Who Would Like This Book:
This is classic epic fantasy comfort food! If you love sprawling magical worlds, intricate prophecies, and young heroes discovering hidden powers, you'll feel right at home here. Fans of The Wheel of Time, Brandon Sanderson, and anyone craving a hefty trilogy packed with quests, twisty lore, a layered magic system, and a sprinkle of timey-wimey shenanigans will have a blast. There's just enough fresh spin to keep things interesting, especially in how fate, choice, and redemption weave through the story.
Who May Not Like This Book:
If you're looking for groundbreaking originality or super deep character work, this may feel too familiar. Some readers found the cast hard to distinguish, the prose a bit plain, and the worldbuilding (and magic!) confusing at first. It's a beast of a book with a slow burn start, so impatient types or those who struggle with lots of characters and timelines might bounce off. If you want sharp, literary writing or dislike chosen-one tropes, this isn’t likely to win you over.
About:
The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington is the first book in The Licanius Trilogy, a fantasy series that captivates readers with its complex world-building and intriguing characters. The story follows a group of friends, Davian, Wirr, and Asha, who find themselves separated after a tragedy strikes. As they embark on separate quests, they uncover mysteries surrounding magic, double-crosses, and amnesia, all while facing an ancient evil threatening their world. The writing style in the book is straightforward, focusing on moving the plot forward briskly, with elements of time travel, destiny, and various forms of magic intertwined in a captivating narrative that keeps readers engaged.
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From The Publisher:
A young man with forbidden magic finds himself drawn into an ancient war against a dangerous enemy in book one of the Licanius Trilogy, the series that fans are heralding as the next Wheel of Time.
As destiny calls, a journey begins.
It has been twenty years since the godlike Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them - the Gifted - are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion's Four Tenets, vastly limiting their powers.
As a Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he and his friends Wirr and Asha set into motion a chain of events that will change everything.
To the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian's wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is. . .
And in the far north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir.
The Licanius Trilogy is a series readers will have a hard time putting down - a relentless coming-of-age epic from the very first page.
"Storytelling assurance rare for a debut . . . Fans of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson will find much to admire."" - Guardian
Ratings (154)
Incredible (39) | |
Loved It (55) | |
Liked It (30) | |
It Was OK (17) | |
Did Not Like (11) | |
Hated It (2) |
Reader Stats (369):
Read It (157) | |
Currently Reading (8) | |
Want To Read (170) | |
Did Not Finish (7) | |
Not Interested (27) |
8 comment(s)
Just runs out of steam and becomes tedious. Weird non sequiturs in the story line, just not for me.
Boy did I enjoy this. It had been several years since I read fantasy and this book got me back into the genre. For Islington's first book he did a superb job crafting an engrossing world with very lovable characters. I love books where, once finished, you can speculate about certain plot points and how they will unfold going forward. The world that Islington created is fascinating and I can't wait to see what comes next, well actually I currently am as I'm reading book 2 now.
My only disappointment, and it's small, is that he under describes characters to the point that you have a hard time picturing how they might look in your mind.
Good read.
This was a breath of fresh air to me, having gone through a period of unloved writing and undeserving admiration.
A sorely underrated trilogy that I would highly recommend any fantasy fan to read.
Thank you James, a lovely, extremely well done series.
I still love this so so much!.
This was amazing! I loved it so much!
Such a great start to a series!
This series was recommended on Brandon Sandersons blog (by one of his interns I believe) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This book has a great level of mystery, suspense, and action, with fantastic character and world building — it doesn't fall into the common trap of being so detailed as to be boring, but it's more than enough to make you invest in the characters.
I was concerned about pacing towards the end but it worked out reasonably well, and left the story in a good place between books.
If you like fantasy, particularly authors like a random Sanderson or Brent Weeks, pick this up!
There's not much for me to say about this book. I thought the concept was unique, and the characters were pretty well developed, but I didn't find myself invested in the story or enchanted by the characters.
Unfortunately, I probably won't read the next book in this series. Not that this book was bad, it just didn't interest me enough.
Reminded me of the wheel of time. Not a bad read.
What can you read after
The Shadow of What Was Lost?
About the Author:
James Islington was born and raised in southern Victoria, Australia. His influences growing up were the stories of Raymond E. Feist and Robert Jordan, but it wasn't until later, when he read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series - followed soon after by Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind - that he was finally inspired to sit down and write something of his own. He now lives with his wife and daughter on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
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