3.75⭐️

Reading this story has been quite the journey. This debut novel is a sprawling epic sci-fi/fantasy set in the Nine Lands, a world inspired by many different cultures. The world building is massive, but the story generally kept me engaged and wanting more.

The setting is rich and interesting with a mix of history, sci-fi and high fantasy. The different concepts of magic are wholly unique and involve many different facets, but my favorite is the invoking of ancestral spirit guardians in battle.

The story is told through multiple POV’s, with each chapter following the plot-line of many various characters. While this approach enriches the world-building, I found it challenging at times to stay connected with all the characters or keep up with the different storylines. Some characters stood out and held my interest, but others felt less engaging. The frequent shifts in viewpoint sometimes made it hard to maintain momentum in the plot and since the book is quite long it felt frustrating at times.

That being said, the writing is generally solid, though there were moments where I stumbled over confusing passages or unusual word choices. Occasionally, I had to backtrack to fully grasp the context, which disrupted the flow of reading even more. Despite these hiccups, I was still genuinely interested in the outcome of each character’s journey.

I did like the author’s ambitious blend of fantasy and science fiction elements. The integration of ancient technologies with mystical practices created a fascinating backdrop for the unfolding drama. However, this complexity demanded careful attention, as the narrative is dense with intricate details and interwoven plotlines.

Overall, A Song of Legends Lost is a commendable debut that will likely appeal to fans of epic fantasy seeking a richly imagined world with depth and nuance. While I may have struggled slightly with the complexity and pacing, I recognize the skill and creativity Ayinde brings to the genre. I’m curious to see how the story develops in future installments.

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Press for the gifted eARC. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Saga Press for sending me an arc of A Song of Legends Lost to read and review honestly!

A Song of Legends Lost is a complex and epic tale with expansive world building and a large range of unique characters. I loved the world and the magic system, but the numerous point of views meant that I found myself wanting for certain characters over others.

Ayinde did a fantastic job developing the world and magic of A Song of Legends Lost. As someone who really struggles with names, I really appreciated the index in the beginning of the major families and important characters. The magic system was not only unique but also woven in to the culture and history of the world, with traditions and artistic elements drawing from how the magic interacts with the characters. I loved watching the characters discover hidden layers to the magic and I look forward to learning more in future books.

A Song of Legends Lost was split into multiple parts, each part focusing on a different assortment of 3-4 POV characters. All the characters were individually fleshed out, distinctive from each other. Unfortunately, this did mean that I had favorite and least favorite characters and found certain story arcs more interesting than others. Some chapters I devoured, and I thoroughly enjoyed some of the more one off perspectives near the end. We would spend large chunks of the book without returning to characters and I found myself losing interest occasionally. I do think it all came together nicely at the end, but the middle section was a bit difficult to get through at parts.

Overall, it was a fun read with a wonderfully developed world, but felt a little drawn out and struggled with some of the character perspectives.

A Song of Legends Lost is M. H. Ayinde’s fantasy debut, and wow. What a start.
It’s got:
- A rich world that blends magic and technology
- Rich spiritual mythology
- Class tension, nobles vs commoners
- Everyone thinks they know the realm’s history but SURPRISE, hidden truths!

There’s a wide ensemble cast which is common in epic fantasy, and we get to see the POV of a common girl struggling to survive with her family, a priest in a religious order, a royal son, warriors, and more. I do think it got a bit complicated juggling the switching POVs at times, and it felt like we weren’t with one character for long enough before jumping to another. Still, this is a debut and the writing is so solid, I have no doubt this will improve in future books and become more seamless. I particularly love worlds with magic tech or artifacts from a fallen, ancient civilization that people struggle to understand and use. Plus a society where some individuals are able to call forth their ancestors’ spirits to fight in battle, and a centuries-long war against an ancient foe.

If you struggle with epic, sweeping worlds, multiple plots lines and huge ensemble casts, then this isn’t going to be a book for you, and no judgement. There’s a lot going on here! Or if you need romance in your fantasy – there’s no spice here. But for those of us who do like to have a dozen threads going at once and tons of POVs, this is almost certainly going to be one of the breakout fantasy books this year. I’m giving it a 3.75 (rounding up to 4) just because I think it needs a little work on handling all those threads but I think this is an author and a series to watch in epic fantasy. It’s a solid story with fantastic world building, and I love just the vibes it gives.

Thank you Netgalley and Saga Press for the chance to read this digital ARC! All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the electronic advanced reader copy (ARC) of A Song of Legends Lost (ASOLL). What a remarkable, intricate, multilayered, genuinely grand fantasy. This story blends elements of sci-fi and technology with fantasy, all set against a backdrop inspired by African culture. Imagine a blend of Black Panther's sci-fi and technological elements (infused with African inspiration) combined with the intricate political dynamics of Game of Thrones (without the dragons).

In classic epic fantasy style, multiple storylines and perspectives converge in a distinctive and astonishing fashion. A significant part of the book involves both the characters and the reader exploring the connections between events and seeking to understand and determine "truth." I became deeply engaged with both the characters and the storyline.

I appreciate the accessible writing style and vivid world-building. While I needed to consult the map and tribe/character guide frequently at first, it becomes more solidified as you advance through the story. Grab this book for an enjoyable experience, but don't expect a fast read.

This debut truly shines, and I eagerly anticipate diving into the subsequent books in this series. If you're seeking a refreshing and innovative epic fantasy, be sure not to miss this one.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for letting me read an early copy!

This is the first epic fantasy I've read in a while, and it was really fun to dive back into this style of storytelling. This reads very much like a classic epic fantasy, and it manages to maintain that tone even as it weaves more and more scifi elements into the plot. The familiarity of the storytelling style with more unique plot elements was really interesting and fun to experience.

This story and its cast of characters is vast, and the story does jump around a lot, changing perspective every chapter, between 5 different perspectives (excluding the prologue or epilogues). It was really interesting to see the connections between the perspectives start to come together, but I was heavily utilizing the search function to remind myself where we last left characters. There were times where I wish the author were a bit less strict in switching perspective every chapter, but ultimately I enjoyed that it took a bit work to follow the various threads of this story, and it was satisfying to see the pay off.

The characters in this are really compelling, but I do think that the constant jumping between storylines didn't give much opportunity to get to know most of them particularly well. I hope that we get a bit more time to get to know characters more intimately in the next installment.

This isn't necessarily a good place to start for readers new to epic fantasy, but I think it's a really satisfying and fun read for those of us who know we like these types of stories. I had a great time with this.

Possessing a vast fantasy cast that blessedly comes with a list of cast members at the beginning of the book that I found myself flipping back and forth to quite often, a really cool fusion of what it means to be scifi-hyphen-fantasy, coupled with ambition akin to something like A Game of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson's "Sandalanches" as fans love to call them, A Song of Legends Lost could easily be one of the year's best fantasy works.

I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 just because the size of the cast can be overwhelming at times and reminded me for the good and the bad of my first time through J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved Silmarillion. If you're the reader that loves taking notes and really getting into a rich, fully developed world like Westeros or Middle Earth, the world of A Song of Legends Lost is that vibrant playground for you.

It's remarkable that so much HAPPENED in this book, it's huge, but yet it flew by so fast. I'm delighted that it's apparently going to be a trilogy. And for a debut, this is arresting. Definitely keeping my eye out for more work by Ayinde.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 stars. I was very excited about this book and while there are a lot of good elements in there, I was left a little disappointed.

The World:
The world is massive and very cool visually. It has a good foundation and overall I felt it was built pretty well. I think the many POVs in this book worked favorably when building out the different parts of the world. While I appreciate the image of this world, I didn’t exactly feel immersed in it, and that I think has to do with the writing which I’ll talk about later.

Characters:
There are many many POVs and we keep jumping from one to the next constantly. Some I really enjoyed (Temí, Runt) and others not so much (Elari, Boleo). I were always looking forward to Temí and Runt’s POVs and reading about them actually invoked emotions in me and I felt connected to them. As for the other characters, I felt like at least in this book 1 Elari’s character did not add anything to the book, nothing would have changed at all if her chapters were just removed. To some extent Boleo is the same, he only added one thing and after a minor edit he could be removed as well.

Plot:
There are quite a few different plot lines going on. Some I was intrigued by and was keen to follow, while others not so much. I did like how some of the stuff started connecting in the end and there were a few jaw dropping moments. When it came to any sort of battle scenes or more intense resolution to some plotline scenes, those felt a little undeveloped and would end suddenly making it a bit unsatisfactory.

Magic:
That was my favorite part of the book, invoking ancestors and using ancient tech, I was living for those moments.

Writing:
I think the prose overall was good, it was very descriptive and everything was written pretty well making it easy to understand what is happening in a given moment. The dialogue however at times felt primitive or choppy, I found myself thing sometimes when an adult would speak that that’s how a child would speak which made the characters not very believable because of that.

At this point I’m not sure if I’m going to continue the series, I think I’ll wait for the reviews of later books in the series first before making that decision.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for an eARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was sucked in from the very beginning. The world building was really good. I found it easy to follow and understand. I was really interest in Temi and Janao. I was excited every time I got to their chapters. I wanted to see more them in it.
I REALLY liked the concept of the characters invoking their ancestors. I honestly thought that was the coolest thing ever. It was very unique. The action in this book was good, I could literally imagine it. It reminded me of Black Panther.
It got a little confusing when a lot more characters came into the picture. I was struggling connecting them all. It took me a while to realize that we were getting the POV of other members in different clans. I'm glad there was a tree of all the characters that I could turn back to 😅.
That ending. That ending has me SO ready for book two. I can't wait.

This was an enjoyable read, if a bit slow at times. That tends to happen with epic fantasy when there is a lot of world-building. I didn't really mind it, though, because I was interested in everything that was going on. There is a lot of politics and a complex magic system with a mix of technology that is deemed dangerous by the religious order of the world. I really liked how LGBTQIA-friendly this book is. Many characters are queer or in polyamorous relationships.

There are multiple POVs in this book and it's separated into parts. I really enjoyed Temi's POV as she fought for her family and had to deal with tragedy and hardships that come from being a lowborn citizen. She bonds with a creature that is extremely powerful, but we are unsure of who he is or where he comes from. I was actually a little disappointed that Temi's POVs disappeared for a large portion of the book, and we were introduced to new characters instead. I understand why the author did this, but I missed Temi while I was reading the others.

Jinao is another major POV, and his story was less compelling for me until some twists were revealed that made it much more interesting. Somehow, all the POVs are intertwined, even if the characters aren't all together. The world-building that is done through each of these characters is really well done. By the time I was finished with the book, I was ready for more. I'm really interested in the world, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

The final chapter is very compelling, and we learn about a certain character. I really liked that little twist, and I can't wait to see what comes next. I definitely recommend this book if you like epic fantasy reads. There is zero romance in this book, which was a nice change for me. The cover art is also fantastic. It's what drew me to read it in the first place.

"A Song of Legends Lost" by M.H. Ayinde is a dazzling fantasy masterpiece, intertwining intricate histories and reshaped legends. The worldbuilding is immersive, featuring timeless kingdoms, societies, and folktales brought to life through lyrical prose. Characters shine as deeply real, from a willful protagonist to unforgettable supporting roles. With relentless pacing and resonant themes like legacy, betrayal, and rewriting history, this novel transcends traditional epic fantasy, offering a meditation on storytelling and the truths we embrace.

Thanks to Saga Press and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

A Song of Legends Lost opens with a prolog that introduces an artifact that we don't see again until part 2. Instead we are introduced to Temi and Jinao who each learn about their powers while they teach us about the world and its complexities. Temi bonds with a creature of unknown origin while Jinao bonds with another entity.

Most books would follow these two characters for the whole story. But soon things open up and the author introduces new points of view. While things don't seem connected at first, it comes together in unexpected ways.

A Song for Legends Lost is primarily a world building book. The magic is so complex that it is a big part of learning about the world. The magic is in part advanced technology that the characters don't fully understand.

I had extremely high expectations for this book after blurbs from Tasha Suri and Anthony Ryan plus the gorgeous cover. A Song of Legends Lost is a stunning debut. Fans of African fantasy will not want to miss this. It sets up a sequel that I'm already yearning to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the opportunity to read and review A Song of Legends Lost. Unfortunately I will be DNFing this book at 43%.
This fantasy book takes place in a war ravaged world where descendants can channel their ancestors to fight invaders and pieces of technology are strictly outlawed and destroyed by a religious sect.
I enjoyed this book for the first 30% when there were only two main POV characters but when two more were added I found myself connecting to the story less until at 43% I just did not wish to continue any further.
Since this is the first book in a trilogy I decided to cut my losses and just DNF now but I do think this is a book that many people will enjoy.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and M.H. Ayinde for the arc copy of this book.

I can easily rank A Song of Legends Lost among the most ambitious Epic Fantasy debuts I've read. The author's ability to weave intricate plots and develop such diverse characters is truly impressive. The story and cast were remarkable, and Ayinde's ability to navigate the story was impressive.

At first, it can be confusing because there are several different POVs. There are, however, markers that tell you which POV you are in. My favorite character is Temi. I love her character and she stole the show in this book. Having said that, the other characters were also good. The shifting perspectives add depth to the story, allowing readers to connect with each character on a personal level. Despite the initial confusion, the narrative becomes engaging and immersive, making it a worthwhile read.

I recommend this debut novel. The author's fresh voice and compelling storytelling make it a standout read. You'll find yourself captivated from the first page to the last. It is worth reading. The characters are richly developed, and the plot is both intricate and engaging. This novel offers a refreshing perspective and leaves a lasting impression. Don't miss out on this new author's work.

Some books whisper their stories, some shout them—but A Song of Legends Lost sings. M. H. Ayinde delivers a masterwork of fantasy, weaving a tale as intricate as the histories it draws upon and as bold as the legends it dares to reshape.

From the first page, Ayinde’s prose hums with a lyrical intensity, setting the stage for a world where myths are not just remembered but lived, where heroes rise not from prophecy but from the weight of their own choices. The depth of worldbuilding is staggering—each kingdom, each hidden society, each whispered folktale feels as if it has existed for centuries, waiting for the right storyteller to bring it into the light.

But where this novel truly shines is in its characters. The protagonist is not merely a vessel for adventure but a force of will, shaped by triumphs and tragedies that feel viscerally real. The supporting cast is just as unforgettable—warriors bound by broken oaths, scholars wielding knowledge like a blade, rulers torn between duty and desire. Each of them is a thread in Ayinde’s vast tapestry, and not a single one is left to fray.

The pacing is relentless yet never rushed, the stakes always deeply personal even when empires hang in the balance. Ayinde wields language like a weapon, striking with precision, cutting deep, and leaving wounds that linger long after the final page. The themes—legacy, betrayal, the cost of rewriting history—resonate on a level that makes A Song of Legends Lost more than just an epic fantasy; it is a meditation on power, storytelling, and the truths we choose to believe.

If this is the first song of M. H. Ayinde, then I can only hope it is the beginning of a saga that will echo for years to come. An instant classic, destined to take its place alongside the greatest epics of our time.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Little Brown Book Group for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review!

I have to say in the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed by all the POVs, characters, and the vast world building, but the magic system was interesting so I gave it a chance.
In my opinion I think that this book could be cut down a little bit, the use of some descriptive words were just too much. The multi POVs were actually done very well I just think there were too many.
It was very good for a debut novel as the writing was amazing, but I personally just felt like it was a bit much for me.

Not what i was expecting! As an ARC reader I feel compelled to give books a 100% shot and don't think I should ever dnf a book unless it's problematic for some super serious reasons. I will say the first....50% of this was a bit of drag for me, and if I'd been reading this off the shelf i might have slipped it right back. This large world and large cast of characters took a lot of set up and it was supper challenging for me to want to pick this up every day. But I continued on, and I was glad I did.

Once the momentum finally hit at around the halfway mark I was properly invested in each characters story. (Jinao, Temi, and Runt being my favorite POVs. Boleo was interesting, though I disliked him much more. I did find Elari's portion...boring.) The last 20% was nail biting good. I gasped, cringed, and said " ooooooooohhh that makes sense."

The writing is well structured and the author does a great job of interconnecting some sprawling lines of the story in a way that was both easy to follow but with an air of mystery.

I loved the use of invoking in the story and thought that was a fresh take on magic. (So cool that this had some inspiration from Final fantasy!) Some of my favorite parts were seeing the familial bonds (or lack of...) that were present during some of the invocations.

I will say 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 for an exciting conclusion. It's a slow start and I can see how that may be a detterent for some people (it's a pretty long book!) If you're into in a deeply thought out world with an interesting set of characters, this may be for you! This is the first in a triology and I'll be continuing!

Thanks to netgalley and Saga Press for the Arc!

Now this is the kind of epic fantasy I can get behind!

- a great cast of complex, nuanced characters
- multiple POVs told in the third person
- fantastic and detailed world-building
- a very cool magic system
- solid, solid writing

The scope of this book - especially for a debut! - is massive, with so much plot, world, history, and characters jammed into its many pages. It hits a lot of buttons of epic fantasy, but also has a bit of a sci-fi side, with the magic system and techwork. Captivating and original, I'm very excited to see the whole story come together across the series.

Thank you to the publisher, S&S/Saga Press, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

A Song of Legends Lost takes place in what is called the Nine Lands.

A land ruled by a king and noble families that appear to have special "blood" that allows them to invoke their ancestors. Invoke them to fight "monsters". We are introduced to an intricate magic system, with distinct characters and their POV's. Each POV giving us readers a different view of the magic, the society and makes us question fundamental aspects of the world we get to know.

One of the main things that immediately struck me and was one of my favorite things throughout - the animal companion! I even love the name.

This is a true epic fantasy, with battle, court schemes and coming of age of sorts. An amazing debut and if you're like me and love epic or high fantasy - this is the read for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC and allowing me to embark on this adventure!

Review: A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

M.H. Ayinde crafts an ambitious and intricate fantasy debut with A Song of Legends Lost, weaving together a world rich in mythology, power struggles, and compelling characters. The multi-layered storytelling introduces a vast cast, each with a distinct voice, bringing depth to the narrative.

The novel’s world-building is particularly striking, blending magic and history into an immersive setting that feels both fresh and deeply considered. The prose is well-crafted, and the different perspectives add complexity to the story, making it an engaging read for fans of epic fantasy.

this debut blew me away, the writing is truly superb

will absolutely recommend to all my epic fantasy readers.
with multiple POVs and very expensive world building there is a LOT packed into this first installment for a series a very much looking forward to reading!

I struggled a bit with how vast the cast is however Ayinde writes their relationships and personalities SO WELL I became invested in each and everyone of them.