Never Die – Rob J. Hayes

Ein is on a mission from God. A God of Death.

Time is up for the Emperor of Ten Kings and it falls to a murdered eight year old boy to render the judgement of a God. Ein knows he can’t do it alone, but the empire is rife with heroes. The only problem; in order to serve, they must first die.

Ein has four legendary heroes in mind, names from story books read to him by his father. Now he must find them and kill them, so he can bring them back to fight the Reaper’s war.

Review:

Never Die starts in a rather unusual way. The hero we are introduced to, Itami Cho, also known as the Whispering Blade, takes on the hordes of bandits under the leadership of the infamous Flaming Fist to save the citizens of a sacked city. Cho can channel her Qi and use it to fortify one of her blades, Peace, to make it cut through just about anything. As she makes her stand however in the city, she is quickly outnumbered and she ultimately dies a rather horrific death. 

I was ready to become fully committed to Cho and then she was abruptly taken away from us! I was quite taken aback by this development and wondered how the rest of the story was going to develop now. Are we going to meet a vengeful family member, going on a quest for revenge for her death? Turns out this wasn’t the case because the story takes another unexpected turn when Cho is brought back to life by a little boy called Ein. 

I knew right then and there that this was going to be an interesting story. 

Ein is charged by a Shinigami, a God of Death, to kill the tyrannical Emperor of Hosa, Henan WuLong. He is gathering a band of heroes to help him on his quest. To bind them to him though, he lets them die and then brings them back from the dead. Anyone he brings back has to stay close to him or they will die all over again. Ein promises a second chance at life if they help him kill the Emperor, vowing to fully restore their life after the deed is done. With Cho brought back from the dead and bound to Ein, they move on to Zhihao Cheng, one of Flaming Fist’s commanders known as the Emerald Wind, who was also killed in the sacking of the city where Cho died. Zhihao is a bit of a peculiar choice as he is a renowned bandit and, as he so adamantly insists, he is definitely not a hero. Zhihao is able to step through the world, disappearing in one spot and appearing in another. I think Zhihao’s journey throughout the book is the most significant one and he is by far the star of the story when it comes to character progress. I enjoyed reading about him and seeing him change from a ruthless bandit with a secret, to someone embracing his softer side. His dynamic with Cho was also quite endearing. Starting out as enemies, they have to find a way to start working together if they want this mission to succeed.

Throughout their journey they “collect” more heroes by fighting them, killing them and bringing them back to life. Next on the list: Iron Gut Chen, a hero with skin that can’t be pierced by anything and who can ingest just about everything without having any negative side-effects. He’s quite fond of wine and seems to think he is invincible. Along the way a leper called Roi Astara, also known as Death’s Echo, who is very skilled with a shotgun joins them. He is loyal to Ein without having to be killed and bound to him because he hopes that Ein will cure his disease if he helps him. The last addition to this unlikely band of heroes is Bingwei Ma, the Master of Sun Valley, a master of hand combat who has never been beaten before. Bingwei Ma refuses to kill and will only incapacitate, but still he is a valuable and calming asset to the group. 

During their journey they are set upon by Yokai – vengeful spirits called forth by a Shinigami to stop them. This leads to some exhilarating and entertaining battle scenes where our heroes get a chance to work together to slay weird and powerful monsters.

Getting closer to the capital, they join forces with the Steel Prince, the leader of the rebellion who also wants to kill the Emperor to avenge the murder on his father. His right hand, Daiyu Lingsen or the Art of War, is a character I’d have loved to know more about as she has some very interesting powers. She only appears later on in the book though, so her time on the page is only limited. I’d happily read a book just about her! 

Although the rest of the book is entertaining and interesting enough, the ending is what really made Never Die absolutely spectacular for me. There is an epic battle and so many revelations that my mind was completely blown. The first revelations I’d seen coming and I was a bit disappointed. It was quite obvious… But then! Then! Two more revelations followed that changed my whole perspective on the story and I was in awe. This is solidly one of the best endings I’ve read in a long time. 

Never Die is a standalone self-published novel and absolutely one of the best I’ve read in that category. 

Release Date: January 29th, 2019
Publisher: Self-published
Age Group:  Adult
Pages: 274
Format: E-book
Source: Bought