You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
novakid 's review for:
The Shadow of What Was Lost
by James Islington
The concept of this wasn't bad but it just wasn't executed well.
My biggest issue is that the characters feel so flat. Up until the main character has this training arc halfway through the book, you could swap any of the main characters in any scenario and they would all make the same decisions. The author constantly told us things rather than showing them. Whenever characters were conversing, they'd go over plot-relevant topics and the scene would end with something like "they talked for awhile longer before going to bed, it was relaxing." As a result there didn't feel like there was any chemistry between anyone. They were simply friends because the author said so.
There were some emotional moments, or they should have been emotional anyway. We usually got two lines on a reaction before swiftly moving on. Thus, it felt like there wasn't a lot of emotional depth with anyone and I didn't really come to like any of them as a reader.
Also something that really bothered me: there were so many overused words/phrases that were just filler to break up dialogue but they were used SO much. How many times did a character "nod" or "incline their head"? 604 times. How many times did a character rub their forehead? 55 times.
The book felt like it picked up in the second half and the author did genuinely try to build a fantasy world. I'm definitely not continuing the series but I may keep an eye on The Will of the Many and hope that he's improved over the years.
My biggest issue is that the characters feel so flat. Up until the main character has this training arc halfway through the book, you could swap any of the main characters in any scenario and they would all make the same decisions. The author constantly told us things rather than showing them. Whenever characters were conversing, they'd go over plot-relevant topics and the scene would end with something like "they talked for awhile longer before going to bed, it was relaxing." As a result there didn't feel like there was any chemistry between anyone. They were simply friends because the author said so.
There were some emotional moments, or they should have been emotional anyway. We usually got two lines on a reaction before swiftly moving on. Thus, it felt like there wasn't a lot of emotional depth with anyone and I didn't really come to like any of them as a reader.
Also something that really bothered me: there were so many overused words/phrases that were just filler to break up dialogue but they were used SO much. How many times did a character "nod" or "incline their head"? 604 times. How many times did a character rub their forehead? 55 times.
The book felt like it picked up in the second half and the author did genuinely try to build a fantasy world. I'm definitely not continuing the series but I may keep an eye on The Will of the Many and hope that he's improved over the years.