Eagle Sage (Lon Tobyn Chronicles #3) by David B. Coe

David Coe does an excellent job of completing the Lon Tobyn Chronicle trilogy, begun in "Children of Amarid", followed by "The Outlanders". I had expected this final volume to bring war between the two parts of the known world: Tobyn-Ser and Lon-Ser. After all, the first two volumes of the trilogy seemed to be setting that up. And indeed, war seems to be coming as the plot details the arrival of an Eagle, binding to a mage which historically has only occurred when a war leader is required. But no. Coe masterfully takes us in an altogether different direction, capitalizing on major events from the first book which I had believed to be resolved.

Taken as a whole, this trilogy has truly been a hidden gem. It’s traditional fantasy to be sure but original in concept and well executed. There are no elves or dwarves, no plots derived from D&D game systems. David Coe holds a PhD in History, a background that I can’t help but feel was valuable in the world building. The social and political structures are realistic despite this being a fantasy world. The characters are well developed and engaging and even though there are a lot of them they are all genuine and memorable. I still find it difficult to believe these books were the debut novels by this author. As I noted on a previous review of book one, the version I read shows a copyright date of 2000 (mass market paperback published in 2001). Since that time, per the author, all three of the the books in the Lon Tobyn Chronicles have been re-released from Lore Seekers Press and include a thorough edit with improvements to prose, syntax, etc. However, none of the story or character development was altered.

As a fan of the author’s "Thieftaker" novels and stories under the pen name D.B. Jackson I had wanted to try his traditional fantasy.  Frankly, I was skeptical because the covers look like most of the other ‘80’s and 90’s fantasy tomes and I have struggled with many of those in recent years. But there is something to be said for this sort of fantasy. It’s not grimdark or dystopian fantasy and you’ll not find much in the way of foul language littering the pages. Just an excellent fantasy story that you could read aloud to your 10-year-old or your grandmother.

Very glad I took this chance. I’ll be reading more from Mr. Coe.