The Wraiths of War cover art

The Wraiths of War

Obsidian Heart, Book 3

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Wraiths of War

By: Mark Morris
Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Alex Locke is desperately trying to hold on to the disparate threads of the complex web of time he has created. He travels to the First World War, living through the horrors of trench warfare in order to befriend a young soldier crucial to his story, then to the 1930s to uncover the secrets of a mysterious stage magician.

He moves back and forth in time, always with the strange and terrifying Dark Man on his heels, gradually getting closer to uncovering the true nature of his destiny with the obsidian heart.

©2016 Mark Morris (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Heartfelt Paranormal

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Relics cover art
RealmShift cover art
Monster Hunter International cover art
The King’s Gambit cover art
Rotherweird cover art
The Night Raven cover art
Last Line cover art
Raven Song: A Dystopian Fantasy cover art
The Stranger Times cover art
Momenticon cover art
The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh cover art
The Malevolent Seven cover art
FantasticLand cover art
Hard Magic cover art
The Very First Damned Thing cover art
Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Ben Onwukwe is my favourite narator but I think some editing needs to be done. I can hear the breathing very clearly and it is very disruptive

can hear breathing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having listened to the first two books of the trilogy, I really wasn't interested in this last book. If it hadn't been available on a deal, I wouldn't have bought it at all. I just didn't care what happened to Alex. Having decided to go for it anyway (to complete the trilogy if nothing else), I think my first instincts might have been correct.

Overall, I have to say I don't like the narrator. His choice of tone was, I felt, wrong in so many places and it utterly distracted from what he was saying. His range of voices seems limited and to choose some of the accents and pitches he did just seemed bizarre. If a book hasn't grabbed me enough that I'm aware of things like this, the story probably needs work.

But I also found the plot itself frustrating. Yes, many loose ends from the first books were tied up, but I couldn't get away from how contrived the whole thing felt. I get that it's difficult to do time travel well and contrived is almost guaranteed, but I really don't think this is the best example of it. Why half of Alex's actions were necessary at all still isn't clear to me.

At a more detailed level, the reactions of the characters to insane events just didn't make sense. The progression from twist to twist often didn't make sense either. And you'll figure out some of the more prestige twists yourself - they do become rather obvious.

But, I did persevere until the end. It's alright, but if you listened to the first two and aren't sure about this one, I'd suggest you could probably give it a miss.

At least it's an ending

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book sat unread in my library for months. Having listened to the previous two books so long ago and so more between, I had forgotten how good they were..... not so with this one....definitely now in my top ten & one I will listen to again. You really do need to do this series of books in order otherwise you will be pretty confused and will not appreciate how clever and intertwined they are , and maybe this is why this last one is so good. It brings together and makes sense (in the time travelling sense of the word "sense") of the somewhat diverse and mad characters you meet along the way and the whole shebang suddenly starts to link up. It's great!!
Brilliantly narrated. It's a definite 5* from me ✔

Oh it's good!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story does little but tie up the loose ends of the time travelling Alex with little extra suspense. However it was the narrator who annoyed me more. He sounded at times like he was reading a text in class with emphasis and breaks in totally the wrong places making the listener work to imagine what the author meant.

Tying up the loose ends, marred by lazy narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In this final part of the trilogy I finally relaxed and stopped trying to guess what would happen. I let Morris reveal his imagination to me. Although the book's context is a storyline that readers became familiar with from 2 previous books this is Alex's journey behind the scenes into the mechanics of what it takes to sustain that storyline: Alex's life in 2010-2012. Surprisingly this involved travelling to the 40s and 80s. Detail of life in the 40s kept me excited. Finales are usually an anti climax but the Epilogue was satisfying. I was, however, left wondering where the obsidian heart came from and why it chose Alex, this simple man who wanted a simple life. That remained a mystery. But I didnt mind too much.

A stomping good yarn

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This trilogy is really one book split into three parts and I am happy to report it ended well. There was a little bit too much time spent on the World War One section but, generally speaking the story wrapped up well and there were enough loose ends to make it realistic rather than too tidy. I did enjoy this series and I would definitely listen to more by this author/narrator pairing. Highly recommended.

A satisfying end

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. a complex tale of time travel and intrigue, incorporating memorable characters and a story arc that is in many ways unique. If you are looking for something a bit different than this trilogy is worth a punt!

A hidden gem...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don't usually bother with trilogies but 1St book hooked me. THE trench war fair parts in this, the final book, were excellently descriptive and emotional. could really imagine being there and the horror seen and experienced by the soldiers n
I wonder if we will see far more of these characters again, I think there's plenty of depth for more.

Great Trilogy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A great story which kept me engaged and guessing! from the start with a great narrator.

A great series,

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
How the author described how the main character feels in ways I can truly relate to.

All the twists in the story line

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews