Rhino: The Rise of a Warrior tells the story of the Cazador soldier Rhino, from his childhood through his rise in the ranks, right up until the start of the main Hell Divers series. For me, the deck was certainly stacked against this book even though it is a spin off from a series that I really enjoyed. I rarely like side stories that focus on one of the supporting characters in a series, and I absolutely hate it when when an audiobook series changes narrators. However, Ray Porter is an excellent narrator, and the main PoV character of the original series is not in this book at all, so I decided to give it a shot.. The ratings on this one are pretty high, and I have to say, they are completely justified.

I must admit it started a little slow, but it didn't take me long to get settled into the excellent story. Rhino's background is not what I expected, since I know him as a massive Cazador warrior fitting of his name, so it was hard for me to accept him as a scrawny kid at the beginning. But once the story got rolling, it moved along at an excellent pace and completely earned it's place in Hell Divers universe. In fact, it is one of the better books and contains more unique story telling than most entries in the series. So if are a fan of the series, I highly recommend picking this one up.

Ray Porter does an excellent job on the narration of the audiobook version, and if you are an Audible member, this one is currently part of Audible Plus which means you can grab it for free. That makes it no risk and high reward, so grab it before you have to pay for it.