M.H. Ayinde bursts onto the fantasy scene with her debut published novel A Song of Legends Lost, the first in her series The Invoker Trilogy.
Set in the Nine Lands, tradition and technology are at war. The story is a combination of different points of views from different individuals from opposing backgrounds. Firstly, there is Temi, a young girl, who after finding her family killed after a smuggling operation gone wrong finds herself imbued with powers forbidden to a person of her class. Jinao is the youngest son of a rich family. In an attempt to gain the powers of an invoker, a way of bringing the power of his dead ancestors to the living world he stows away on a campaign to fight Greybloods, a technologically advanced race that threatens the Nine Lands. Elari is the captain in the army of Clan Itahua who discovers that her missing husband has returned from the dead. Runt is a young pot worker who finds herself the guardian of a mysterious power and works for a local crime family. And finally, there is Boleo, a monk who protects the people from the technological artefacts of a lost world.
Ayinde weaves these differing storylines together to form a propulsive narrative that is vast and wide in its scope. However, be warned! Ayinde does not hold the hands of the reader, and the story relies on the ability of the reader to keep track of and maintain the various plot lines in their consciousness, which at times, some may find overwhelming.
The world building in the book is vast and complex and as the reader follows the different POV’s. She builds a vivid world that draws the reader in, but without overwhelming the reader with massive chunks of exposition. Underlying the fantasy elements of the story, there is a world that hints of an ancient history that relied on technology which has led to the dystopian world that we see now.
Coupled with this, there is an intriguing magic system which relies on the use of the spirits of ancestors, who bond with the host and imbue them with both strength and power.
A Song of Legends Lost gracefully melds science fiction and fantasy to build a complex, layered fantasy set in a rich African world that will keep readers engrossed.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC. DNF @ 28%.

I don't think this was necessarily bad, but I was so disinterested in the magic system and the POVs that weren't Temi. I'm not motivated to slug it out to see if it gets better for me when SO little has me hooked; not the politics nor the the worldbuilding. Feels like this is a case of "unique novel that's just not for me".

Start of a fantasy series. I thought I would love this, but it didn’t work for me. This is just my point of view, I’m sure others will love it. First I liked the setting and culture. I liked the tech that was part of the story. Of the characters I liked Temí the most as I could follow what she was involved in, and her motivations. But there was much that frustrated me. The author has obviously got big plans for an epic fantasy series, Game of Thrones like. The first pages, many pages, of this book are character outlines and grouping links. Knowing nothing of the story at that point I was a bit overwhelmed. I ignored it and started reading, and I did finish. Getting to the end I decided that there is a lot going on, yet at the same time not much - as the overriding actions and motivations are not clear. So many plot lines, but in this first book it isn’t clear why or where the story is going. A third of this book is about one character, who has been given a quest, yet on nearly completing it they are removed. Maybe they will be back in later books in the series. As I said I liked the tech, but again it’s unexplained as to where it came from, and why the language is forbidden and by who? Or how some characters are fluent in it. So I guess what I’m saying is I have too many unanswered questions to be satisfied. Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Such a strong debut! I really enjoyed this. It’s an epic tale about ancestral magic, what isn’t there to love?! A thoroughly thought out world paints a beautiful background for this intricate and realistic fantasy story. A true epic fantasy, with court schemes, battles and magic!

Whilst the writing style flowed nicely, I couldn't engage with the plot and found my attention wandering often. Unfortunately this book isn't for me but I'm sure there are plenty of others who will enjoy it

This was an extremely well written science-fantasy book, more on the fantasy side. It is, however, a bit confusing with all of the different strands being woven together. It does come together, but as with most ambitious projects, you do have to stick with it.

When I first saw the cast of characters at the start of the book, my first thought was that this was going to be complicated. And it was, but not nearly as much as I thought it would be. Ayinde introduces the characters gradually. There are many different POVs that give you an overall sense of the different factions in the story. I felt drawn more to some characters than others, as is usual with these types of books/series.

The worldbuilding is the strongest element of this, in my opinion. It is a very rich blend of magic and technology, colonisation, politics, betrayal, honour, and survival. I love the named Greybloods, especially the Bairneater, and I can't wait to learn more about them. I also love the mashup of cultures. There's a heady mix of African and Asian cultures, and at times, some of the words also seem like a mix of Latin American languages (Aztec, Mayan, or Incan). It creates a rich environment that immerses the reader.

At times, the pacing slowed down a bit, but it's still a very strong debut. I look forward to the next one.

4.25 stars

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

I will admit, I was maybe not completely in the right brain space for this! So before you head into this; be prepared for a *lot* of characters, and maybe a little slower of a pace.
The ancestral magic and the ancient technology is very interesting, this was probably my favourite element, and every time we stopped to explore it more, I felt truly engaged.
There are several plot lines, and I really loved seeming them connect together near the end - no spoilers but some of the twists were quite satisfying!

Any lover of epic fantasy should try this!

Thank you, NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book could’ve been amazing. The setting was interesting - it seemed like a mixture of the usual medieval fantasy setting with swords and horses, although not as Eurocentric, and a sci-fi world with robots and technology.
But while this combination could’ve been something great, it mainly was confusing. Nothing really got explained and everything was way too confusing for that. I still managed to somehow keep up with the story, but it was very frustrating. Yes, it’s always good if you get thrown right into the story, but not if you drown from too much happening and not enough information. Especially Fantasy lives off world building. And the world building in this book was simply lacking.
I have no idea what everything looks like. Is it a hot climate? Are there plants? What’s the weather like? What do the people look like, their cities, what’s their culture? For some reason I imagined a very barren place - might be because it got described like that and while I forgot the descriptions, it got ingrained in my mind. Or it might be because there were no descriptions at all, so my mind built up the closest it had to “no descriptions”, which is literally just - nothing there to see, must be barren. I honestly couldn’t say.

As for the greybloods - they exist and they do things. What exactly is bad about them? Why are they evil? Why should I care about anything happening at all?
The other characters also just weren’t it. There are multiple main characters, we get multiple POVs. And I couldn’t tell them apart. I just finished the book and I already forgot half the names. I don’t know what they did, why they were important, or even just who they actually were.
The only character that kept my interest until the end was Jinao. He was interesting. Unfortunately, he also wasn’t exactly well written. When I found out after the first few chapters that he was supposed to be 28, I was simply flabbergasted. I honestly would’ve thought until then that he was 14. Maybe (!) 16 as the absolute oldest. But an actual adult? No way. He did not behave like an adult.

I already mentioned multiple times that I had no idea what was going on or why I should care about anything. The plot was simply all over the place. All the characters were doing different things and I couldn’t keep up with who was doing what and why and how everything was connected.
If this hadn’t been an ARC, I would’ve dnf’ed this book after the first 20%. And I never dnf books.

I’m very sorry, but this book really wasn’t it. I couldn’t get into it at all, I was confused all the time and it simply bored me. Maybe that’s on me - there are plenty of good reviews who seemed to have no trouble keeping up and really enjoyed this. But In my opinion this book needs a healthy amount of editing.

A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde is such a good book. Loved the characters, loved the story, loved the storyline. Loved everything! 5 stars is less than what I wanted to give! I wanted to guve 10 stars!

I loved this!! I need to re-read this as soon as possible. This book was everything you want to read and more.

Unfortunately I ended up DNFing this book fairly early on. I don't know if or was me not being in the mood for it, or whether it was the book itself. I just found that start of it very dense with a lot of worldbuilding information, and I found it a little overwhelming. However, the premise still intrigues me so I may return to the story when I'm more in the mood for it!

DNF @35%.

This was a weird one, there was too little world-building, and also too much? It almost felt like the parts we got had no context, so I struggled to place them in the world? The characters also seemed significantly younger than their ages, in fact some the writing, especially dialogue, felt overly juvenile. I think if you're willing to stick with this it is a story that will probably get better as it goes along, I just really struggled to get into the world and really understand the magic system/world building.

In a time where epic fantasy needs its much needed spotlight, Ayinde has come with a good start to a new trilogy firmly in this category.
This multi-POV story with ancestral magic, betrayal and overlapping mystery plot spans the Nine Lands and characters which have interesting dynamics with the ancestors/beings they call upon to help them in their time of need.

The world Ayinde has created is a melting point of (pre-colonial) cultures which plays a role into the magic system, character names and appearances. It’s a slow burn sort of story (as is expected of a tale of this magnitude) with the last 20% providing revelation to the plot threads spun from the beginning.

An intriguing start to the Invoker Trilogy which fans of epic/high fantasy will find indulgent and true to the genre it falls under

A thrilling debut novel, A Song of Legends Lost is an epic fantasy-sci-fi about revenge, oppression, rebellion, and the traumas of war. I was invested from the start by the high quality writing, unique worldbuilding, engaging characters, and the deep mysteries surrounding the magic and/or technological systems in play. It's hard to believe this is a first novel.

In the Nine Lands, the noble Nine Families can summon the spirit of their ancestors to continue fighting the cybernetic "Greybloods" who constantly invade and terrorise their lands. "Lowbloods" - everyone not part of the Nine Families - are fodder in the wars between these powerful summoners and the monstrous mechanical enemies. Technology is forbidden due to its ties to the Greyblood enemy forces, and only the secretive nuns and priests can safely wield a few small tech relics from the long-dead Scathed race who once lived in technological splendor. The rules surrounding relics and summoning are set in stone... until Temi, a Lowblood young woman, is implanted with an unknown spirit against her will. The spirit plans to spark a rebellion--and he's not the only one.

In the tradition of epic fantasy, there is a large cast to follow but some appear quite late and some early characters drop out for large sections of the novel. I enjoyed all the point-of-view characters (and many of the side characters, of course), though it was harder to emotionally engage with characters who only appeared past the 50% mark of the book. It's hard for me to tell if that's because one of them is clearly an antagonist (even if they don't know it), or because I had limited care to give and it was already taken by the other characters who'd appeared earlier--even by the end, I couldn't tell the reason for why I disliked this particular character. Their chapters gave necessary information, so I didn't hate their chapters, but I never wanted them to succeed and wouldn't mind if they weren't a POV character again (though I'm sure they will be).

If there's any criticism on the characters, it's that some of them come off as too lacking in intelligence. One POV character who stays throughout the entire novel keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over and over... it starts to defy reason that they never learn or change. Another character seems far too naive for their background to not realise what horrible things are happening around them, and that they themselves are causing. Of course not every character (especially in a story with a huge cast like this) is going to be highly intelligent. But it shouldn't be getting to the point where even a child would have learned or realised certain things by now, but these adults keep failing. I am also still mad that Temi disappears for too much of the book--absent from ch13 until ch42, when she's one of the most engaging and interesting POVs. Naturally Temi is a favourite of mine, as was Elari, and to my surprise I came to care for Jinao and Boleo more than I originally thought I would. I hope Lyela is a main POV character in the next book, though I won't be terribly surprised if she remains more a mystery in-the-background character either.

The worldbuilding is amazing. I'm really into the juxtaposition of African cultures with out-of-control advanced cybertech enemies, the dance-summon magic versus brain implants to talk to the gods/ancestors... There's a lot of sci-fi elements with the technology, but the genre of the book is definitely fantasy. Not only because the people of the Nine Lands view the technology as magic, but in the structure of the world and the plot. The author also doesn't dumb down the worldbuilding and overexplain things that the full audience might not be familiar with. They throw out the native, original words for various items like clothing, decorations, weapons, etc. and you go Google that term if you don't know what it is. I'm completely fine with that because white fantasy writers have been doing it with the precise/exact European words for armour, clothing, food, etc. for decades and readers have never had a problem with it.

Like any good epic fantasy, the plot rockets along with many moving parts and many disjointed threads that slowly start to weave together to form the bigger overall picture. Mostly the novel does well on this front--I was always engaged and eager to know more, and it was exciting when a tiny snippet would drop and I could put the pieces together myself before the author confirmed things on the page. My only complaint for plot would be that by the end of this novel (the first of a trilogy, so 33.33% through the full story) many of the human plans are starting to form into the bigger picture, but the spirit/ancestor side is still very much not. Also, the motivation of the king declaring an invasion that leaves his lands unprotected is an absolute mystery that makes no sense. I will absolutely be buying the next book, but this much confusion left at the end of the first novel frustrates me--I had hoped to see more of the bigger picture by this point.

Fair warning: there was a point in the novel where I got some potential internal-coloniser-mindset author vibes, but by the end of the novel I was relieved to have been mistaken. If you need some (very world-spoilerific) details before deciding whether this novel is for you: <spoilers hidden behind Goodreads' spoiler tags>.

Overall I enjoyed this immensely. One of the more engaging epic fantasies I've read in a long time with so many unique aspects that leave A Song Of Legends Lost feeling fresh and exciting. I will absolutely be picking up this series. A few minor frustrations keep me from giving it a full 5 stars, but this is so close: a 9 out of 10, or 4.5 stars. If only Goodreads would let us use half-marks.


Rating: 4.5 stars, rounding down as always -- Engaging and unique fantasy with African cultures, summoning spirits to fight for you like your favourite JRPG, and mysterious cybertech including a bedraggled No-Cat companion that follows someone home and refuses to leave (peak cat behaviour).

An epic fantasy debut, incredibly ambitious that manages to deliver. Consider me impressed..
I picked up A Song of Legends Lost with moderate expectations, based on the fact it was a debut and that some of the early reviewers mentioned it was too long. Happy to say that for the right audience this will be a fantastic read. What I mean by that is that this is an absolutely epic, sometimes demanding and complex fantasy read. This is not targeted towards newcomers in the genre.
It's multi POV, african inspired story with a fast pace and plenty of action. The worldbuilding is expanse and very interesting. The African setting is unique and combined with the story it's tottally absorbing. The author chooses to mainly show and not tell, so there is minimal infodumping and the readers must learn about the world as they progress into the book. That is the demanding part. There is so much going on, and so many characters, that you have to really pay attention to what's going on. The characters for the most part are really well done and the story takes them to some unexpected places. The prose was neither overly simplistic nor too flowery.
As I said above this is pretty epic and in the end there are still some questions we don't get answers to. Those will have to wait for the sequel I guess.
If I had to find some critisisms I would say that the pace is a bit too fast. There is constantly something happening from the get go and I could have used some time to take a breathe and reflect on all the events or spend some time with some of the characters to understand them a bit better.
I think fans of The Last War trilogy from Mike Shackle will eat this up.
Thanks to NetGaley and Orbit for providing me with the arc for this.

This was absolutely the epic fantasy that I didn't know I've been needing. The world building is deep and vivid and I felt so immersed, I kept losing track of time. The true magic of fantasy novels for me is when you can completely disappear into the world and it feels vividly and violently real around you. It felt like a glorious mash-up of Final Fantasy style sweeping battles and characters who felt intimately real and human. I was so invested in this story and the characters, and I would straight up die for Runt in particular.

Can't wait to continue this series and read more from the author, I believe this is her debut and it's an absolute stunner.

<b>thank you to orbit and netgalley for my advanced copy! <3 </b>

tl;dr:
i enjoyed this novel, and i'm really looking forward to seeing what this author does in the future. i did find the first 50% or so to be a little bogged down in the details, but by the end, i was very taken with the plot and i'm looking forward to seeing everyone's theories!

characters:
i really liked the varied cast of characters, and how we experienced the different walks of life through their eyes. there aren't any that i'm still thinking about a few days after finishing the book, but i think that's a consequence of having so many POVs.

world building:
i found this world absolutely fascinating. i liked the insights into different areas of the empire, and watching our characters travel meant it was never boring. in the coming books, i hope we do have a 'central' ish location for our characters to interact, but i did enjoy visiting different lands.

magic system:
this is where this novel really shines, in my opinion. invoking ancestors as defenders has such interesting implications, and as the story unfolds, the magic system just gets better and better.

overall, i enjoyed it but had some critiques, but if the blurb sounds like something you'd like, this is absolutely one to take a chance on.

This book has filled the gaping holes that the Throne of Glass and Game of Thrones series have left in my heart. A plethora of characters whom we follow and love throughout the start of this epic fantasy of rebellion and revenge.

A Song of Legends Lost follows the stories of a shunned General's son, a fierce lowblood, a rebellious monk, a traumatised Captain, and a morally grey pauper. In the Nine Lands, only those of highblood can summon the spirits of the ancestors to fight in a centuries long war with the Greybloods. That is until a lowblood invokes a powerful spirit which could hold the key to ending the war and unravel the world as it was once known. The contrast between all of these characters was so beautiful. I particularly loved the dichotomy between two funeral scenes showing one character's loving family and the other's unloving cold family. I had my heart in my mouth in so many scenes as Ayeinde unravels her complex, fantastical world. Temi has my heart and I feel would be an excellent friend. Runt was such an exciting character to read and I cannot wait to see her develop and see how she fits as the story progresses. I can't say more without spoiling!

This novel unravelled so wonderfully and wickedly - just when I thought I knew what was coming, the path shifted and new facts emerged. At the 50% mark I vividly remember going "Oh shit, it was all a lie!" And proceeded to have "Oh shit" moments going on from there right until the last page!

Those epilogues have me in a chokehold, and now I am patiently waiting for the second book. I really can't wait to learn more about the Greybloods and their origin. I also can't wait to know more about Aan's kin and what they stand for. M. H. Ayinde is an epic contender in the fantasy space and I cannot wait to read more of her work! Watch out Sanderson and Martin, Ayinde is incoming!

Now this was great! I went in with no expectations, honestly, I just knew it sounded neat when I first preordered it (I try to preorder the most intriguing fantasy/horror books throughout the year, within my budget of course) so when I requested it on NetGalley I just knew it was on my preorder list. Well anyway, allow me to offer you some quick expectations: A Song of Legends Lost is the first in a new epic fantasy trilogy by British author M.H. Ayinde. This is very West-African inspired (with a bit of a mix! I certainly noticed a little Indian culture in areas), it's a multi-POV story with four parts, and each character offers the story something different.

This is a world with a lost people, the Scathed, wiped out millenia ago by their own creations: the greybloods. These are kind of mechanical people, made out of the cursed techwork people are told to keep away from, and humanity has been at war with them for as long as they can remember. Here in the Nine Lands, humans are ruled over by the Royal Ahiki clan, the golden clan with golden eyes painful to look upon. And within this world, only those called upon through specialised rituals within the Nine Clans can invoke their ancestors, a power used to defend against the attacking greyblood armies. Only... Temi begins hearing a voice in her mind, somebody who is not her ancestor, and the ancestors turn away from those who do not use the gifts they are given. Sounds good right?

So we've got a kind of arcane techwork that must be "cleansed" by a Royal Monk, it is forbidden for anybody but them to touch it as it is allegedly cursed. There are ... oh there are just so many moving parts to this book I couldn't even begin to explain it to you, just trust me. Each perspective moves the story along in its own way, and by the end paints a whole picture, and the way everything comes together, man, I couldn't stop reading. I have read the most I've read all year so far over the past 3 days because of this book. It's so unique, complex in a very good and satisfying way, and I loved all the characters. I wish I could dive right into the next book! But I will have to be patient.

I can however urge you to consider checking this one out! Especially if you're looking for queernormative epic fantasy written by an amazing black woman. It releases on the 8th April 2025, and I cannot wait to see how the rest of this trilogy pans out and yes I was naughty and went off and preordered the special edition from Goldsboro Books. Hey I may want to revisit this one, may as well do it in style, right?

2.5 stars rounded down.
A promising start that turned into a boring slog. I probably should have stopped reading but I was genuinely interested in some of the plotlines.

The worldbuilding and the story are the strongest parts of A Song of Legends Lost. The setting of the Nine Lands is inspired variously by Nigeria, India, Mesoamerica, and probably others. The land is littered with ruins of the Scathed, who left behind mysterious technology, called techwork, and the greybloods, artificial creatures who have been attacking the humans in an endless war. Only monks and nuns are allowed to use techwork, as it supposedly needs to be cleansed before it can be used safely. Members of the highblood families can summon the spirits of their ancestors to aid in battle, called invoking. All of this is really interesting and different from most other fantasy. I won't get into the plot, but it sets up some intriguing mysteries and is what kept me reading to the end.

Unfortunately, the book is let down by two things: mediocre writing and characters that I did not care about.

The actual prose was mostly okay except for some strange word choices, but there were often times when something would be mentioned for the first time in a scene, but as if we already knew about it, which was confusing and would make me go back to see if I'd missed something. There were other small mistakes (I assume) which confused me. For example, in this quote:
"Princen Hothin, Lord Jinao here has a particular interest in the invokers of other lands. He was telling me just the other day that the shadow he invokes is mightier than all the others."
the speaker is referring to Hothin and addressing Jinao in the second sentence, but because they started the first sentence addressing Hothin, it makes it sound like the second sentence is about Jinao. In general the descriptions of places were quite sparse, and I found it difficult to picture things, although the author was better when it came to describing people.

The real problem was the characters. I couldn't really get attached to any of them except maybe Jinao and Temi. Their reactions and emotions all seemed so surface level, even after events that should have been very impactful. There is also a lack of meaningful interaction between any characters. I don't think I could point to any really interesting relationships in the whole book.

While the story was good it slowed down a lot in the middle, with a lot of scenes that are repetitive or don't advance the plot much. Elari's chapters were particularly hard to get through because she was extremely passive. In most of her scenes she is either asking Lyela to do something or just reacting to events. And her 'doves' were meant to be endearing I think, but mostly they just annoyed me because they kept wanting to kill people who were trying to tell Elari important things. The pace does pick up toward the end of the book, and I found the ending decent.

There are a few big reveals about the history of the setting. While these come as a shock to the characters, they fell flat for me, either because I had inferred them early on or because the book hadn't emphasised the 'lie' enough - there was no indication of the importance of this to the characters.

I think this book could still be enjoyable for someone who doesn't mind less emphasis on characterisation, or who is really interested in non-medieval fantasy settings. There is a lot to praise here and I would try this author again, but this one didn't work for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.