Book Review: ‘The Eternal Warrior’ by Ari Marmell a Valiant Universe Novel
Evil is eternal. It has existed since the beginning, and it will persist until the end. Such a formidable enemy requires an equally daunting hero to oppose it. That is where Gilad Anni-Padda comes in. For millennia, this ancient warrior has stood between humanity and the monsters that would destroy it. But now he’s forgotten himself. His past was torn away by a group looking to work with the evil forces he’s so long opposed. He managed to escape, but now they’ve found him, and they want to finish what they started. Will Gilad remember who he is in time, or will evil finally win? Find out in Ari Marmell’s The Eternal Warrior, a Valiant Universe novel.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Blackstone Publishing for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of The Eternal Warrior contains some spoilers!]
The Eternal Warrior gets lost, then rediscovers himself and his purpose
Jack Eren is just a simple cattle rancher in Montana. He keeps to himself and enjoys a simple life. Which is easy in Montana because everyone else just wants to keep to themselves and enjoy a simple life. But then that all changes. Jack pulls into the gas station on the way home and sees some suspicious guys. His instincts tell him something is wrong, and he starts to feel like someone else is in control of him. Then things get bad, and he goes from feeling out of control to being out of control. Well, sort of. He quickly deals with the bad guys and gets out of there, but he doesn’t know how he was able to do what he did. Scared, he heads home, a feeling of dread hanging over him.
A few days later, his fears are realized when a group of highly trained people attack him and his employees at his ranch. Once again, Jack goes into fight mode, doing things that he doesn’t understand. Then one stranger steps in to help him save his friends and escape. Jack still doesn’t know what’s going on, but he rolls with it.
Halba, the woman who helped Jack escape, tells him what happened. She used to belong to an organization that wants to take over the world with the help of arcane forces. The same forces that Jack, née Gilad, has spent his life fighting. The Cult of Nergal wanted to both take information from Gilad and get him out of the way. And they succeeded, but he escaped before they got everything they needed from him.
Now they’ve found him thanks to the gas station episode, and they’re coming for him. But Halba no longer believes in their cause and wants to help him. Gilad has never had a partner before, but he sees the potential hidden deep in Halba and wants to help her find a purpose of her own. Gilad has been out of action for a few years now, he is sure he’s up to the task, but in those five years the cult has been planning for him, will he be able to defeat them and save the world, or will evil finally win the battle?
A Middle-Eastern hero enters the playing field
It is a well-known fact that the superhero world skews heavily towards white men. Often, even if a hero embraces different cultural aspects, the character themselves is still a white guy. But Gilad Anni-Padda is different. He is a Sumerian warrior who has been blessed (or cursed, depending on your perspective) with eternal life. And he’s actually Sumerian. He’s not a European crusader who got caught up in a “heathen ritual” or a white trader who was “saved” by a heavily stereotyped mystic. He’s a Sumerian warrior who was given a quest by his ancestor and as a result ended up becoming an immortal warrior fighting evil creatures that want to destroy humanity.
Marmell then gives him a sidekick, who is a woman. And then Marmell goes a step farther and gives him a second female ally, this time a trans woman. Gilad has lived long enough to have seen everything and accepts Cassandra without question. Her status as a trans woman doesn’t really play into the story or get stressed much. But that’s nice because it shows a trans character in a natural light, just living their life. She is just a woman and doesn’t have to be focused all the time on being trans, which is the ultimate goal for the trans community, to just be accepted as they are and not have that one aspect be the focus of their whole lives and identity. I feel like Marmell did a good job with that.
The Eternal Warrior is a great adventure book with the promise of more
The Eternal Warrior is a great, action packed story. I really enjoyed Gilad’s adventure. He’s the quintessential intelligent action hero that’s always two steps ahead of the bad guy. His back-up plans have contingency plans, and he is able to predict what people will do before they are even faced with the choice. His millennia of experience with people is what gives him this insight, and he uses it well. But he avoids the trap of being cocky or obnoxious. He also stays out of the trap of disillusionment. Even after all this time, he loves humanity and sees it as something worth saving. Thankfully, he’s up to the task.
My rating for this book: 8/10
Marmell delivers a complete story in The Eternal Warrior. But he ends it in a way that leaves the door open for more. I mean, Gilad is immortal, so of course there can always be more, but Marmell leaves a few tantalizing crumbs and a new mission for Gilad to pursue. Personally, I can’t wait to see what Gilad does next, but in the meantime, I highly recommend you check out what he’s already done!
Also check out: Book Review: Quicksilver (The Fae & Alchemy series Book 1) by Callie Hart
