Preview
  • Gears of War: Ephyra Rising

  • The Gears of War Series, Book 8
  • By: Michael A. Stackpole
  • Narrated by: Nan McNamara
  • Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (213 ratings)

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Gears of War: Ephyra Rising

By: Michael A. Stackpole
Narrated by: Nan McNamara
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Publisher's summary

The new original novel set in the untapped years following Gears of War 3, revealing for the first time what occurred in the aftermath of the Locust War, written by New York Times best-selling author Michael A. Stackpole.

The Locust War has ended with an energy weapon that pulsed across the land, destroying Locust and Lambent alike. The world is in shambles, and the few survivors are isolated from one another. Humanity must begin anew. This novel reveals the canonical, never-before-seen events set in the time immediately following the game Gears of War 3.

With most of Sera’s civilization destroyed, Sergeant Marcus Fenix and Lieutenant Anya Stroud must somehow rebuild on the ruins. For Marcus, his purpose is impossible to grasp. With no clear enemy to fight, there may be no place left for him in this postwar world. Some call him hero; others view him with resentment.

As Anya struggles to create alliances to re-form the Coalition of Ordered Governments, she quickly discovers how impossible it is to tell friend from foe. Then whispers of Locust still stalking the land begin to spread. Fearing the worst, Marcus forms a team to assess the potential threat. As he and the other Gears search for Locust survivors, however, they quickly discover that the new enemy may be all-too-human, and utterly ruthless.

©2021 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Gears of War, The Coalition, Marcus Fenix, and the Crimson Omen logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
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What listeners say about Gears of War: Ephyra Rising

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just another amazing gears of war book!!!!

love the books adds so much information to the gears universe. can't wait for the next book. go delta squad!!!!

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Deeper dive into the Gears universe

If you are a Gears lore nut like me, then you will love this. Having Anya back involved is a great touch. It's nice to find out some of what happened after the Locust war with her since she died "off screen"

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Another good Gears entry

It was nice getting the back story of the days just after the end of the war and the start of reconstruction. Overall good book.

A lot of people are complaining about the way Marcus is presented in the book, saying he's to emotional, but you have to realize this book takes place immediately after the war, he's dealing with ptsd and finally being able to openly be with Anya. He doesn't have to compartmentalize in this book, and for once he's happy. Every other book and game out there has Marcus in full business mode either during one of the wars or after losing Anya. All things that would change hima and how he addresses the world. Arguably you could say this book is closer to the true Marcus, and the others are all on the job Marcus

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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Finally another good one

I absolutely love this franchise and the lore that it brings. The original books up to “The Slab” were 10/10. The newer ones were not up to par and the voice just did not do it for me. This book fills a gap that fans were interested in and the story is good. The voice actor returns from the newer books and just falls short for me but the story helps bring this book along

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I loved it

I thought it was interesting to get more of a backstory for gears of war 4

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Marcus Fenix isn't Marcus Fenix

I was excited to see another gears of war book come out. this story was well thought out and did a great job of showing what life was like after Gears 3. the only problem I had with the story was that it completely ignored that Marcus Fenix was very quiet and emotionally unavailable for the original trilogy and the books by Karen Travis.

if the author had taken the time to show us a gradual shift in Marcus at the beginning of the book it would have fit better but jumping straight in with a Marcus that talks to others about Anya is insulting. it is not something he would done. The Slab illustrates that the best.

before this author writes any more Gears novels he should definitely educate himself with the Karen Travis books and maybe he can redeem himself by writing a short story on how Marcus went from silent to softy.

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great book

this was a fun listen. and a great all around story. . also a big fan of the video games.

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stackpole

m stackpole is a great author and I'm glad he took a stab at continuing the work of Karen Traviss he played off her so well writing a lot of star wars novels that it seems natural to the story ended in gears 3 which she had a hand in.

nans VA was so so for this story I would have preferred 8t with an all star cast or David collache as the VA. or a comfy split between the two

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New and Intresting but just ok

The story is not terrible to say the least but the story doesn’t come without it’s flaws. Marcus Fenix feels completely out of character with where he stands in the overall universe now that the book tries to present. However it is understandable that a lot of characters now that their lives aren’t constantly on the line due to the Locust Horde constantly trying to kill them every five minutes it would be kind of hard to come to grips that civilian life after even fighting for so long isn’t easy.

Marcus I can say positively he’s trying his best to live a normal life for the sake of the woman he loves Anya. From playing the games and reading the comics it’s been strongly hinted at that these two would run off every now and again to do things privately whether to just spend time or to actually make love Marcus is trying really hard for her sake to live a normal life. To see what everybody is doing now is a nice touch seeing as how gears of war four threw us right in the middle 25 years later right after gears of war three and that all of a sudden we have a whole new threat shortly after encountering the robots “DEE-BEES” being the new threat for at least the majority of the beginning of the game.

It was good to see how the DEE-BEE Industries kind of started up with Damon Baird at the helm. It was also nice touch to see just how the new and improved cog formed seeing as how even though they aren’t going by the same name their ideals and viewpoints are still mostly intact. It was good to see Augustus Cole be shown trying to help rebuild society by returning home even if it was only briefly mentioned let alone showed. But he was trying to help mankind out in his own way was a very nice touch.

The only real gripe I have about the audiobook in general is that it does portray new characters that are never before mentioned or seen and I never brought up again in any of the games or comics they tried to make a power move while rebuilding society. And that in order to even put the events in motion we had to bring back the locust even if it was very briefly and in a way that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Mind control being done by crude devices being surgically attached to the back of the locust head. And the fact the ending of the game gears of war three put a lot of emphasis and I do mean a lot of emphasis on Adam Fenixs countermeasure having killed everything related to the lambent horde and the locust Horde. To think that maybe some of the locust that didn’t have bodies fully infected with the parasite it’s kind of hard to imagine.

But if you can get past with the games and the comics have already established with lore. This does make for a rather exciting story if you need something to listen to with a gears of war paint job.

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Nice!!!!

I always love more stories of the gears world. it was a very cool story to be told to help fill in the years between gears 3 and 4

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