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seastheday 's review for:
The Shadow of What Was Lost
by James Islington
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
After reading The Will of the Many, this was a bit disappointing. I cared about the story, but I wasn’t fidgeting to pick it up.
The introduction made me really think it was going to mostly be about Davian. The sudden execution of different perspectives was jarring. I felt like Davian needed more explaining in the beginning. He had so much potential. Then the momentum died for other characters. Then the momentum for each of THEM died for a new character to be introduced. At one point about 150 pages in, I asked myself, “what do I even KNOW about Davian??” He’s immediately shown to be smart, JI told us that he was different and displayed right away. It was told to us in the synopsis on the back as well. But it felt like he wasn’t even a main character for large parts of the book when he is easily the most important character. Then we get this Rocky montage that is brief with no real scenes. It was somehow a closed door training montage.
Ugh and don’t get me started on the relationship between Wirr and Ash then Davian and Ash. The relationship was NOT BUILT. We are just supposed to believe that it’s there? Even though we don’t know what it’s like or what the differences are between the two? It was really frustrating because I like Ashalia as a character. I think she had the best story line of all of the POV’s we are given.
I think the main problem is that we are given too many POV’s for character building whilst we are doing MAJOR world building. It becomes confusing and hard to care or remember different plot points.
I didn’t care about Elociens death as much as I wish I did. I wasn’t surprised about Wirr. It was so obvious. Caden could’ve been the best surprise and the most insane character but that was muddled and shoved in with the rest of the story, world building, character building, plot building and even simple plot remembrance.
It is very obvious that this is a first book and originally self published. I think the author needs to take a page from Samatha Shannon and rewrite the series since he has more time as a professional writer and more expertise. And probably a new editor.
The introduction made me really think it was going to mostly be about Davian. The sudden execution of different perspectives was jarring. I felt like Davian needed more explaining in the beginning. He had so much potential. Then the momentum died for other characters. Then the momentum for each of THEM died for a new character to be introduced. At one point about 150 pages in, I asked myself, “what do I even KNOW about Davian??” He’s immediately shown to be smart, JI told us that he was different and displayed right away. It was told to us in the synopsis on the back as well. But it felt like he wasn’t even a main character for large parts of the book when he is easily the most important character. Then we get this Rocky montage that is brief with no real scenes. It was somehow a closed door training montage.
Ugh and don’t get me started on the relationship between Wirr and Ash then Davian and Ash. The relationship was NOT BUILT. We are just supposed to believe that it’s there? Even though we don’t know what it’s like or what the differences are between the two? It was really frustrating because I like Ashalia as a character. I think she had the best story line of all of the POV’s we are given.
I think the main problem is that we are given too many POV’s for character building whilst we are doing MAJOR world building. It becomes confusing and hard to care or remember different plot points.
It is very obvious that this is a first book and originally self published. I think the author needs to take a page from Samatha Shannon and rewrite the series since he has more time as a professional writer and more expertise. And probably a new editor.