Banished?
The Story Behind The Banished Lands Series
I've always loved that intoxicating feeling of adventure and mystery when embarking with a character into a brand new world. My driving motivation with The Banished Lands series was to create a world with a rich lore and history, but not overburden the reader with backstory. I've always loved the richness of poetry – the metaphorical language which speaks to a deeper meaning just beyond the edge of explanation. 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 Рthe epic struggle of good and evil, heroics, and everything that often gets the label clich̩. 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 completely 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.
Ooh, that sounds cool.I guess I often feel as if it's even true - that we have forgotten vital lessons from our past, and that, for many of us, what's left is cryptic and unbelievably strange. I think I shall enjoy your Banished Lands novels. And I love that you include real poetry (see excerpt below).
Title: THE BANISHED LANDS (BOOK ONE)
Author: Benjamin Mester
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 384
Genre: Fantasy
Author: Benjamin Mester
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 384
Genre: Fantasy
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.
Dismissing
hours as they pass
Soft upon
the windswept grass.
The hopes
of men have come to naught.
Nothing
fair for eyes or thought.
For Sheyla
lies on golden plain,
Of
Cavanah, the fairest slain;
Who met
her last and final day
When all
was brought to disarray.
Of gladful
things now nevermore –
Now bitter
wind, now salty shore.
The
peaceful world bound to unrest
And
darkness looming in the west.
The world
and all its light shall fade.
I'll stay
with her beneath the shade
And wait
until the world's remade...
Benjamin Mester is native of San Diego but can often be found
wandering the woods of northern Minnesota. He fell in love with
language at an early age – the eloquence of poetry or the grandeur of an
epic story. Fantasy is his favorite genre, crafting new and magical
places of heroism and adventure. When he isn’t writing, he’s often
taking long walks through nature or wondering about his place in the
wide world.Benjamin is the author of The Banished Lands series.
You can visit him on Goodreads.
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