The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

As it says on the book blurb, Caeden wakes up with no recollection of who he is and with blood all over him. Particularily with the character we meet about one third of the way through the book named Caeden. One of the biggest strengths of this book was its intrigues. The Shadow of What Was Lost is a fantastic debut novel with a compelling narrative, an entrancing world full of mysteries, characters that I became quickly invested in, and subversions of classic fantasy tropes that I didn’t expect.

The Shadow of What Was Lost has been compared to The Wheel of Time quite a few times and although I can’t speak to that as I haven’t read WoT, I can say that the high quality is definitely there. I would highly recommend buddy reading for this particular series if you can! I am buddy reading this series with Sam from The Book in Hand (find her review of book 1 here) and Eleni from Late Night Books and it has been a blast! This is a series that has a lot of intrigue and a ton of questions to be answered and I have loved theorizing and reacting with them. And 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…Īnd so, I lay down my head weary with despair, for To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir.

Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests.īut when Davian discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience.Īs a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought-and lost-before he was born.

Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs’ fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion’s Four Tenets. The dictatorial Augurs-once thought of almost as gods-were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. It has been twenty years since the end of the war.

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington