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A review by pagesplotsandpints
The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
4.0
Read Completed 2/6/25 | 4 stars | Book #12 of 2025
This was a fun read! I definitely enjoyed it and I think the characters really hooked me the most. It's always a little difficult starting a new fantasy book/series and really getting the hang of the magic and the world-building all at once, especially listening as an audiobook and trying to commit all of the names to memory. The characters really brought this book to life and hooked me into the story.
I was a little let down by the magic. It's not super confusing but it's also not super clear. I wish we had a little more detail or examples about how it all worked before being thrown into a faster paced plot. The magic school was right there at the beginning, and I wished we could have seen some of those powers at work before we headed off into the plot... though I am glad that we didn't really spend time at the magic school because the book was about so much more than that! In fact, it wasn't even about that at all.
Davian is the main character, with some other very important things happening to some other important secondary characters as well. You can tell some of them will have extremely important roles in the series, and I loved watching everything unfold. There are some really nice reveals that kept me excited and interested. We learn a little bit more about the types of magic (there are two main systems) as Davian does, but it all seemed a little too easy. He's trying to learn about kan and.... poof. It's easy for him. He can just do it. I don't know, it felt a little too easy somehow. I felt like I just didn't know enough about it. Maybe that's because I'm coming right off of Sanderson's books again where everything is SO detailed that I'm missing a little of that.
There's a really interesting time travel component here which I'm already loving and can't wait to see how else that comes into play. Unfortunately because I was a little confused, I was looking at the wiki and spoiled myself for something just a little bit, and yet, it also made me more excited because it's going to be a fun reveal!
The ending wasn't quite as thrilling as I had hoped because again, I just don't know enough about the Blind and the boundary and why everything is so dangerous and important, but I'm definitely in for book two! A nice reveal at the end made it extra exciting and a great nudge to pick up the second book quickly to see how that all plays out.
This was a fun read! I definitely enjoyed it and I think the characters really hooked me the most. It's always a little difficult starting a new fantasy book/series and really getting the hang of the magic and the world-building all at once, especially listening as an audiobook and trying to commit all of the names to memory. The characters really brought this book to life and hooked me into the story.
I was a little let down by the magic. It's not super confusing but it's also not super clear. I wish we had a little more detail or examples about how it all worked before being thrown into a faster paced plot. The magic school was right there at the beginning, and I wished we could have seen some of those powers at work before we headed off into the plot... though I am glad that we didn't really spend time at the magic school because the book was about so much more than that! In fact, it wasn't even about that at all.
Davian is the main character, with some other very important things happening to some other important secondary characters as well. You can tell some of them will have extremely important roles in the series, and I loved watching everything unfold. There are some really nice reveals that kept me excited and interested. We learn a little bit more about the types of magic (there are two main systems) as Davian does, but it all seemed a little too easy. He's trying to learn about kan and.... poof. It's easy for him. He can just do it. I don't know, it felt a little too easy somehow. I felt like I just didn't know enough about it. Maybe that's because I'm coming right off of Sanderson's books again where everything is SO detailed that I'm missing a little of that.
There's a really interesting time travel component here which I'm already loving and can't wait to see how else that comes into play. Unfortunately because I was a little confused, I was looking at the wiki and spoiled myself for something just a little bit, and yet, it also made me more excited because it's going to be a fun reveal!
The ending wasn't quite as thrilling as I had hoped because again, I just don't know enough about the Blind and the boundary and why everything is so dangerous and important, but I'm definitely in for book two! A nice reveal at the end made it extra exciting and a great nudge to pick up the second book quickly to see how that all plays out.