The Spirit War: Continues the series in fine fashion

The Spirit War by Rachel Aaron

The Spirit War (2012) is the fourth and penultimate installment in Rachel Aaron‘s THE LEGEND OF ELI MONPRESS. You’ll want to read the first three books, The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater. This review will have some mild spoilers for those earlier books.

In this volume Eli, the charming thief, and Nico, the girl who is trying to keep herself from being overtaken by the demon living inside her, take a backseat to Josef, the quiet, big-hearted, secretive man who acts as Eli’s bodyguard. The book’s prologue gives us part of Josef’s origin story. We see how he got his awakened sword and we begin to understand what motivates him.

Soon enough, we also learn about his family and upbringing. This will be a surprise to readers and also to Josef’s best friends, Eli and Nico. Their first glimpse occurs during a funny scene which unfolds at the bounty office. Eli’s exuberance over his own huge bounty (a continuous source of pride) is hilariously undercut by the revelation that Josef has an even bigger bounty on his head. Eli is upset and flummoxed, but Josef knows exactly what it means: he’s being summoned home by Queen Teresa.

Thus, Eli and Nico get dragged to Osera, a nation of barrier islands ruled by (surprise!) Josef’s ailing mother. Osera is about to be invaded by the immortal empress, a powerful woman who has a surprising relationship to Eli and the shepherdess. If the empress conquers Osera, the mainland will surely be next. Thus, both the Council of Thrones and the Spirit Court must get involved in protecting their land. They’ll need to work together, but this will be a challenge because their priorities, loyalties, and morals don’t align.

Meanwhile Miranda is traveling with Slorn (the bear-headed shaper) to Shaper Mountain where she hopes to learn the lore of the shapers and the demonseeds. When she learns about the troubles in Osera, she feels the need to help, if she can escape from the mountain.

Through these events we learn, often along with the characters, about the history of this world and many of the forces (including jealousy and ambition) that have shaped its history, politics, culture, social structures, and power dynamics. Though we learn a lot, mysteries remain, and there’s a sense of some unknown, perhaps otherworldly, danger that we’re just barely glimpsing that, I assume, we’ll face head-on in the final book, The Spirit’s End. We’ll also need to face Nico’s intensifying internal struggle against her demonseed.​

Though Josef is the main character of this installment, Eli’s character still sees a lot of development in The Spirit War. The novel further explores Eli’s complex relationship with the Shepherdess, revealing vulnerabilities that give the rogue a lot more depth than we imagined when we first met him three books ago.

The Spirit War continues the series in fine fashion. While some plot twists are foreseeable, the execution remains engaging, and many of the action sequences are thrilling. ​

Luke Daniels has been performing Tantor Audio’s editions of the ELI MONPRESS books. The Spirit War audiobook was published in 2015. The previous books were all published in the fall of 2010. Unfortunately, it seems that Mr. Daniels was out of practice with the series by the time The Spirit War was published because some of the voices and tone aren’t quite the same. This isn’t surprising—it had been five years—but it’s noticeable, especially at the beginning. I think his previous performances were better, but I don’t hesitate to recommend the audio edition of The Spirit War.