Review: The Shadow of What Was Lost

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So this is where Islington got his start. I knew about the later books of Licanius from them being on the shelves at the Stanford Bookstore when I worked there, but for some reason the first book was never on sale there and I don't think my library in California had it at the time either. Now that I've picked this book up after reading my first Islington book with The Will of the Many, it's nice to see how he first came onto the scene, but this book definitely isn't as classic and cool as his second series starter. Maybe it's because I was never much of a Wheel of Time fan, but this book definitely has a strong Wheel of Time vibe, though thankfully with little to no reliance on strict gender binaries the way Robert Jordan's books did. Though the characters and the setting do keep my interest with its "ruins of a great age" style, this book is just very long and meandering and not as great for me as I hoped. Kinda mid, yes, but I'll still stick with the rest of the trilogy and hope it gets better. I've already got Book 2 on order at the library in Vancouver as we speak.

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