The Shadow of What Was Lost
Ratings164
Average rating4
15
Ratings164
Average rating4
"Love The Wheel of Time? This is about to become your new favorite series." - B&N SF & Fantasy Blog "Storytelling assurance rare for a debut . . . Fans of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson will find much to admire." - Guardian "Islington has built a world with all the right genre elements: complex magic, terrifying threats out of legend, political intrigue, and a large cast of characters whose motivations are seldom clear. Fans of doorstop epic fantasy will not be disappointed." - Publishers Weekly "Ingeniously plotted...Islington's natural storytelling ability provides incessant plot twists and maintains a relentless pace...A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer." - Kirkus "Wonderful worldbuilding and terrific characters." - Boing Boing "Will appeal to anybody looking for a coming-of-age fantasy tale with likeable characters and strong world building." - Fantasy Faction As destiny calls, a journey begins. It has been twenty years since the god-like Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them - the Gifted - are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion's Four Tenets, vastly limiting their powers. As a Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. To the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian's wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is... And in the far north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. The Licanius TrilogyThe Shadow of What Was LostAn Echo of Things to Come
Featured Prompt
2,097 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...
Featured Series
3 primary booksThe Licanius Trilogy is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by James Islington.
Reviews with the most likes.
4.5 stars! This was so good. The blurb telling Sanderson fans will like this was not wrong.
I liked sooo many of the characters! There was a lot of development. This is mostly plot driven but all the characters are so compelling.
Let my boy Caeden have some peace
Part of me wanted to devour this book because it was so good I didn't want to stop reading. But I wanted to savor the experience and just get into the world, and it was totally worth it! I love this book, it's one of my favorites of this year. I have high hopes for the second!
If you're a fan of Brandon Sanderson, you'll probably like this book. It has foreshadowing, a large cast of beloved characters, tons of plot twists and a great plot.
People are comparing this to Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) and Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn) and this might as well be the case. I didn't like those books, and this one follows the very same format.
For me this style of writing is a thorn in the side of fantasy. It starts with an exciting prologue completely unrelated to the plot, some obscure dialogue and a lithany of weird sounding names. Then it dials down from 100 to 0 and the real book begins, and the plot is very slowly presented, because the author is busy explaining the many characters, places, magic system, etc.
These aspects are even that strong in this book, but the book itself isn't that good to begin with. The story really starts, ignoring that useless prologue, depicting the very boring life of the protagonist, who is of course a student in a school of magic, and hist best friend Sam Wyr, and they journey to Mount Doom a rebel camp for special wizards.
In the way they are hunted by the Black Riders cleverly named Hunters because magic is forbidden and being a magic user is punishable by death in some places of the kingdom.
The book is not overtly bad, just uninteresting. There is a small twist which might be cool latter, the Shadow, magic users stripped of their magic powers. Magic users are bellow regular humans in the food chain, and Shadows are even lower. They have no right and absolutely no power whatsoever.
This begs to the dramatic side too much for me, but again, the book isn't even that good for me to complain about that.
Read 4:05 / 25:29 16%
