The Paradise War (Song of Albion #1)

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Title: The Paradise War
Series: Song of Albion
Author/Narrator: Stephen Lawhead, Stuart Langston
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars


Genre: Fantasy
Minutes: 795
Format: Audible audio edition

Synopsis:

Lewis and Simon, 2 graduate students at Oxford, stumble upon a portal to another world. Simon goes through and Lewis stays behind. Upon investigation, Lewis finds out that the veil between the worlds is thinning and that passage between and our presence over there, could irreparably damage both worlds.
So Lewis crosses over to rescue Simon and to save both worlds.
Only to discover that the other world is everything our world is but bigger, brighter, better. Lewis is seduced into staying and becomes a warrior. Upon his finishing Warrior School, bad things begin to happen and it appears that it is up to him to set things right.
But how does one fight against the lord of the underworld, his undead and demonic forces while your allies are filled with jealously, greed and self?
And when betrayal of the ultimate kind happens, Lewis realizes that he and Simon MUST go back to their own world.

My Thoughts:

Read and bought these as they came out in the 90's. Re-read them in 2000 and then they've sat on my shelf, looking awesome. I thought about using these in my Project Re-read, but I have been wanting to explore the "Audio" side of books and figured that this trilogy would be a good experiment for that.

I enjoyed this just as much as I did almost 25 years ago. The story, the action, the magic were all still there. I listened to this on my drive to and from work and there were several times where, once I got home, that I just left my bluetooth connected and kept it playing from my phone until I forced myself to stop. If I had been reading this, I suspect it would have been demolished in a day or 3 at most.  I did notice how whiny Lewis was and that he was pretty much a wish-fulfillment of Lawhead's.

As for Audio. I found that it took very little to distract me while listening and that I would then miss some of the book. I tried to go into a grocery store on my way home once and I ended up just stopping the book because I couldn't pay attention.  It also took me quite a while to get used to the narrator. I didn't really like him but by the end I had gotten to the point where he didn't bother me. I think he does the next 2 books as well, so it is just as well that I'm resigned to him.