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The Demon Wars Saga is a series of books that cover the fantasy realm of the land of Corona. It's a country where the elves raise rangers to protect the woodlands and humans, magic is performed by monks through gemstones, and centaurs protect the woodland creatures and play bagpipes. R.A. Salvatore created the series that has taken a life of its own, even growing into a fantasy role-playing game.

GraphicAudio is producing the audiobooks and releasing them in six-hour segments, thus dividing each book into three parts. This makes the listening easier than having to get lost in the huge series all at once. For the first book and part of the second, I was just rolling along, listening to one part right after another. But during the listening of the second book I had to wait for each release and the time waiting in between gave me the opportunity to better absorb the story during my downtime.

The Demon Wars Saga continues with Mortalis, the fourth book in the series, which bridges the two trilogies in the saga. In this edition of the series, Honce-the-bear, a country/state in the land of Corona, has just had their Abellican Church fall to the evil of the demon dactyl. The result is a ferocious war with giants, goblins and dwarves. During the reconstruction period the Church works to get their house back in order but the Rosy Plague has entered the land. This plague is untreatable, even by the magic gemstones of the church.

GraphicAudio does a superb job in producing these audiobooks. They produce them with their slogan "A Movie in Your Mind" close to heart. The productions are full of great voice actors, sound effects and incidental music -- all of which keeps the story rolling and the listener fully submerged in the world created by R.A. Salvatore.

Rogue Abbot/Bishop Marcalo De'Unnaro is sent to St. Gwendoly abbey to find out if the rumors of the plague are true. What he finds is the townsfolk and monks from the abbey mostly dead from the plague. He begins his evil plans to build the church according to his own doctrine and when the new Father Abbot tries to remove him from the Church, he forms a band of Brothers Repentant, seeking to cleanse the land of all its sins. This plan also includes genocide.

Poney has returned to her home to grieve over the grave of Elbryan, the ranger and her husband who was killed in the final battle against the demon spirit. She learns her friend is dying from the plague and brings her to the abbey only to be turned away because all abbeys and the castles have closed their doors to keep out the plague. She is sent out with a handful of the gemstones to see if she can find a cure.

Juravial of the Touel'alfar, the elves, has retrieved a horse for one of the two new rangers that are being trained, one of which the son of Poney and Elbryan. Juravial learns of the plague and returns to the home of the elves to find they are also shut off from fear of the plague. The adventures seem grim but the story is compelling and, with the attention to detail which the audio production offers, you'll find yourself wanting more.

Gil T. has spent a quarter of a century working in radio and has lots of spare time on his hands and reading or listening to books takes up all that time. Check out his blog to find out what he's up to at any given moment.