(The book is available here on Amazon)
Vaughn Heppner is one of the success stories of independent publishing. He’s had great success for both his Lost Civilizations fantasy stories and science fiction stories like the A.I. series and Lost Starship series.
Giants is the first book in the Lost Civilizations series, and I approached this book knowing basically nothing about it. The book is set in a Judeo-Christian fantasy world, a world before the great flood of Noah. Now I’ve read Christian books in the past, having reviewed Adam Lane Smith’s Gideon Ira, but this is unlike anything I’ve ever read. I would compare it to the world of Conan the Barbarian, set in a sort of lost history.
The book starts out by following Joash, a slave to a violent warrior who forces him to climb a massive cliff. As they climb it becomes apparent they seek eggs, specifically the eggs of pterosaurs (again, it’s set in the ancient world of Genesis). Joash receives the ire of the warrior, but is saved by a servant of the God Elohim. This servant is Herrek, a warrior who takes Joash under his wing. There is a great evil out there: the sons of the bene elohim, the Nephilim who are giants and mutants with incredible powers.
This story is fantastic. It has elements that remind of me of The Lord of the Rings, especially when the band comes across beautiful emeralds they seek to use to get wealthy. However, as mentioned, if reminds me of the Conan stories, as if you were following a young Conan who wasn’t yet the mighty warrior.
Yet, where Conan values the strength of his arm the sharpness of his blade, Joash comes to value wisdom and creativity. He’s the only one who resists a curse in one part of the book, and later his mettle is read by a Nephilim who spares him. Throughout it all Joash grows and proves himself, becoming a full member of the tribe and a squire of sorts. He even gets his own spear early on.
Heppner really did a great job on this. I’d say there was a slight lag in the 25%-50% mark, but it soon picked up and became exciting and grabbed my attention again. The situation with the sabretooth tigers was particularly interesting.
If you like older fantasy, even if you aren’t from a Judeo-Christian worldview, you may still like this book.
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