M.H. Ayinde’s debut novel A Song of Legends Lost crashes into the fantasy landscape like Vunaji breaking his chains—raw, powerful, and impossible to ignore. This first installment of the Invoker Trilogy delivers everything you could want from epic fantasy while simultaneously dismantling many of the genre’s most tired conventions. Set in the richly imagined Nine Lands, where only those of noble blood can supposedly summon their ancestors to fight in battle, Ayinde crafts a narrative that pulses with rebellion, injustice, and the dangerous allure of forbidden power.
The story follows Temi, a “lowblood” from the slums of Lordsgrave who accidentally invokes a powerful spirit—something that should be impossible for someone of her station. When this mysterious entity, calling himself Vunaji, begins speaking to her, Temi finds herself thrust into a conflict that threatens to unravel the very foundations of her world. What begins as a desperate attempt to save her family from extortion by the criminal Chedu Family evolves into something far more dangerous and transformative.
World-Building That Breathes with Life
The Nine Lands: More Than Just Fantasy Scenery
Ayinde’s world-building operates on multiple levels, creating a society that feels lived-in rather than constructed. The Nine Lands are ruled by invoker clans who can summon their ancestors—but only the descendants of the nine founding warlords possess this ability. This creates a rigid caste system where “highbloods” wield both political power and supernatural abilities, while “lowbloods” survive in the margins.
The slum district of Lordsgrave stands as perhaps the novel’s greatest achievement in world-building. Rather than presenting the poor as faceless victims or criminal stereotypes, Ayinde creates a community with depth, dignity, and genuine warmth. Temi’s family operates a bakery while secretly dealing in techwork—forbidden relics of the mysterious Scathed civilization. This dual existence perfectly captures the complexity of marginalized communities: resourceful, interconnected, and forced to operate outside official systems to survive.
A Magic System with Consequences
The invocation system feels genuinely fresh, blending ancestor worship with what amounts to divine necromancy. When invokers call upon their ancestors, they don’t just summon spirits—they bring forth legendary warriors with distinct personalities, weapons, and powers. The sight of Adatali wielding his Eight Blades or the terrifying presence of ancestral figures made manifest creates moments of genuine wonder.
More compelling is how Ayinde subverts this system through Temi’s story. Vunaji is clearly not one of the nine founding warlords, yet he possesses power that rivals or exceeds traditional ancestors. His ability to consume other spirits and grow stronger introduces an element of genuine horror to what might otherwise be a straightforward magic system.
Characters That Transcend Archetype
Temi: A Hero Worth Following
Temi Baker represents everything epic fantasy heroes should be but rarely are. She’s not chosen by destiny or revealed to have hidden noble blood—she’s a working-class girl trying to save her family from criminals. Her relationship with her brother Tunji, her fierce protectiveness of her community, and her growing horror at the violence her choices unleash create a character arc that feels earned rather than predetermined.
What makes Temi particularly compelling is how Ayinde handles her growing power. As Vunaji’s influence grows stronger, Temi doesn’t become a power fantasy—she becomes increasingly isolated and frightened. The scene where she creates water votives with supernatural skill captures both the seductive nature of power and its cost perfectly.
Supporting Cast with Depth
The novel’s ensemble cast avoids the typical fantasy trap of creating characters who exist solely to serve the plot. Father Boleo emerges as a particular standout—a “morally grey monk” whose sarcastic exterior masks genuine competence and hidden depths. His investigation into the mysterious techwork and his complex relationship with both faith and forbidden knowledge creates some of the novel’s most intriguing subplots.
Jinao’s storyline provides an interesting counterpoint to Temi’s journey. While she gains power she never asked for, he desperately seeks the recognition and abilities that his noble birth should guarantee but doesn’t. His eventual confrontation with the Bairneater becomes a meditation on courage, identity, and the gap between expectation and reality.
Even secondary characters like Aunt Yeshe, Old Baba, and the various members of the criminal Families feel like real people with genuine motivations rather than plot devices.
Themes That Resonate
Class Warfare with Nuance
At its core, A Song of Legends Lost is about power—who has it, who deserves it, and what people will do to get it. The rigid caste system of the Nine Lands serves as more than just worldbuilding; it’s a lens through which Ayinde examines real-world issues of inequality and systemic oppression.
The criminal Families occupy a fascinating middle ground in this hierarchy. Neither highblood nor completely powerless, they represent the dangerous space where desperation meets opportunity. Harvell’s extortion of Temi’s family isn’t just villainy—it’s the logical result of a system that denies certain people legitimate paths to prosperity.
The Price of Justice
Vunaji offers Temi the power to fight back against her oppressors, but every victory comes with a cost. The water votives that kill dozens of innocent people serve as a stark reminder that revolutionary violence rarely affects only its intended targets. This moral complexity elevates the novel above simple good-versus-evil narratives.
Identity and Belonging
Multiple characters struggle with questions of identity throughout the novel. Temi grapples with hosting a spirit that may be fundamentally alien to her. Jinao fights to prove himself worthy of his noble heritage. Even Princess Lyelatuana’s shocking betrayal of her father stems from questions of belonging and acceptance.
Prose That Sings and Strikes
Ayinde’s writing style deserves particular praise for its ability to shift registers seamlessly. The dialogue feels authentic to each character’s background and circumstances—Temi’s street-smart directness contrasts beautifully with Father Boleo’s educated sarcasm and the formal speech patterns of the nobility.
The action sequences crackle with energy while maintaining emotional weight. The final confrontation between Vunaji and Chedu operates on multiple levels—personal, magical, and symbolic—without losing narrative momentum.
Perhaps most impressively, Ayinde handles the novel’s darker moments with appropriate gravity. The massacre scenes that bookend the novel feel genuinely disturbing rather than exploitative, grounding the fantasy elements in recognizable human suffering.
Areas for Consideration
Pacing Challenges
At nearly 600 pages, the novel occasionally struggles with pacing. The middle section, while rich in character development and world-building, sometimes slows the momentum built by the explosive opening. Some readers may find the extensive exploration of the criminal underworld and political machinations less engaging than Temi’s more personal struggle.
Complexity as Double-Edged Sword
The novel’s ambitious scope occasionally works against it. With multiple POV characters, extensive world-building, and several interwoven plotlines, some elements feel underdeveloped. The techwork mysteries and the history of the Scathed civilization, while fascinating, sometimes feel disconnected from the main narrative thrust.
Violence and Consequence
While the novel’s unflinching approach to violence serves its themes, some readers may find certain scenes difficult to process. The water votive massacre, in particular, serves its narrative purpose but creates genuine horror that may be more intense than some fantasy readers expect.
A Worthy Addition to the Fantasy Canon
A Song of Legends Lost succeeds where many debut fantasy novels fail by creating characters and situations that feel genuinely meaningful. Ayinde doesn’t just tell us that inequality is bad or that power corrupts—she shows us through carefully constructed characters and situations that make these themes feel immediate and personal.
The novel’s greatest strength lies in its refusal to provide easy answers. Temi’s journey toward power and justice creates as many problems as it solves, and the novel ends not with triumph but with the promise of greater conflicts to come. This moral complexity, combined with genuinely engaging world-building and character work, creates a reading experience that lingers long after the final page.
For readers seeking epic fantasy that challenges as much as it entertains, A Song of Legends Lost offers a remarkable entry point. Ayinde has created a world worth exploring and characters worth following through whatever trials await in the sequel, A Dance of Burning Blades.
Similar Books You Might Enjoy
If A Song of Legends Lost resonates with you, consider exploring these similar works:
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin – Features marginalized protagonists with dangerous powers and explores systemic oppression through fantasy elements
- The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter – Epic fantasy with African-inspired world-building and themes of revenge and power
- The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang – Military fantasy that examines the true cost of power and warfare
- Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor – Blends fantasy with African mythology and confronts issues of identity and belonging
- The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – Court intrigue with a protagonist fighting systemic inequality (though in a lighter tone)
A Song of Legends Lost stands as proof that epic fantasy can be both entertaining and meaningful, offering readers a story that respects their intelligence while delivering the excitement they crave. This is precisely the kind of book the genre needs more of, and M.H. Ayinde is clearly a voice worth watching.
