Title: The Lost War (2019; May 16, 2023 reissue)
Author: Justin Lee Anderson
Pages: 528
Series: Eidyn #1

It jumps out of the gate with a strong opening and an interesting premise and finishes with a flourish, but I found the intervening chapters to be fairly standard high/epic fantasy fare that never blew me out of the water.

Justin Lee Anderson does a beautiful job introducing the characters, the stakes, and the world at large, but I just wasn’t as invested in the subsequent proceedings as I hoped to be. It’s surprisingly light and funny and I found myself reminded of Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria books with a splash of Mike Shel’s Iconoclasts trilogy (sans its darker impulses). If you loved either of those series, I think you’ll enjoy this too.  

★★★

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.