The Shadow of What Was Lost

3.50/5.00

The Shadow of What Was Lost, or the shadow of the Wheel of Time is a good book, slightly better than okay. This book feels like an homage to the Wheel of Time, shamelessly retelling several themes, ideas, and concepts from the epic series. However, this series introduces an interesting twist with an enjoyable magic system. The story begins with many tropes, but lays over interesting new ideas on top of the existing tropes. We have the chosen one trope, the aes sedai trope, the mysterious and lost civilization trope, and yet it all feels somehow fresh. The story is very quickly wading into deep thematic issues and challenges the readers to take sides, which I find very enjoyable. The pacing is relentless, as the author punches through the plot, with things that I thought would happen later in the series happening right away.

However, this pacing is both a good and a bad thing. While things happen fast, we don't get to sit with the characters. We don't get to understand or think about this world, as interesting as it is, the grand sweeping events that take place in this book fall flat and lack the feeling that should go along with the book. For an WoT/stromlight style epic fantasy, the John Gwynne action style pacing is not working. The characters are good but that is not the focus of this book. Many times everyone is just playing the role they need to play to move the story along. I do think that this series will get better though.