Review: Death's Beating Heart by Rob J. Hayes
Blurb:
The final book in The War Eternal series.
Break Eternity.
Sirileth has broken the world. The ground bleeds, the seas rage, the skies are torn asunder.
Eska will not let her daughter face the consequences alone, but can she help without donning the mantle of the Corpse Queen once more? And will the people of Ovaeris accept help from a monster?
They might not have a choice as a stable portal to the Other World is now open, and the Beating Heart of Sevorai is ever ravenous.
In this thrilling conclusion to The War Eternal, Eskara must face the consequences of her past. She will soon learn just how far she can bend before she breaks.
Review:
Eskara Helsene is an absolute monster of a character in all the best ways, and Rob J. Hayes is right there with her as a monster of a writer. As the final entry in the War Eternal series, Death’s Beating Heart puts a dramatic and bloody bow on the story of the Corpse Queen, and Hayes has cemented Eska as one of the most memorable characters in all of fantasy.
Confident that she was in fact saving the world, Eska’s daughter Sirileth has instead brought the world to the brink of ruin. While the world calls for Sirileth’s head, Eska is willing to do anything to help her daughter shoulder the burden. But Eska has long left a bloody path in her wake, and the world is far from willing to let her forget her sins. With her allies few and enemies many, Eska must do whatever it takes to stop the end of the world, and she must do so quickly—for Death itself has conquered the world of Sevorai, and its hunger has not yet been sated.
It's difficult to say enough good things about Eska as a character without repeating myself. We have seen her grow from a teenager overflowing with angst and anger and power to a vengeance-crazed warrior queen to a withered old woman willing to confront the sins of her past. Her character arc has been mesmerizing, and Hayes has written a fabulous conclusion to her arc in Death’s Beating Heart. The final two books of the War Eternal have allowed Eska to soar to new heights, with Sins of the Mother delving deeper into the humane side of Eska, while Death’s Beating Heart shows the lengths to which she’ll go for her family—not out of vengeance or anger, but for duty.
It's this arc that allows for one of the more satisfying payoffs of the series—finally encountering the remaining target of Eska’s ire and anger after five books, whose Eska-bequeathed epithet is probably a bit too colorful to include in this review. Were this encounter to have happened two or three books ago, it wouldn’t nearly have had the same impact, but after the journey the Corpse Queen had been on since the previous book, the emotional moments are allowed to hit much harder without immediately resorting to a torrent of violence and Sourcery.
I’m hesitant to say too much more for fear of giving too much away, but what I can say is Death’s Beating Heart has one of the best plots in the series, behind only Sins of the Mother. The pacing may be a bit too slow in the first half of the book, but it’s well worth it as it builds to its conclusion. The major players whom we’ve gotten to know in varying capacities over these last five books—Hardt and Josef, Ssserakis, Kento and Sirileth—are all given fitting sendoffs, the final battle is a whirlwind of emotions and tension, and the ending itself? Perfection. I could think of no ending more fitting for the Corpse Queen.
While this series may not be as eternal as the war on which it’s named, my enjoyment for this series will be. Death’s Beating Heart offers a perfect end to the story of Eskara Helsene, a character who I am certain will be looked at fondly in the years to come as one of the best characters in modern fantasy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go see if I can learn how to shoot lightning by swallowing magic marbles.
