The Lost War

The Eidyn Saga, Book 1

De: Justin Lee Anderson

Narrado por: Euan Morton

"Strikingly intense...immersive and thoroughly compelling." (SFX)

"Compelling and entertaining...inventive and fun." (SciFiNow)

The war is over, but something is rotten in the state of Eidyn.

With a ragged peace in place, demons burn farmlands, violent Reivers roam the wilds and plague has spread beyond the Black Meadows. The country is on its knees.

In a society that fears and shuns him, Aranok is the first magically-skilled draoidh to be named King's Envoy.

Now, charged with restoring an exiled foreign queen to her throne, he leads a group of strangers across the ravaged country. But at every step, a new mystery complicates their mission.

As bodies drop around them, new threats emerge and lies are revealed, can Aranok bring his companions together and uncover the conspiracy that threatens the kingdom?

Strap in for this twisted fantasy road trip from award-winning author Justin Lee Anderson.

Shortlisted in the 2019 Booknest Fantasy Awards

©2019 Justin Lee Anderson (P)2020 Podium Audio

Fun book with some plot holes

Enjoyed it a lot overall, looking forward to the sequel. Requires some skepticism at the dramatic reveal at the end

MC is an EmMESSary

Justin Lee Anderson crafted an decent fantasy novel with an interesting cast of characters and provided each of them compelling backgrounds. The MC, while clearly an ethical protagonist, he tended to jump to conclusions which often caused problems. There are points of intrigue and a major plot twist at the end; although, for me at least, it wasn't all that much of a surprise.

Euan Morton's performance was top notch

That Ending Tho

I was kind of confused most of the listen, but then it all made sense at the end

Not really sure

I want to give it another shot. About three chapters in and I’m not impressed and kind of confused.

Fantastic Fantasy Read

The world itself had a lot of dangers from the last war. The Blackened and the demons were two in particular that made you feel like there were sire consequences in this book and fantasy setting. Rarely have I felt so stressed as characters have gone from point A to point B within a story.

There were a lot of really cool things that Justin set up within the world and I do not want to spoil them but he makes the setting really fun with where the characters have to go and why. Each town and why the characters did or did not go there made me feel like I was in a D and D campaign and I felt like I was traveling with the characters and seeing what they were seeing.

The overall writing made the story fast paced and kept me reading very quickly through this almost 600 page read. In terms of epic fantasy I really enjoyed the perspective of magic that Justin built into his world. The powers themselves were very interesting and the characters used them in ways to solve their problems that I wouldn't have thought of. It was fun to see them solve their problems with their powers in unique ways because it made the characters and it gave the story a greater sense of realism because of the consequences behind the magic abilities and powers. There were clear boundaries that the characters had to work around but the laws were always consistent.

I enjoyed the characters the most! They were all very interesting and their interactions with one another made the story believable and made me keep reading. Overall I enjoyed each fantasy trope and the blend of Justin's own writing to make them unique to his fantasy world. They all seemed to fit and I loved how he created the druids in his worldbuilding making them a blend of a druid and a mage but having their powers come naturally to them and then mastering them with training.

pretty solid story telling

The main thing I can say, without leaving spoilers, is that the end does help explain and consistencies that you read about in the beginning.
The characters are all pretty interesting.
I enjoyed the world. look forward to more world building.
I would read further books.

awaiting the next book.

where is the next book? I personally found it very excellent and since it says 1997 I'm wondering where the next book is?

Epic!

Book Title: The Lost War
Series: Eidyn Trilogy
Author: Justin Lee Anderson
Narrator: Euan Morton

I want to start by thanking our amazing IFA Leadership for putting on the FantasyCon, I’ve added half a dozen audiobooks to my library just because of this event, this being one of them and the first I finished!

Justin did a phenomenal job bringing this world to life. It’s gritty and real, but not hopeless. The magic is cool and the characters diverse. I enjoyed the subterfuge and little details as much as the grandiose.

Aranok is a great character and I love his journey. It doesn’t hurt that I enjoy a Scottish accent.

All up, I was beyond impressed.

This series will be completed by me!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Starts with my favorite curse & gets awesome

This story started off with my favorite versatile swear word. I knew in that moment, I was going to enjoy the ride.

Our main character, Aranok, has an innate magical ability. While that gives him an edge in many situations, it also makes him a outcast in circles. The story starts off with a quest – to save the country! Yay! He starts off with some companions and others join along the way. The quest also gets more complicated and immediate threats keep sidelining the main goal. I loved that the plot wasn’t straight forward and held surprises for me.

Allandria often gave me a chuckle. She’s a proven warrior and Anarok’s current body guard, but she also has a sharp sense of humor. One line from her still has me chuckling – ‘Turn around, ye git! Ladies are dressing for battle! (paraphrased… unless I got it completely right). There’s also Samily, a knight with a religious bent. She’s also a proven warrior but she has a special ability as well, one that she’s kept underwraps. It took me quite some time to like Samily and it’s because she’s so steeped in her religion. But as she travels with this group, getting away from the monastery, some of her views start to change and she becomes a more accepting person.

Glorbad was another character I sometimes liked and sometimes wanted to smack upside the head. He’s a jaded soldier who is probably wrestling with some PTSD. He can be so loyal and dedicated but that dedication can sometimes be a single-minded stubbornness. Still, he brings another viewpoint to the group and kept things interesting. Nirea (pirate), Meristan (priest), and Vostin (young blacksmith) are some of the side characters that stood out to me. I liked how Vostin came to be somewhat indebted to Aranok and that’s how he gets sucked into the quest.

The plot itself never left me bored. There’s the world building, the monsters, the quests, and the little bit of time traveling – which all kept me on my toes. The Blackened were particularly terrifying as this ‘disease’ is so easy to catch and there is no known cure. However, our heroes find themselves in a unique position with a possible solution. Yet the knowledge also weighs heavy on them as it means all the Blackened they’ve ended were innocents they might have saved. These heavier moments in the story really anchored it, bringing out some great depths to some of the characters.

The ending gave us a big surprise. I didn’t see that coming! And it changes so much for our heroes! It also leaves us on a cliff hanger as the kingdom is still in great danger. I’m definitely looking forward to book 2. 5/5 stars.

The Narration: Euan Morton has a great voice for Aranok, our main hero. He had unique voices for all the characters and his female character voices were feminine. I really liked how he portrayed the more serious emotions and also captured the humor too. His voice for religiously dedicated Samily was spot on. On the technical side, for the first half of the book, the cadence was sometimes a little off. It was subtle, and each sentence individually sounds good, but sometimes there was a pause in between sentences that was just a beat or two too long, usually when the text was switching characters. However, Morton found his pacing for the second half of the story. 4.5/5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book. My opinions are 100% my own.

great story

Where are the other books Audible? I couldn't find the rest ..or even this one.