About the Book

Book Title: The Banished Lands, book one in The Banished Lands Series

Author: Benjamin Mester

Genre: Fantasy

Release date: May, 2015

A kingdom in danger. A prophecy that will change everything. But will they understand it in time? The old world is gone, and barely even histories remain. But something from that time is returning. The closing lines of a farewell poem, written centuries ago by the last great king of the age to his slain wife, might be more than just a poem:

The world and all its light shall fade,

I’ll stay with her beneath the shade

And wait until the world’s remade…

Join us in this epic fantasy adventure as three friends plunge into the great mystery of their age, twelve centuries in the making. A mysterious fog blankets the forest just outside the sleepy town of Suriya. A dark plot unfolds as Durian and his friends discover ties between a strange wanderer and the warlike barbarian kingdom far to the north. Are the mysterious things happening in the forest a prelude to invasion? What happens next will propel Durian and his curious friends into the middle of the oldest riddle in the history of their kingdom, a dozen centuries old.

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About the Author

Benjamin Mester is a novelist and poet. He fell in love with the written word and beauty of language at a young age, marvelling at the way a story can transport a person, enveloping their whole mind and heart as they dive into new places and grand adventures. A lover of nature, Mester has spent the whole of his adult life immersed in the study of poetry, often wandering the woodlands of northern Minnesota or the beaches of California.

If asked about his writing, he would say his overarching goal is to inspire people to live with greater passion, often quoting one of his favorite Proverbs, 14:8: The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways. How often do we stop to give thought to our ways, asking ourselves why we live the way we do? What does it mean to live to the full? How can I love more deeply? Mester hopes his writing will build a longing in his readers, that his stories inspire them to want more for their lives than the mediocrity of good enough we so often settle for.

Guest Post from Ben

I’ve always loved that enthralling feeling of adventure and mystery that comes when you dive into a brand new world. My greatest motivation for The Banished Lands was to create a world of rich lore and history, but not overburden the reader with backstory. In The Banished Lands series, we enter a fractured world with a forgotten history. But hints of it remain through a set of poems that speak of the old world and cryptic events which brought an end to that age.

I love the idea of characters living normal, mundane lives, suddenly thrust into an ancient struggle they didn’t even know was raging. I love the fantasy genre because it isn’t ashamed of the classic archetypes – the epic struggle of good and evil, heroics, and everything that often gets the label cliché. Using these archetypes in ways that haven’t been done before was my real motivation for writing The Banished Lands series. The way this series combines poetry, lore and mystery is something unique in the fantasy genre.

When writing this first book, I often sat back and wondered to myself, What would it be like to live in a world with a shrouded past? We often take modern life for granted – the whole wealth of human knowledge at our fingertips. But what would it be like to live in a world where the only history was cryptic poetry telling of a time when the world was a wildly different place? And what if, somehow, those ancient poems that no one really understands seem to be the only thing that really explains the dark things creeping forward from the fringes of the world? Welcome to The Banished Lands!

This is a new author to me and I'm glad that I was given the chance to read this book. It is not like the usual genre I read, but I love that it expanded a new genre to me. The writing is awesome and when the poetry is placed in the story, I savored every moment. The author has created a world like no other. As I traveled with Durin and his friends, my curiosity piqued. Where was the story going to take me? What mysteries would be discovered?

I loved the title of the book and I thought this described it perfectly, " If something had returned from there, it should not have happened in secret," It was powerful to read that the land was watched over and nothing would ever return. So I began to wonder, what was so evil that was causing so much concern? This is when I really started to allow the author to take me to where the story was. I walked beside Durian and others and was on guard at every noise I heard. The writing is good and was easy to feel myself transported to the lands. The group encounters dangerous creatures along the way that would make me scream and run the other way.

I loved the determination of the characters and they seemed to draw strength from each other. It made me think how we should hold each other up when we struggle.This beautiful castle is ruled by a great and powerful man. Guards surround him and he is hesitant to believe that danger lurks nearby. Will he listen to Pallin who has great power? The quest is on to find where King Euthor buried his wife. The story kept me glued to my chair as I read how Pallin and others were faced with enemies. Their purpose was to regain their powers. Would they achieve that before war breaks out? Malfur is a fierce enemy and will do anything to win. I liked him because I thought he was a perfect example of how power can cause you to turn against family and friends. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. This is a fantasy type book, but within the story lies many messages of hope, courage and strength.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

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