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A review by fulltimefiction
The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
5.0
I knew I'm going to like The Shadow of What Was Lost but what I didn't expect is loving it so much. If you're a fantasy fan, this book is a must.
I loved the characters. All of them. This book is told from 4 povs and all of povs and their chapters were needed. Frankly, this genre sometimes gets carried away with multiple povs and we see authors adding unnecessary chapters to one of the main characters. This isn’t the case here.
My favorite characters were Caedan (you know how sometimes you find some characters so sweet -in your opinion ofc- that you don’t want anyone to hurt them? That’s how I felt about him) and of course, Devian. We also had some well-written female characters like Kara and Asha.
The world-building was interesting, I was always a fan of “almost a broken barrier keeping the bad guys away”. The history of the world was introduced and integrated in the plot without info-dumping, thankfully. The twists and shocking revelations, guys, take a new level here. And what makes it better? The foreshadowing. A passing sentence you read can carry a whole new different meaning if you reread it after finishing the book.
The addicting quality of this book. Don’t get me wrong, I've enjoyed many HF in the past but even several of my favorites have slow starts. Not here. I couldn’t put it down after finishing the first chapter.
Secrets, hidden schemes, well-written characters, solid world-building, and a very fun story, The Shadow Of What Was Lost is a complex outstanding debut.
I’ll be reading the sequel soon. I read that some of those who waited were confused at several points and seeing the level of details in this book, while not overwhelming, many things will undoubtedly be forgotten.
The last thing I’ll talk about is while this book certainly has things in common with tWoT, it has different vibes. Sure, we have an evil guy and his followers gaining power, a special weapon, a redhead who has more to him, people being wary and disdainful of magic users, etc. Yet, this one is a lot more fast-paced and the characters do not share the personalities of the wheel of time’s. I’d compare it more to Mistborn if I had to, atmosphere wise. It's true that Islington was inspired by many authors -and it shows- but that's not bad at all because the result was unique in its own way.
I loved the characters. All of them. This book is told from 4 povs and all of povs and their chapters were needed. Frankly, this genre sometimes gets carried away with multiple povs and we see authors adding unnecessary chapters to one of the main characters. This isn’t the case here.
My favorite characters were Caedan (you know how sometimes you find some characters so sweet -in your opinion ofc- that you don’t want anyone to hurt them? That’s how I felt about him) and of course, Devian. We also had some well-written female characters like Kara and Asha.
The world-building was interesting, I was always a fan of “almost a broken barrier keeping the bad guys away”. The history of the world was introduced and integrated in the plot without info-dumping, thankfully. The twists and shocking revelations, guys, take a new level here. And what makes it better? The foreshadowing. A passing sentence you read can carry a whole new different meaning if you reread it after finishing the book.
The addicting quality of this book. Don’t get me wrong, I've enjoyed many HF in the past but even several of my favorites have slow starts. Not here. I couldn’t put it down after finishing the first chapter.
Secrets, hidden schemes, well-written characters, solid world-building, and a very fun story, The Shadow Of What Was Lost is a complex outstanding debut.
I’ll be reading the sequel soon. I read that some of those who waited were confused at several points and seeing the level of details in this book, while not overwhelming, many things will undoubtedly be forgotten.
The last thing I’ll talk about is while this book certainly has things in common with tWoT, it has different vibes. Sure, we have an evil guy and his followers gaining power, a special weapon, a redhead who has more to him, people being wary and disdainful of magic users, etc. Yet, this one is a lot more fast-paced and the characters do not share the personalities of the wheel of time’s. I’d compare it more to Mistborn if I had to, atmosphere wise. It's true that Islington was inspired by many authors -and it shows- but that's not bad at all because the result was unique in its own way.