The Lost War

The Eidyn Saga, Book 1

By: Justin Lee Anderson

Narrated by: 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.