamgar that he first received Elohim's vision regarding killing Nephilim and burning Shamgar to the ground. He has now become the blade of Elohim; righting wrongs by killing Nephilim who prey on human. In the first episode we find him in the slave pit of Moloch, a First Born, fighting for his life for the entertainment of Nephilim and Giants. Next we find him in the mines of Tartarus. Mining silver for one of Moloch's son. Moloch wants to first break than kill him, but his son has some ulterior motives... Next we find Lod high in a mountain fastness. He is helping the people build a high hidden stockade to be safe from the headhunters. They are unexpectedly attacked by a Nephilim and his slavers and necromancer; leaving Lod pinned to a wall by a huge javelin and left for dead as they march most of the village away as slaves. Next Lod shows up as a mercenary for the commander of Assus. He is set out to spy on the Zimrians with an Arkite named Hull. It will be the time of the Blood Moon of Esus (a First Born), and the commander wants to know what the Zimrians are up to. In grand style, Lod does his best for Elohim and stirs everything up.
Throughout the book, Lod is either the hunter or the hunted. There are times when he is both. He is always true to his role as the blade of Elohim and strikes fear even into the hearts of the First Born. Unfortunately, even though he saves two eligible women, he never gets to settle down and enjoy them. They like him, they think he's a hero and they owe him their lives - so let the boy get lucky. Even the Giants and the Nephilim get lucky. Why not Lod? Sarah would have loved him. Mari would have loved him. Mari and Sara both had courage. Each would have been a good wife. Mari probably would have hunted with him. He should marry Mari in the next book.
And about the next book, to answer your question Mr. Heppner, please reconnect Lod with Joash and Lord Uriah, Adah and all the rest to fight the rot Gog started in the cities of men, like Capthalo, Dishon, etc. Because Gog has gone insane it will make it hit or miss with his allies. Of course, many are dead, either by his own hand, by Lod, Keros, the Behemoth, or have decided to leave like Nylah and the Reavers. I'm sure that between Gog and Yorgash in Poseidonis something interesting could be hatched. Now that many of the older Giants are dead and some of the Gibborim and the slith, I'm sure that Yorgash would like to get a dog in this hunt, so to speak. Just one readers opinion.
Again, we have a new cast of characters (except for Lod). Heppner builds each character with loving care. Each character in each of the stories is finely crafted to be an individual with appropriate thoughts and feelings that make them all 3D and genuine; whether human, First Born, Nephilim, necromancer, etc. Even secondary characters are fleashed out, such as Hull the Arkite, who will risk much for gold but not much else, or Balak, a pit fighter, who tries to kill Lod, but when Lod won't cut off his head because he is too humane, Balak has a change of heart about being a slave to the First Born and Nephilim, and with his dying breath, helps Lod to victory. These characters are all credible and believable. And even though Balak had a change of heart, it was credible given the circumstances in the story. There were no WTF moments anywhere, no innappropriate behaviour moving the story forward.
The pacing in the stories was as swift as ever; broken by heightened by stretches of dramatic tension. At one point in time you think Lod is dead. That is not good. With all four stories you dive in and get lost, only to dive back out again when one is finished. You quickly dive back in again, not wanting to be unconnected with Lod and this glorious world. When you finally dive out at the end of the last story and know that the experience is over, the first thing I did before writing this review was to look at other Vaughn Heppner books, hoping for something similar. There's a hole where this series used to be. I need to find something to fill it.
Anyway, I would heartily recommend all six books in this series to anyone who likes epic fantasy, angels, mythology, or just a thumping good read of the first order. Just buy it! You won't be sorry.
May 16, 2014
For his sixth outing in the Lost Civilization series, author Vaughn Heppner delves deeper into the history of Lod, who leads the battle against evil of the world. "Lod the Warrior" tells several tales of the semi madman who gets into one scrape after another because he just can't stand injustice. He hates evil and takes it on no matter what the personal cost. Each story is a great standalone and really reminds me of the shorter pulp era sword and sorcery stories I read as a kid from Robert E. Howard and Gardener F. Fox. It also brings up fond memories of Elric of Melnibone, a very trippy series by Michael Moorcock. Heppner is that good. He sure can crank out the tales though. I've become a little obsessed with his work of late. This is the third or fourth series of his in which I've lost myself. People in the newspaper business used to ask which book by whatever investigative journalist I had read. I picked up one occasionally but not at the rate I was supposed to, apparently. I read this genre. It's way better. Although Matt Taibbi's "The Divide" is pretty close to this. Same kind of villain.
March 28, 2016
This is a book about Lod. This one contains 3 short stories with Connan... Oops. I mean Lod
Other than the not main character of the series (Since the real hero is Joash) and Nephilins that procriate like rabbits. This book has nothing to do with Lost Civilization Series and must not be read by its fans. There is really nothing to add on this one.
Now some spoilers: Lod suffers then he kill someone then he suffer some more. then kill again. then suffer again, pray for revenge then kill some more... end of spoilers
Other than the not main character of the series (Since the real hero is Joash) and Nephilins that procriate like rabbits. This book has nothing to do with Lost Civilization Series and must not be read by its fans. There is really nothing to add on this one.
Now some spoilers: Lod suffers then he kill someone then he suffer some more. then kill again. then suffer again, pray for revenge then kill some more... end of spoilers
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews