Eirelan

Eirelan by Liam O'Shiel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a book that I won from FirstReads and I appreciate the opportunity to review it.



This was a truly epic read. I would have actually given this 4.5 stars but because it was so well written I rounded up to 5. This is the epic story set 1000 years after the Age of Machines in Ireland. The Twenty Clans are fighting for the very survival against clans to the north as well as enemies across the sea in Spain. This story is woven together, layer upon layer, and is filled with characters that are brought to life and full of complexities. We see not only the war and the struggles that they face with their enemies, but also the struggles of their day to day lives.Not only do we see this story from the perspective of the Twenty Clans, we are also given a glimpse of life from the perspective of their enemies. We see how hard life is for the people that live to the north of them and what motivates them to try to invade. We see leftovers of our own culture and politics and how it is still influencing wars and control. In the midst of all this we learn of thier past, which is our present. How the Age of Machines drew to a close as technology became our destruction as well as the damage left to the environment. This leaves a civilization essentionally as it was in the Middle Ages with travel by ships and horses and war with swords and the bow, but set amidst the ruin of great cities of today. One thing that would have made this work even better would have been the inclusion of a map. I would have loved to been able to better visualize the location of towns as well as where the allies and enemies of the Twenty Clans were situated. This is quite a large book (almost 800pgs) and a bit daunting at first glance but it is very well written and keeps you interested til the very end. There are places that are a bit descriptive and while the story does benefits from such passages with this being such a lengthy read I could have done without them. Overall, I loved this book and am looking forward to the next in this series.



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