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The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy Book 1) by [James Islington]

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James Islington

The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy Book 1) Kindle Edition

by James Islington (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Book 1 of 3: The Licanius Trilogy

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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

Book 1 of 3

The Licanius Trilogy
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604 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Orbit
Publication date

July 19 2016
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4089 KB
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“For myself, and my siblings. Four hunt. One hides, cognizant of what he is. A true traitor. An escherii.” The man gazed at her. “And I Watch.”
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“Because it strikes me that a man needs to know what he believes before he can really know who he is.”
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“Such is the way of weak men,” he murmured. “Daring to believe only in what can be seen, touched, and measured.”
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Review

"Ingeniously plotted...Islington's natural storytelling ability provides incessant plot twists and maintains a relentless pace...A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer."―Kirkus on The Shadow of What as Lost

"Islington has built a world with all the right genre elements: complex magic, terrifying threats out of legend, political intrigue, and a large cast of characters whose motivations are seldom clear. Fans of doorstop epic fantasy will not be disappointed."―Publishers Weekly on The Shadow of What Was Lost

"Love The Wheel of Time? This is about to become your new favorite series."―B&N SF & Fantasy Blog on The Shadow of What Was Lost

"Storytelling assurance rare for a debut . . . Fans of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson will find much to admire."―Guardian on The Shadow of What Was Lost

The plot twists are unexpected, the world building is fascinating, and the fledgling love story is a charmer.... This sweeping and compelling epic is ripe for a sequel.―Booklist on The Shadow of What Was Lost

"Will appeal to anybody looking for a coming-of-age fantasy tale with likeable characters and strong world building."―Fantasy Faction on The Shadow of What Was Lost

"Action aplenty and an ample spattering of violence...this is a whole new world with a fresh fantasy streak."―SciFiNow on The Shadow of What Was Lost

"A relentless juggernaut of a book . . . Astoundingly intricate worldbuilding."―The Daily Mail on The Shadow of What Was Lost --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

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. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01HMRF5FI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbit (July 19 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4089 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 604 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #46,029 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #71 in Australian & Oceania Literature
- #123 in Action & Adventure Classics
- #449 in Magical Fantasy

Customer Reviews:
6,873 ratings

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James Islington

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James Islington was born and raised in southern Victoria, Australia. An avid fantasy reader for many years, it was only when he read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series that he was finally inspired to write something of his own. He now lives with his wife and two children on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

6,873 global ratings

5 star		57%
4 star		31%
3 star		9%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Emilie Knight

Pretty Great, but Long.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 17, 2019

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*This may contain spoilers*

This book is long, but it’s meant to be most of the time. It’s the first in the Licanius Trilogy so it had a lot to set up, which was fine. It did drag, at a few places though for me anyway. Basically the story is about Davian, a boy learning how to control his magic powers with the interesting questions of if he even has any magic. I thought that was an interesting take on a character in general. As well as the magic system. It’s a soft magic system, so we get to see what it does, but we don’t understand how it works. We don’t know the rules of it, or how to conjure a ball of light, but the characters do. Take Mistborn or Avatar as the opposite of that, those have hard magic systems, because there are rules that we readers know, same as the characters.
Along with Davian are other characters such as Wirr, Asha, Caeden, and Taeris, along with a few others. I enjoyed the relationship between the characters. The friendship between Davian and Wirr believable and strong, and some growing tension around Caeden and Taeris was done really well. I do wish we got to explore, or at least have explained, the budding romantic relationship between Davian and Asha.
This could have just been a “show, don’t tell” problem, and it might be fixed up in the sequels, but I didn’t get a feel for the relationship between Davian and Asha. We were told about it, other characters like Wirr mention it, and we see them pining for each other, but we never really see why. I don’t know what drew these two people to each other so that part felt a bit, not bland, but it left me wanting more. Which, I guess, could have been the point, because it could be in the sequels.
The world building was well done, but I did also get confused in regards to names sometimes. There are a lot of side characters being called by their first or last name and I mixed a few up now and then. But going back to the world building, this book does a great job at foreshadowing and building up for certain reveals. Caeden is probably my favourite character, and I can’t wait to find out what happens to him.
There is also the conflict in this world of how people are afraid of magic, so the magicians are discriminated against. That is really unique, because usually magic is revered and loved, mostly by everyone. In this world though, the very monarchy has special magic rules, Tenets, that bind the magic users and restrict what they can do. They can’t even defend themselves.
Overall, this story was great, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 23, 2022

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I didn’t expect the ending.
Looking forward to part 2.
I got to like the main characters easily.
The villains are harder to pick out.

Nice grey characters with moral dilemmas.

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Amazon Customer

Excellent Fantasy

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 12, 2018

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I picked this book up on speculation having seen it in Chapters. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite a frequent problem with fantasy books - keeping track of characters and place names. Nonetheless, it's an excellent story and I'm looking forward to the subsequent 2 books in the series. Great powers, great evils, twists and turns, coming of age, friendships - all this and much more. Sometimes you have to go with the flow and figure out who that guy is as you go along. I haven't been reading much fantasy lately and I'm glad I tried this one.

5 people found this helpful

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Tyson

Bought as “used very good” condition. But it is not...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 24, 2022

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The book was great. But there are multiple stains in and on the book... some look to be blood... pretty gross.

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Petronius

Easy read compared to other fantasy authors.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 16, 2017

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I am not finished the book yet but I will comment on what I've read so far.

I just finished "The Great Ordeal" by Scott Bakker that is dense to say the least. In comparison, Shadow of what was lost is quite simply written. This is not to say it is bad per se. It is much easier to read and follow which I was in the mood for anyway. The characters are written in a style of a young adult fan would like. I am not a young adult so I hope this story picks up in that sense. Overall I would recommend.

2 people found this helpful

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L. Pope

A really fun read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 8, 2017

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Complicated Plot,big cast of characters,royalty,hidden royalty,mysterious origins,magic,and of course the sword!This book has enough twists and turnsthat you really have to stay on your toes.There's a sprinkling of hints of things to come, but pretty engaging.I really enjoyed it and I'm moving right along with the next one.
There were a few moments when I felt like I had time travel back to Lord of the Rings,but they passed fairly quickly as we went right along into James plot.
If you like fast-moving fantasy You'll enjoy this book

2 people found this helpful

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Timberwolf

A Real Page Turner

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 4, 2021

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I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I could hardly put it down.

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Rob Ingram

Good Concepts and Characters

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 5, 2020

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The characters, plot and situations develop well. Certainly, they kept me hooked. The concepts of magic could be a little better developed but use your imagination.

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Top reviews from other countries

When Belief Dies

Well - I really enjoyed that!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 19, 2019

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(4.5 Stars - Amazon won't let me set that - so I rounded up)

It has been about a year since I read a good fantasy book that engulfed me.

Having read a ton of Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, George R. R. Martin, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Patrick Rothfuss in my time - I am a big fantasy fan!

There is something magical about the limited knowledge Mr Islington allows the read to hold throughout this novel, having it trickled in for the reader at the right time, and not before. This book is just the first part of three (the second is already out, with third coming out Dec 2019), and it really is a great first stage in the story. Throughout there are tidbits and hints which just make you want to push on and get another chapter under your belt. I felt like I was able to engage firstly with the characters, secondly with the world and finally with the skills and abilities each type of person has - a nice order in my opinion.

Towards the end, I did get a little confused with a couple of the names, as some of the characters have a few different ones depending on where they are or who they are with. But within a few pages, there has usually been a few hints scattered in which allowed me to remember who the flippin person was that they referred to a moment ago, or who turned up out of the blue again ten pages back.

I am about to crack on with the second one, getting it well cleared before December when I know I will have a great couple of weeks before Christmas smashing through the third and final tome in this series, and yes, I will do it in no time.

If you like fantasy - it is worth a read, but if you are new to this genre, I would try Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series first, to test the fantasy waters.

20 people found this helpful

Paul T.

Great title, but...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 21, 2020

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'Don't judge a book by its cover' is a bit of a cliche, but what about 'don't judge a book by its title'? I actually think the title is a good starting point for evaluating a book, and I was intrigued by this. 'The Shadow of What Was Lost' hinted at the best of epic fantasy, it promised a deep background story and a fascinating mystery. (The cover art isn't bad either).

Perhaps I was reading a bit too much into the title. The story does have some of those things, but it has its flaws as well. I got a hint of that early on, in the first few pages, where the description of the setting was detailed but to me also confusing: I had no clear idea of where this was taking place, or what the layout was.

To be fair to the author, there was a lot of good stuff here. He has a wonderful creative imagination, which shows in the vivid and detailed worldbuilding, and especially in the well thought out system of 'magic'. He brings the same talents to the plot, but here they don't work so well. It is very complex, with multiple protagonists and new ones being added in all the way through. I've nothing against complex or even convoluted plotting, but there is a very fine line between complex and confusing. It is a difficult line for the author to see, I know, especially as its exact position varies according to the reader, but for me Islington strayed rather too far over it and left me wondering what was going on and who was doing it. Several times.

Another problem I had was with the characters. There are a lot of them: they are well drawn but to me lacked depth. I didn't find myself caring much about them - and in a book this long and complex, that's a bit of an issue. So is pace, and it needed to show a bit more variation and to speed up more at the climax to get me through it.

In style, it reminded me most of Robert Jordan. For fans of 'The Wheel of Time' that would probably be a big plus, but I'm not one of those. I gave up on Jordan's epic after two or three volumes and have never felt tempted to return. Overlong and a bit baggy was my impression, and that also applies here.

Overall, it wasn't a bad read, but it isn't page-turner, and several times I put it aside after a chapter or two. For many people it probably hits all the right buttons, and I expect will get a lot of five star reviews, but it didn't really do it for me. I liked it - three stars - but no more.

Will I read the rest of the trilogy? Probably not. It's just a little too much hard work for too little reward.

Though the titles are quite intriguing...

13 people found this helpful

Hugh

Ambitious and fast paced.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 24, 2022

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At around 700 pages this is a chunky book but I raced through it and that's always a good sign for me. I looked forward to reading it each day and didn't have to push through; most readers will understand that you do this at times just to finish.

It says on the cover that fans of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson will enjoy this: I completely agree. It feels like it could sit alongside the Wheel of Time and Stormlight Archive on your bookshelf.

It's best to go into this series knowing as little as possible; this makes a synopsis quite hard but rest assured it's better to just dive in. Spoilers for this series will truly ruin it for you but I think I can safely say that the twists are fantastic.

The characters are incredibly likeable. All are good but I want to point out a character called Asha - her story is the most interesting for me. There are also some genuinely creepy villains (known as the Sha'teth) and that's something that is hard to pull off in fantasy so well done to the author.

We're only on book one but the character arcs look promising....lets hope he can keep this going because this is somewhere where I've seen a lot of authors mess up.

There are so negatives: we're dealing with complex magic here (think Stormlight Archive) but it is not explained well in my opinion. Magic is the keystone to this series so some exposition would have been welcomed but it's all a bit vague.
The author is trying to write an ambitious story and deserves praise but it is confusing in places. If anyone is reading this after book one then they will know that it will only get more complex. I hope the author makes allowances for the readers.

Overall this was fast paced, fresh and ambitious and has the potential to be an excellent series.

8/10

2 people found this helpful

Barry Mulvany

Very enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 10, 2018

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This was a really enjoyable read. Echoes of the Wheel of Time with a prologue set before the main story and characters you don't know making pronouncements about things you don't know about. I liked it a lot. Then we get introduced to the world via our main POV Davian, a gifted (magician) in training who can't get magic to work for him. We have two further POV's, Davian's friends Wirr and Asha and a final one in a young man called Caeden who has no memories other than the last few weeks who has been accused of massacring an entire village.

It's an interesting world created by the author with a rich history. There's an area to the north that's been bound for thousands of years with no entry in or out. Twenty years ago there was an uprising against the gifted who were in charge and most of them were killed. The few remaining were forced into a binding which severely restricted the use of magic. There are a couple of remaining schools open where all gifted are trained but they are looked down upon by the general populace and are overseen by the rulers in charge. It's into this world that our protagonists are thrown into and things start happening, secrets come to light and new secrets are discovered. Our POV's are all likeable, each with their own agency and plot with mysteries to be revealed for each. Caeden's was particularly good in that you knew almost immediately there was something big behind him and it did not disappoint.

This has been compared to the Wheel of Time and I can see why. It's got that similar feel to it, ordinary characters with the whiff of destiny on them. There are secrets, oh so many secrets, prophecies, ancient beings, a big bad, a persecuted magic wielding people, and even a Shadar Logoth type city! Having said this I still found it quite original and interesting and even if there are a fair amount of tropes present, as long as they are done well then there's a reason tropes became so in the first place. The characters are good and easy to like, though perhaps lacking a bit of depth. There's a lot hidden and a few times I was nearly as frustrated as the characters trying to figure out what was going on and who to trust. There are a lot of names and places and I found it hard to keep track of, a glossary would have been handy. I went online and found one on the author's site but unfortunately it spoiled a pretty huge reveal which was disappointing. Don't do that. Other than that I found it a very exciting and interesting book and it kept me up too late far too many times, which is always a great sign. For a debut book this is amazing and I can't wait to delve into the next one. Luckily I already bought it!

10 people found this helpful

Sidrah Yasmin

great ideas, but too slow!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 31, 2020

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I think Islington had very unique and interesting ideas and concepts throughout the book, but there were too many! There are three main characters and each had their own individual, very in- depth story line. Yes, they were all linked, which was smoothly done but there were too many stories to focus on, so I didn't really focus on any. There was a lot going on in each character's life, new revelations, new discoveries, that everything felt too overwhelming. My focus wavered on multiple occasions and I found myself skim reading ahead to keep myself engaged. This happened often, to the point where I gave up half way through.
Islington writes in mountains of depth, which I didn't like at all. I enjoy fast- paced story lines, that have a couple of significant ideas and concepts going on- this keeps me engaged. Despite the depth of detail, I still couldn't quite picture the setting. I think there was too much to consume that I didn't consume anything at all or the setting was poorly described.
The POV is constantly changing, which again I did not like. Yes, it only happens every few chapters, but because the story line of each character is in depth, when you have finally started engaging in one character's story, the POV suddenly changes and you don't have time to feel what the character was feeling, you can't carry those feelings over, because then you're hit with a completely new narrative. I don't usually mind POV changes but only if they carry the story forward, not hinder one character's story to progress the other's like this novel did. Marie Lu in Legend is a fantastic example of the POV changes that I enjoy, even Eragon's POV change was better than this!

There are adrenaline releasing events that happened, which I did really enjoy reading, however the excitement is very short lived, because either they don't last very long or they last too long, and all the thrill is gone. I have to say this book did lack balance. I am a very straightforward reader, I do not like waffling at all but this book definitely enjoys waffling! The smallest of adventures takes chapters to complete- it is very underwhelming and disheartening! Everything is complicated and intertwined, which usually makes things more interesting, but in this book that only made things more boring and mundane. The book is too long, especially considering it's part of a trilogy. I would read chapters and chapters, then realise a hundred more things were to come, I didn't like this either.

I purchased the book after reading the blurb and first few chapters on Amazon, which were very gripping by the way. That's the issue though, it starts very fast paced, it's intriguing, there are new ideas and concepts, and this is all great for the first few chapters. But, you are constantly being hit with new ideas and concepts that you don't have the opportunity to settle in. There is no real, long enough pause to build a rapport with the characters, even though each main character has a great personality- they are all likeable. I like walking the journey with the characters, but that wasn't possible with this book.

I think Islington does develop each character smoothly and he doesn't rush with a romance or love interest, which was very refreshing to read. Often, in young adult books, there are very fake, swept away romances that are inauthentic and only convenient for the story line. This book did not have that.

The book was surprisingly political and historical, both of which I did not enjoy at all. I don't mind politics if it's written in the depth of the Legend series by Marie Lu. It's straight forward, easy to understand and not all consuming of the story line. With history, I like the depth of Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell- easily understood and simple. This book was all consuming, tedious and very, very complicated. Like Eragon by Paolini, there is history too complicated and tedious to comprehend and names that are too long and difficult to pronounce and remember, so you often have to go back a few chapters to understand what they are taking about. I don't understand why Authors do this, it disengages the reader- at least I lost interest.

I purchased the entire trilogy in the same transaction, that's how much hope and excitement I had for this series, but alas I was disappointed. In the beginning of the second book, it summarises what happened in the first book, so I read that because I had no idea for the most part what was going on in the first novel. I would read something, understand it, then something long, new and complex in terms of history, politics and its name would crop up, and I wouldn't understand how it was all linked. The summary was very helpful. I wish the book was simplified, so there would be no need for a summary at the start of the second and third novel.

Huge credits for the book covers and titles, which are eye- catching and aesthetic. They would look beautiful on a book shelf.

I think this novel/ series in general could have been excellent had the author only stuck with a couple of main ideas and themes, and had its pace been significantly faster. If you are a fan of books like Legend by Marie Lu, Talon by Julie Kagawa, Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell, Slated by Terry Teri, Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian etc then DO NOT READ THIS TRILOGY!!! However, if you enjoyed Eragon by Christopher Paolini, then you'll probably enjoy the pace, the writing style, complexity and depth of this trilogy.

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The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy Book 1) Kindle Edition

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James Islington

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