emsemce123 's review for:

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

3.5

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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It takes awhile for the story to really get going, like 200 pages. Once all the characters are introduced and where they need to be, then I feel like it gets into the meat and potatoes and everything before that just feels like setup. With this large of a cast too, some stories are more interesting than others. I would not call this a beginner fantasy nor would I recommend it to beginners. I would honestly suggest taking notes as you go, I wish that I had. (The later books add a glossary) I have some questions left about both magic systems, the limitations and how certain stuff works. I'm reviewing this from the point of view if having already finished the second book as well. And the answers I got weren't the most informative but I appreciate the little I got. There's also a lot of time travel elements in this book that are doubled down on even more in the sequel that I feel are to this story's detriment. Time travel can be great but I feel like it is extremely difficult to pull off and even rarer to pull off well. As big as this story is and as much as there is going on, and it is a lot, the time travel elements just make it even more convoluted. Multiple characters can also be other multiple characters from different points in time. Again, it's complicated and I'm sure some people will love it if I was more interested I would too but I'm not and so it's not very engaging when that's the stuff you get more of. This sounds like I'm being very megative, Im just middle of the road on it, but I will be continuing the trilogy.