The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language

 
It has been twenty years since the god-like 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 own powers.
As a young Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and his friends are despised beyond their school walls for the magical power they wield: a power that Davian, despite his best efforts, cannot seem to control. Worse, with his final test approaching and the consequences of failure severe, time to overcome his struggles is fast running out.
But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will change his life - and shake the entire world.

I've wanted to read this book since it was released, but didn't get to it until now. With comparisons to Wheel of Time, LOTR, and Sanderson, I was sure I was going to love it, but unfortunately it disappointed me. In fact, I'm coming up blank when I try to think of anything truly memorable about it. I can't say what went wrong for me, other than it was just good, not great, and nothing that happened really moved me. It also wasn't what I was expecting. The main reason for that is the element of time travel that was introduced into the story. While time travel itself didn't bother me, the fact that it took the story in a completely different direction than I was hoping, did.

This book is pretty long at over 600 pages, and it moves at a fairly slow pace. This caused me to feel as though I would never reach the end! I don't consider it a good thing when I'm actually looking forward to the end of a book. There were some good things though. I liked the characters a lot, especially Asha, who I thought had the most compelling story. There were also a couple of good twists. Too bad the characters were practically spoon fed everything. They were always in the right place at the right time, or happened to meet just the right people they needed to meet.

Overall this wasn't a bad book, but if I'm going to spend the time reading a 600 plus page book, I want it to be great. With the sequels being over 700 and 800 pages long, I'm leaning towards abandoning this series.