Ageless immortals, the Timeless are compelled by instinct to behead each other and absorb the loser's power. If this sounds familiar you've no doubt seen the Highlander. The Heartstrike Chronicle is unapologetic fanfic of the Highlander television series written by the bestselling author of Urban Shaman. There's the good natured immortal warrior, Irish in this case, and a woman who watches and reports on him to the Keepers. There is also an unbelievably ancient and powerful immortal, Lohren, who has largely passed unnoticed since the 11th century and is currently a Keeper named Logan Adams. Lohren is amused to hear that a woman claims to have found the ruins of Atlantis, but shocked to find that she is Ghean, the woman he loved and lost when that island sank. Its certainly not a happy reunion. She's definitely crazy but if she takes Lohren's head it could be called justifiable homicide.
When they met Lohren was already at least one thousand years old although he has no clear memories prior to the first written language when he started writing down the major events of his life. Ghean was still mortal but unawakened, which meant that she would become immortal unless she died by natural causes. She was the only heir to the House of the Hunter on Atlantis so returned to her home to marry. There were two other immortals on Atlantis, one jealous of Lohren for his relationship with Ghean and the other determined to use the magical Atlantean artifacts for his own selfish purposes. Lohren himself believes that the immortals should not interfere with other lives, including telling the unawakened Ghean that she could become immortal, so he sets out to learn what he can about the artifacts to keep them from the other immortal. Lorhen already believed himself to be the oldest living immortal and so gave little thought to the other two as serious threats which leads to disaster.
Its hard to please every fan when writing with familiar material. The most common complaint is that the story lacks action until the end. Like with the t.v. series Atlantis Fallen starts with some witty repartee from the friends, introduces a new immortal, followed by flashbacks recounting their prior acquaintance, and ends with a battle. Discovering the secrets of Atlantis is an appealing flashback choice and leads into the struggle between the two immortals over the lost artifacts. It also reveals Lohren's less than stellar qualities and choices. While he is generally in favor of the greater good and helping his friends he isn't at all embarassed to admit that his own survival will always come first. One thing the book does very well is demonstrate why immortals really shouldn't fight on holy ground. Overall, fans of the series are unlikely to be disappointed.
There are two more books planned in the series as well as a short called From Coffin to Grave about a character that will show up in the next book and her meetings with Lohren (or whatever alias he was using at that time). Its mildly interesting but definitely not necessary reading.
Reviews seem to be too busy to say much about the narrator Aaron Abano but his performance got 4 stars and if it was actually bad I'm sure it would have been mentioned.