The Shadow of What Was Lost

2024 Update:
I still stand by my original opinion that the book features too much. There is no possible way to fully enjoy it from the first read and any book that needs multiple reading to understand and enjoy can't be rated 5 ⭐️
Other than that, I did love the story and this time I was able to get way more and even have some wild theories.

2022 Original Review:
3.5 stars
I am so conflicted on this one.
To begin with, the story is quite interesting and rather complex, which I like. The world has debt and a lot going on. There were also some nice twists.
But there is simply too much going on. Too many storylines, too many mysteries, too many reveals.
That's not to say that I haven't read stories with just as many of the above and more, but they were never contained in just one book.
The amount of stuff the author has tried to stuff here, is way too much for even a trilogy, in my opinion.
I think it would've been better had he made the book slightly shorter and the series slightly longer, in order to pace the reveals a bit better. Maybe spend some more time on character development and interactions, flesh out some of the mysteries better, give us time and space to digest some of them before moving on to the next one.
Reading this book often felt like overeating - past a certain point, you stop enjoying the food, despite how good it is and need time to digest it before you are hungry again.
Despite all that, I will continue with the series as I am curios about the reveal of the set mysteries (the ones that I can remember).