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kassandwich's review against another edition
Was not really getting into the story, and the characters seemed way too scripted for me and the magical system was hard to understand
adenevosirch's review against another edition
5.0
imagine the best parts of the wheel of time without the excessive detail and repetitiveness, mixed with the epic and mysteriously laced world-building of the cosmere. that’s what the shadow of what was lost is. this took me completely by surprise and i loved every single moment of it. it’s extremely fast paced while still giving enough smaller moments for the characters to develop and flourish. i was warned going into this that it’s not character driven, and while it definitely isn’t, i still found the characters to be compelling enough to love. you follow four main perspectives and i was enthralled by ALL of them. i am by no means a series binger, often taking long breaks before series entires, but there is just too many details and mysteries for me to not dive right into the sequel. the last 100 pages were wild with plot twists and reveals. just such an exceptional debut and i’m so happy this worked for me.
mattdavenport's review against another edition
3.0
6.9/10 - Solid
A pretty good debut novel for a modern author in the more classical style, The Shadow of What Was Lost was a fun trip back into more stereotypical, epic classic fantasy, with powerful young protagonists, gruffy old mentors, and mysterious, dark forces on the horizon. The best part of this book is the general vibe and sense of the world that the author is able to convey. The book remains consistently interesting, and there's a lot of depth and foreshadowing at work throughout the plot. There were a couple of twists that surprised me and a couple that seemed incredibly obvious from the get-go. The characters are interesting, but at times feel very monolithic; there hasn't been a lot yet to distinguish their personalities from one another, and all of their dialogues came across as very similar. That said, despite its flaws, I enjoyed the book, and am ready to jump into the sequel!
A pretty good debut novel for a modern author in the more classical style, The Shadow of What Was Lost was a fun trip back into more stereotypical, epic classic fantasy, with powerful young protagonists, gruffy old mentors, and mysterious, dark forces on the horizon. The best part of this book is the general vibe and sense of the world that the author is able to convey. The book remains consistently interesting, and there's a lot of depth and foreshadowing at work throughout the plot. There were a couple of twists that surprised me and a couple that seemed incredibly obvious from the get-go. The characters are interesting, but at times feel very monolithic; there hasn't been a lot yet to distinguish their personalities from one another, and all of their dialogues came across as very similar. That said, despite its flaws, I enjoyed the book, and am ready to jump into the sequel!
lenosnav's review against another edition
4.0
Really cool world and the magic abilities get complex. The characters were written well but felt a bit less than 3 dimensional at times. The plot is fantastic and the main draw, with tons of twists and crazy revelations.
jessicajoy11's review against another edition
1.0
I gave up on this 200 pages in. The characters are likable but their reactions to everything going on around them is really weird. I thought these would be good as I just read the will of the many and was excited to see what else this author had. I CANNOT believe this is the same author.
ithinktfiam's review against another edition
4.0
High fantasy with a standard plot but told fairly well. Two friends at magic school leave to go on the typical quest adventure. The society hates magic users, as there was a revolution twenty years earlier to throw of a magical, authoritarian rule. There's a magical wall up north, holding back supposed hordes of evil magical folks. The wall's weakening. Bad people plot with the folks behind the wall. The pair meet up with another mystical young'un who might be good or might be evil. Other people they know do the typical fantasy things. Again, nothing special but an enjoyable read.
devin1312's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
marchi_bien's review against another edition
5.0
Holy shit. I don't know what to say. This book was everything I want and crave from a fantasy story and more. What a phenomenal start to this trilogy.