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

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.

Nicely done

Great narrator and story looking forward to book two. Story has good twists and turns.

Good

The Lost War has a lot going on. A lot. And it has an exciting and unexpected climax (no spoilers – but wow!). It's not perfect, I have a few issues with it, but they're all minor. I'll buy the sequel as soon as it gets published.

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