Kilmer’s Ghost: Audiobook

Astar’s Blade (Part One): The Provenance

The legends say the Sanguine Forest is haunted by evil magic.

Those that dare go in, never come out alive. But those are just tall tales, aren’t they? Ever since he was a young boy, a ghost had been appearing to Kilmer in an unlikely other-worldly friendship. Making Kilmer the perfect choice to go into the Sanguine searching for the King’s missing archer. Guided by his ghost and bent on revenge, he is doomed to bear witness to the cataclysm around him. Helpless to prevent the birth of a brand new evil, his life comes down to whether or not he can be saved by Kilmer’s Ghost.

As a young child, the man now called Kilmer watched as his family was murdered. He only escaped himself thanks to a mysterious being whose presence brought both safety and horrific visions.

After determining his goal in life as taking vengeance on the man who ordered the brutal death of his family, he finds himself swept up in a war between gods that goes far beyond him. Evil is growing in the forbidden Sanguine Forest; an evil that changes everything.

Kilmer’s Ghost is a remarkably written second volume in the Astar’s Blade series which (thankfully for me, since I had not read volume one) reads like a complete story that can stand-alone. I do plan to go back and read the first volume now, wanting to know more about the amazing world that Lyon has crafted in this series, but I was not lost a single-time reading volume 2 first.

Kilmer’s struggle to find himself, shown alongside his nemesis who is seeking to do the same thing, is refreshingly and brilliantly written. He is a battle-hardened warrior who still has a good heart; a rare combination.

The world that Lyon has created is so vivid and addictive that you may have to tear yourself away. I caught myself holding my breath countless times. Love, loss, the atrocities of war, and forging life from the ashes of death are masterfully written a heroic tale that any regular person can imagine themselves starring in.

Perhaps the biggest brilliance within Kilmer’s Ghost is that Kilmer himself, while an unquestionable Hero, needs saving sometimes, too. These characters are so human, so real, and their fear and joy and sorrow swept me away.