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WORK TITLE: The Shadow of What Was Lost
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.jamesislington.com/
CITY: Mornington Peninsula
STATE: VIC
COUNTRY: Australia
NATIONALITY: Australian
http://www.jamesislington.com/about.aspx
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1981, in Victoria, Australia; married; children: daughter.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
James Islington is the creator of the “Licanius” trilogy, a fantasy epic that begins with The Shadow of What Was Lost and continues with An Echo of Things to Come. In the former installment, Islington introduces readers to fifteen-year-old Davian from the mythical country of Andarra. Davian numbers among the Gifted, a group of individuals who have the power to access magical essence. Andarra had once been ruled by the Augurs, a smaller group of people who had more potent special powers but have become extinct. Under the rule of the Augurs, the Gifted were protected and able to practice their abilities however they wished, but the Gifted have since become limited by several laws that prevent them from growing too powerful.
Davian, however, learns that not all of the Augurs are extinct. In fact, he discovers that he is the last living Augur. As the northern wall of the region threatens to crumble as invasion threatens, Davian must use his illegal powers to shore up the wall before everyone he knows and loves is killed. He is helped along in his quest by Wirr and Asha, both of whom have secret powers of their own.
Discussing his inspiration for The Shadow of What Was Lost in an interview at the Civilian Reader book blog, Islington explained: “I wouldn’t say that there was a single, specific inspiration for the book. I’ve always loved writing, and epic fantasy has been my favourite genre for a long time now, so it was just naturally going to be the one I tried my hand at.” He then elaborated: “More generally, I think looking to other stories–including genres other than fantasy, and media other than books–is my primary source of inspiration. If I’ve really enjoyed something about a narrative, it’s inevitably going to shape how I look at my own work. On the other hand, if a story has a great concept but I think its execution is lacking, that can inspire me too–I definitely get excited when I see the missed potential of something, and then I think about the way it could be done.”
A Kirkus Reviews contributor described The Shadow of What Was Lost as “a promising page-turner from a poised newcomer who’s well worth keeping tabs on” and observed that Islington’s “characters have well-rounded personalities and don’t make decisions or errors merely to advance the plot.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer likewise thought that “fans of doorstop epic fantasy will not be disappointed” by the book. “The Shadow of What Was Lost is a big, fat immersive novel that many readers will love,” wrote Mark Yon in a review at SFF World. “With characters you may recognise and situations you may recall as similar to what you have read before.” Yon felt that Islington shows potential but suggested that The Shadow of What Was Lost suffers from uneven writing and falls short of being “a definitive classic, for playing make-believe in an area well-known already, even in homage, does not an immediate classic make.” The novel is “good but not that good,” concluded Yon. “Despite my quibbles, there’s enough here to entertain and enough curiosity created to keep the reader reading and the pages turning.”
Echoing Yon’s assessment in a review at Tor.com, Robert H. Bedford advised: “In the end, The Shadow of What Was Lost offers a great deal of promise, but is ultimately very uneven which is typical of a debut novel. There were sparks of enthralling storytelling sprinkled throughout the novel, but if the whole of the novel could match the immersive, narrative pull of the conclusion, the novel would have been much stronger overall.” Offering a more enthusiastic review in SciFiNow, Claire Nicholls stated that The Shadow of What Was Lost is packed with “action aplenty and an ample spattering of violence, which is thankfully neither gratuitous or gorily graphic.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2016, review of The Shadow of What Was Lost.
Publishers Weekly, October 3, 2016, review of The Shadow of What Was Lost.
ONLINE
Civilian Reader, https://civilianreader.com/ (November 8, 2016), author interview.
James Islington Website, http://www.jamesislington.com (June 21, 2017).
SciFiNow, https://www.scifinow.co.uk/ (October 11, 2016), Claire Nicholls, review of The Shadow of What Was Lost.
SFF World, http://www.sffworld.com/ (November 12, 2016), Mark Yon, review of The Shadow of What Was Lost.
Tor.com, http://www.tor.com/ (November 8, 2016), Robert H. Bedford, review of The Shadow of What Was Lost.*
About James Islington
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.
James' first book, The Shadow Of What Was Lost, is published by Orbit. It is currently available in digital format and in hardcover. Work on the sequel is also complete (up-to-date information on James' current projects can be found here), and is due to be published mid-2017.
James is represented by Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit.
F.A.Q.
When will the sequel to The Shadow Of What Was Lost be released?
Licanius Book 2 - An Echo of Things To Come - is complete and will be released August 22, 2017. It is available for preorder on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other online retailers. The audiobook will likely be released on the same date.
Are you on social media?
Yes. Kind of. You can certainly follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook... I don't post to either of these accounts frequently, but I'll still try and answer any questions or respond to any comments that come in via those sites.
Can I contact you?
Absolutely. I always enjoy hearing from readers, and I try to reply to everyone who contacts me (though depending on deadlines, it may be quite a while before you get a response). You can get in touch with me via the aforementioned social media sites, or send me a message directly over here.
Are you on Goodreads?
I am.
Do you have a blog?
Yes - though again, I don't tend to update it terribly often. It's currently on Goodreads, and you can read it over here.
Where can I buy The Shadow Of What Was Lost?
The hardcover is now available in bookstores, and can also be purchased online via Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You can buy the Kindle version on Amazon here (as well as read the first six chapters as a sample). The ebook is also available on most other digital platforms.
The audiobook, narrated by Michael Kramer, is currently available via Audible.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: JAMES ISLINGTON
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Today I am interviewing James Islington, author of the new epic fantasy novel, The Shadow of What Was Lost, first book of The Licanius trilogy.
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DJ: Hey James! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
James Islington: Hi, and my pleasure! So I’m 35, Australian, married and with a daughter who’s just turned one. I’ve been writing for about five years now (though this is the first time The Shadow of What Was Lost is getting an ‘official’ release, I initially self-published it all the way back in 2014).
DJ: What is The Shadow of What Was Lost about?
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James: In a lot of ways it’s a traditional epic fantasy, following a young group from humble beginnings into this huge, world-threatening conflict – think the tone of The Wheel of Time series. So there’s coming-of-age stories, multiple intersecting plots, plenty of magic and action and intrigue as you’re introduced to the world. But at its core, it’s about this dark threat against the world, and the main characters figuring out what it is and how to deal with it.
DJ: What were some of your influences for The Shadow of What Was Lost, and The Licanius trilogy?
James: The series I just mentioned, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, is probably most easily identifiable as an influence on the book. Another big one would be Brandon Sanderson’s work on Mistborn and Stormlight Archives.
Of course, other stories generally – including genres other than fantasy, and media other than books – are always influences too. If I’ve really enjoyed something about a narrative, I think it’s inevitably going to shape how I look at my own work!
DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them? (aka What makes them compelling?)
James: There are four main characters. Three of them – Davian, Asha and Wirr – are students at a school for the Gifted (the most common type of magic users of the world). Davian has a bit of a dark back story and Wirr has something from his past that he hides from everyone else, while Asha is forced to deal with a terrible, life-changing event early in the book. But I think the main reason they’re compelling is that they’re also just normal people – good kids – who are thrown into this conflict and have to figure out how to deal with it all.
The fourth main character, Caeden, is a lot more of a mystery. When they meet him, he’s been accused of some pretty horrible murders – but he has no memory of whether he committed them. So he’s constantly trying to figure what happened to him and where he fits into everything that’s going on.
DJ: What is the world of The Licanius trilogy like?
James: It’s quite a large world and most things – people, religions, governments and so on – vary significantly from country to country, so I won’t get into that too much.
For Andarra – which is the country where much of the first book takes place – probably the most notable thing is that it’s pretty rough for people who can use magic. Twenty years ago, the Gifted were running things, but then a massive rebellion nearly wiped them all out. Now they’re allowed back into society, but with some pretty serious restrictions – and because of that conflict a generation ago, they’re still despised by a lot of the populace. So for the most part, they keep themselves quite isolated, and there’s a lot of tension between them and everyone else.
DJ: Can you tell us more about the “Gifted” and the “Augurs”? What are the Augurs’ “much-feared powers” and what is the “Gift”?
James: The Gifted have the ability to manipulate their own life force, their ‘Essence’, to physically affect things around them. They’re not especially uncommon in Andarra, though their numbers were decimated twenty years ago by the rebellion.
The Gifted used to serve under the Augurs, a much smaller group (about a dozen people at any one time) who had much more powerful abilities – they could read minds, manipulate time and, most importantly, foresee a future that would inevitably come to pass. They were the rulers of Andarra until their abilities started to mysteriously fail them, which is when the rebellion became possible.
DJ: What was your favorite part about writing The Shadow of What Was Lost?
James: In retrospect, probably the world-building – figuring out how all the unusual aspects of the world would/could fit together, and then how they might impact society, history, and pretty much every other aspect of the story. It’s a fun ongoing mental exercise that you don’t get to engage in anywhere near as much for sequels.
DJ: The Shadow of What Was Lost was originally released as a self-published ebook, but is only now getting a traditional publisher release in hardcover. Normally, I’d ask what you’d think readers will talking about, but you already know! XD
What has been the general opinion from readers so far? What have reviews, readers, and bloggers been saying about it?
James: The response has been fantastic – certainly reviews from both readers and bloggers have been very complimentary. I think people have really enjoyed that it’s got a lot of the traditional elements that makes fantasy so fun to read, but it also puts them together in a unique, fast-paced and interesting way. Probably the most telling aspect of the response has been the word-of-mouth effect on sales – I didn’t do any kind of advertising when I self-published back in 2014, but to date the book’s sold more than 100,000 copies. I figure that has to be a pretty good sign!
DJ: When I read, I love to collect quotes – whether it be because they’re funny, foodie, or have a personal meaning to me. Do you have any favorite quotes from The Shadow of What Was Lost that you can share with us?
James: One quote that I’ve always liked is an inscription one of the characters comes across in the story:
All that I wanted, I received
All that I dreamed, I achieved
All that I feared, I conquered
All that I hated, I destroyed
All that I loved, I saved
And so I lay down my head, weary with despair
For all that I needed, I lost.
DJ: Now that The Shadow of What Was Lost is released, what is next for you?
James: I’m in the middle of editing the sequel, An Echo of Things to Come. It should be released sometime next year!
DJ: Where can readers find out more about you?
Orbit page: http://www.orbitbooks.net/shadow-lost/
Website: http://www.jamesislington.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/James-Islington/e/B00ME7ACR8/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Blog: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8427407.James_Islington/blog
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/James-Islington-754126411295968/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8427407.James_Islington
Reddit: /u/JamesIslington
Twitter: @IslingtonJames
DJ: Before we go, what is that one thing you’d like readers to know about The Shadow of What Was Lost that we haven’t talked about yet?
James: Perhaps one thing people have noted in a positive way, that is sometimes hard to tell from blurbs and even reviews, is that this is a relatively ‘clean’ book – it’s much closer to Brandon Sanderson’s style than GRRM’s (though there’s nonetheless quite a bit of darkness and violence, so it’s absolutely still aimed at adults). It’s just not in the gritty, ‘grimdark’ style of the genre that has become quite prevalent in recent years.
DJ: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to answer my questions!
James: Thanks for the questions, it’s been fun!
◊ ◊ ◊
*** The Shadow of What Was Lost is published by Orbit and is available TODAY!!! ***
Buy the Book:
Amazon | Barnes & Nobel | Goodreads | Kobo
◊ ◊ ◊
About the Book:
As destiny calls, a journey begins.
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 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 sets 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.
91cjf5zpzal-_ux250_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.
For more information, or to contact James, please visit his official site at www.jamesislington.com.
Interview with JAMES ISLINGTON
November 8, 2016 Civilian Reader InterviewEpic, Fantasy, Heroic, James Islington, Licanius Trilogy, Most Anticipated 2016, Orbit Books, Shadow of What Was Lost
islingtonj-authorpicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is James Islington?
I’m 35, Australian, married and with a daughter who’s just turned one. I’ve been writing for about five years now (I originally self-published in 2014 before getting picked up by Orbit)… prior to that, I was running a tech startup, which I really didn’t enjoy at all.
I’m into board games (I own more than 200), video games (I own… too many in my Steam account to admit), TV, movies and the occasional anime. Sometimes books, too!
Your debut novel, The Shadow of What Was Lost, was published recently by Orbit. It looks rather interesting, and I’ve been hearing great things about it (it’s near the top of my ever-tottering TBR mountain). How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?
It’s heroic epic fantasy – think more traditional / less grim and gritty than something like A Game of Thrones, but it’s certainly not the elves, dwarves and dragons of The Lord of the Rings, either. It’s the first book in a trilogy, and my go-to introduction is usually that it’ll appeal to fans of The Wheel of Time and/or Brandon Sanderson’s various series.
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What inspired you to write the novel and series? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?
I wouldn’t say that there was a single, specific inspiration for the book. I’ve always loved writing, and epic fantasy has been my favourite genre for a long time now, so it was just naturally going to be the one I tried my hand at.
More generally, I think looking to other stories – including genres other than fantasy, and media other than books – is my primary source of inspiration. If I’ve really enjoyed something about a narrative, it’s inevitably going to shape how I look at my own work. On the other hand, if a story has a great concept but I think its execution is lacking, that can inspire me too – I definitely get excited when I see the missed potential of something, and then I think about the way it could be done.
How were you introduced to genre fiction?
I was fourteen, a big reader but not really into SFF at all. Then a friend of mine basically harassed me into reading Raymond E. Feist’s Magician. I loved it, got hooked on The Wheel of Time straight after, and never looked back.
islingtonj-introtosff
How do you like being a writer and working within the publishing industry?
I love being a writer! A dream job for me. I’ve been really happy with my experience in the publishing industry thus far, too. I started out self-published and there was a lot of freedom in that, but – particularly as a younger author – you do lose something when you don’t have access to professional feedback. My agent’s been awesome and my editors have been on the same page as me about what we’re trying to get out of the story, so that’s all been perfect as far as I’m concerned.
If I had to pick one thing I wasn’t necessarily enjoying about doing this professionally, it would be having deadlines – but I guess that’s forcing me to figure out how to work faster and smarter, so even those aren’t all bad…
Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?
I sit down every weekday on the same schedule and try to write for a set number of hours — no matter whether I’m feeling inspired, or would rather be doing absolutely anything else. I’ve worked for myself almost since leaving university, so fortunately self-discipline isn’t too much of a problem.
When writing drafts, I have a weekly word count that I try to hit — I find that per-day word count targets don’t work well for me because my output can vary wildly, but my good and bad days tend to even out over the course of a week.
On the other hand, when I’m editing, I just make sure I put in the hours rather than giving myself specific goals. That’s because I find that every edit requires a different amount of attention and focus, so it’s much harder to tangibly assess your progress.
When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?
I’ve wanted to be an author since I was a kid – I’ve always loved the process of creating stories. My first foray into writing was when I was eight years old, and I titled it The Detective Known as James. It was pretty classy.
As any sort of effort to produce professional-level work, though, The Shadow of What Was Lost was effectively my first attempt… I don’t have any half-finished books or short stories collecting dust, never entered short story competitions, never got published in magazines. But I loved writing Shadow, and it’s already had tremendous self-published success (selling more than 100,000 copies all up), as well as obviously landing me in the situation I find myself today. So I most certainly look back on that experience fondly!
What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?
I think the genre’s in a great place at the moment, because there’s enough variety in its newer stories to be catering for all tastes. There were a number of years when I felt fantasy was swinging too heavily towards the gritty, antihero, ‘grimdark’ side of things – GRRM’s success certainly spawned a lot of imitators – but that trend seems to be fading a little now, and more ‘hero’-oriented fantasy authors like Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss are coming back to the fore. Their huge recent movie deals are proof enough of that!
Though my work does have plenty of darker moments, it still belongs firmly to that style of traditional, heroic fantasy, so hopefully it can be part of the resurgence in that side of the genre.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline, and what are you working on at the moment?
All my efforts at the moment are focused on editing the sequel to The Shadow of What Was Lost – it’s called An Echo of Things to Come, and it’s due out next year. After that, it’ll be straight on to Book 3!
BrownP-3-MorningStarUKWhat are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?
I’m about to read Pierce Brown’s Morning Star, which is the finale of his Red Rising trilogy. I read the first two a while ago, and enjoyed them very much – I’m really looking forward to the conclusion.
rothfussp-kc1-nameofthewindukIf you could recommend only one novel to someone, what would it be?
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I think it’s the only book that’s been loved by everyone I’ve ever recommended it to, so it’s hard to go past that sort of success rate.
What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?
Despite all the comparisons my book gets to The Wheel of Time – quite correctly, because I loved it growing up and it was absolutely an influence — I’ve been knuckling down and writing since before A Memory of Light came out, so I actually haven’t found time to see how the series finishes yet! I’m hoping to do so sometime soon, though…
What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?
Finishing and releasing An Echo of Things to Come. The self-published success of the first book was amazing – life-changing, in fact – but it’s put a lot of pressure on getting the second one into readers’ hands as soon as possible, while also making sure it’s done right. So it’ll be not just exciting, but something of a relief when it’s finally out!
*
The Shadow of What Was Lost is out now, published by Orbit Books in North America and the UK. An Echo of Things to Come is due to be published in June 2017. Here’s the synopsis for the first novel:
AS DESTINY CALLS, A JOURNEY BEGINS
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 others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden powers of the Augurs, he sets in 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.
Tuesday, November 08, 2016
Interview with James Islington, author of The Shadow of What Was Lost
Please welcome James Islington to The Qwillery as part of the 2016 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Shadow of What Was Lost is published on November 8th by Orbit. Please join The Qwillery in wishing James a Happy Publication Day!
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?
James: Thanks for having me! I’d been aspiring to write something since I was a kid – simply because I’ve always enjoyed the process of creating stories - but it wasn’t until I turned 30 (about five years ago now) that I decided to really sit down and give it a serious shot.
TQ: Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?
James: Definitely a hybrid... which took me ages to figure out. The first time I tried to write my book, I assumed I was going to be a pantser – my best ideas have always tended to come up as I go – but then I got 100,000 words in and discovered I’d written myself into a corner. After that, I figured I must be a plotter and got about 80,000 words into a new version of the story… only to realise that I was forcing characters in unnatural directions, just to keep things adhering to the outline.
So in the end, I figured out the skeleton of a plot - but I also left plenty of breathing room for things to change along the way. It felt (and still feels) like a messy method at times, with a lot of iteration involved, but ultimately it seemed to work for me.
TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?
James: Stepping back and figuring out how much information to give the reader, and when. Because I already know everything about the world and the larger story, I can find it hard to assess when a lack of information crosses the line from being intriguing to just plain confusing. It’s obviously an important balance to find; too little mystery and the book risks becoming boring or predictable, but too little information and suddenly the story’s inaccessible. So I go back and forth on that a lot.
Fortunately, my editors have been great at nailing down that sort of thing. Between their input and that of my beta readers, I think I get the balance right.
TQ: What has influenced / influences your writing? Specifically why is Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series so inspirational?
James: I think other stories – including genres other than fantasy, and media other than books – are big influences. If I’ve really enjoyed something about a narrative, it’s inevitably going to shape how I look at my own work. On the other hand, if a story has a great concept but I think its execution is lacking, that can inspire me too - I definitely get excited when I see the missed potential of something, and then I think about the way it could be done.
Mistborn was huge for me, because I’d lost much of my interest in reading fantasy during my twenties, and Brandon Sanderson’s series was the one that really brought me back to it. In some ways, it was a throwback to everything I’d always loved about fantasy - fun, heroic characters, a cool world, an intriguing story, dark moments, and great action sequences. But in other ways, it completely changed things. It was fast-paced. It had awesome plot twists. It used a ‘hard’ magic system that gave the characters clear, logical limitations. It was simultaneously a more accessible and a more complex read than what I was used to, and the whole experience really got me enthused about writing my own book again.
TQ: Describe The Shadow of What Was Lost in 140 characters or less.
James: Fast-paced, heroic epic fantasy with a tone along the lines of The Wheel of Time, with likeable characters and some dark twists.
TQ: Tell us something about The Shadow of What Was Lost that is not found in the book description.
James: Part of the plot actually deals with time travel... which I’m usually hesitant to say, because that’s something that can be really hard to do in both an interesting and logically consistent way. So much so, in fact, that when I hear another story deals with time travel, it will actually sometimes put me off reading it. But I took the concept very seriously when I decided to include it – it’s absolutely key to the way the world I’ve created works, and I’m always conscious of not using it as a lazy ‘get out of jail free’ plot device.
TQ: What inspired you to write The Shadow of What Was Lost? What appeals to you about writing Epic Fantasy?
James: I wouldn’t say there was a single, specific inspiration. I’ve always loved writing, and epic fantasy has been my favorite genre for a long time now, so it was just naturally going to be the one at which I tried my hand.
I think it’s the scope and stakes of epic fantasy that appeals to me most. When you’re writing about these massive, world-changing threats, the plot becomes intrinsically tied to the world you’re creating – so you’re not just writing a story set in another world, you’re writing a story about another world. Your world-building becomes crucial to your story rather than just window dressing, and that really makes the whole thing so much more interesting and engaging to me.
TQ: What sort of research did you do for The Shadow of What Was Lost?
James: I did decide to read up on some of the concepts and philosophies relating to time travel – particularly determinism (in essence, that all events are inevitable), eternalism (all points in time are equally ‘real’), and the principle of self-consistency (the idea that paradoxes while time-travelling are impossible to cause) – because it’s always bothered me when I’ve seen it used in a logically inconsistent way. I wanted to make absolutely sure that my understanding of those theories was correct before I integrated them.
TQ: In The Shadow of What Was Lost who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?
James: Davian was the easiest. I think he’s closest to me in personality – I didn’t really have to think too hard about how he would act in a lot of scenes, so writing his part of the story came naturally.
On the other hand, writing Caeden was pretty tricky at times. I was always having to consider how he’d react to situations not just based on his personality, but also how his perspective was colored by what he’d remembered of his past up to that point. I enjoyed writing his scenes, but they certainly required more attention than any of the others.
TQ: Which question about The Shadow of What Was Lost do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!
James:
Q: Is it possible to not be a huge Wheel of Time fan and still enjoy your book?
A: Yes! WoT is getting mentioned a lot in reviews of my book, for largely good reason, and don’t get me wrong – Robert Jordan’s series was special to me growing up and remains one of my all-time favorites, so it’s an incredibly flattering comparison. But, I think most people would concede that the series wasn’t perfect. It slowed down in the middle. It sometimes got side-tracked with its secondary characters. Some of its main characters had sections where they were frustrating to read about, for one reason or another.
As a fan, those were things I could always overlook because the rest – the vast, fascinating, complex world and story Robert Jordan created – more than made up for it. But as a writer, they’re also things I tried very hard to avoid in my own work. So if WoT didn’t click with you for some of those reasons, I still think checking out The Shadow of What Was Lost might be worth your time.
TQ: Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Shadow of What Was Lost.
James:
All that I wanted, I received
All that I dreamed, I achieved
All that I feared, I conquered
All that I hated, I destroyed
All that I loved, I saved
And so I lay down my head, weary with despair
For all that I needed, I lost.
TQ: What's next?
James: I’m currently editing the sequel to The Shadow of What Was Lost – called An Echo of Things to Come – and it’ll be released in 2017.
TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.
James: It was a pleasure!
James Islington: THE SHADOW OF WHAT WAS LOST
Kirkus Reviews. (Oct. 15, 2016):
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James Islington THE SHADOW OF WHAT WAS LOST Orbit (Adult Fiction) 26.00 ISBN: 978-0-316-27409-8
This doorstopper epic fantasy and trilogy opener was originally self-published in 2014.The details that give this ingeniously plotted yarn its backbone emerge gradually—and are not always entirely clear. Twenty years ago, a war swept away and annihilated the tyrannical Augurs when their formidable magic inexplicably faltered. Their servants, the Gifted, whose lesser magic derives from Essence (Islington has an irritating habit of capitalizing things), were forcibly constrained to obey the Four Tenets, meaning they can no longer use their magic to cause harm even in self-defense. At a school-cum-sanctuary-cum-prison for the Gifted, three 16-year-old friends, Davian, Wirr, and Asha, face their final tests. Though an excellent student, Davian cannot use Essence and faces a cruel exile. He decides to abscond. Wirr believes Davian’s an Augur whose higher-order magic blocks his ability to channel Essence, and he insists on joining him. Ilseth Tenvar, a seemingly sympathetic Elder, gives Davian a mysterious magic box to guide his progress. The next morning Asha wakes to a nightmare of her own. On the road Davian encounters the strange, scarred Gifted Taeris Sarr, who three years ago saved his life (Davian doesn’t remember the incident) and supposedly was executed for his pains. In the far north an ancient evil stirs, while in a related development, Caeden wakes in a forest to find himself covered in blood and with no memory of anything. So, in time-honored fashion, nobody is what they seem to be, everybody has a secret agenda, and the key players all lack pivotal memories. And while there’s nothing much new here, Islington’s natural storytelling ability provides incessant plot twists and maintains a relentless pace. The characters have well-rounded personalities and don’t make decisions or errors merely to advance the plot, even if they all sound and act the same youngish age. A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer who’s well worth keeping tabs on.
The Shadow of What Was Lost
Publishers Weekly. 263.40 (Oct. 3, 2016): p104.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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The Shadow of What Was Lost
James Islington. Orbit, $26 (704p) ISBN 978-0316-27409-8
An ancient evil's reawakening threatens a fantasy land where magic has been proscribed in Islington's epic fantasy debut. Fifteen-year-old Davian of Andarra is one of the Gifted, able to tap into magical essence. Unfortunately, Davian was born after the civil war that destroyed the powerful Augurs, and now the Gifted are bound by laws that prevent them from using their powers freely. As a mysterious figure threatens the protective boundary * wall in the north, Davian learns he is the last of the Augurs, and it's up to him to help repair the wall before it's too late. Davian is joined in his quest by friends Wirr and Asha, who prove to be more than they seem. They'll need all the luck they can muster, as various political and magical forces are trying to use them for their own purposes. 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. (Nov.)
The Shadow Of What Was Lost by James Islington
Mark Yon
November 12, 2016
4 Comments
shadowOne of the great things about being a book reviewer is that we do sometimes get a glimpse into things early that we hope are going to be great. Our job then is to let people know, which is also usually great fun.
An alternative view is that we get told of things by publishers that are going to be ‘the next big thing’.
The difficulty sometimes is that the two opinions do not always combine. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told that a book will be by ‘the next Stephen King, George RR Martin, Peter F Hamilton, Iain M Banks’, etc. to find that it really, really isn’t.
And the reason for this preamble is that this debut novel has been spoken of in such a manner. Interestingly released early as an e-book, no doubt to build up that much-needed ‘word of mouth’, this one has been described to me as ‘the next Brent Weeks’, ‘the next Brandon Sanderson’ and ‘for fans of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time.’
Having read it, I think I can see why. But I’m not sure that it’s an unqualified success.
From the publisher: “AS DESTINY CALLS, A JOURNEY BEGINS. 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 others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden powers of the Augurs, he sets in 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.”
If you’ve been reading this type of thing for a while now, you will know that that description is nothing new. It sounds like a book from the 1980’s or 90’s, and ticks off all the expected, oft-used tropes.
Don’t get me wrong – to riff off old favourites and much loved tropes can be great fun. It is usually accepted that anything written in homage, as I understand this was, has got to be able to create that sense of contentment, that feeling that “it’s great to be back”, so that a reader is happy knowing what’s going to happen, even if it’s not precisely shown how.
And at first this seems to be a book determined to follow a well-trodden path from before. There is the usual initial setting up. The book is set in a world years after a war between those with magic powers (the Augurs) and those without. The ones without powers won – which means that the Augurs are gone and those Gifted who helped them are kept in gated communities known as Tols and usually only let out amongst the general populace (for supplies and such) wearing a limiter – an arm bracelet named a Shield.
In this world we meet Davian, a young hero with a destiny about to begin a bildungsroman journey, Asha, his girl friend, Wirr his faithful sidekick friend with a secret past and Ilseth is an elderly mentor also with a secret past. There’s magic/forbidden powers and evil afoot – in many cases it’s almost Star Wars (without all the SF trappings, admittedly.) I must admit I found this first part wasn’t inspiring to begin with. It’s an attempt to be filmic that doesn’t entirely work for me, has dialogue that screams “cliché!” and a lot of information-dumping to set up the plot. However if you can accept that this is a debut novel and a big novel, it is worth sticking with.
As in many of these tales, the book soon gets Davian and some of his friends separated. Asha ends up working in the library of the Tol Athian with Ilseth, believing her friends killed. Davian and Wirr have actually set off on a secret quest North, Davian being told by an Elder to do so. They rescue a Gifted prisoner named Caeden and meet Taeris Sarr, a man who has been important in Davian’s past. The group soon becomes larger with a priest named Nihim and a young swordsman Aelric and his sister Dezia sent to help Davian and Wirr, all helping the group get to The Council at Ilin Illan so that they can discover Caeden’s mysterious past. Here the book has space to breathe, a world to build on and characters to develop.
There are parts that I liked, especially once past the beginning. Once it settles down and the main plot gets going, there’s lots of running and being hunted, which was quite exciting, and there’s even a couple of nearly-unexpected twists along the way (as well as a couple that were blindingly obvious.) If you can cope with the fact that you may have read something very similar to this before (and I do realise that there may be many who have not!), it is undoubtedly entertaining.
It is clearly a character driven tale. The dialogue between the characters is generally good, though there’s the occasional clunk of dialogue info-dumping. It is perhaps to be expected with a debut novel of this size, though, and not too jarring for the reader. What keeps you reading are the characters – their wishes, worries, beliefs, loves and back-stories, all of which flesh out the plot and the world as we go.
So far, so expected. And as much as I was enjoying it, I was beginning to feel that there was nothing particularly original here. I was recognising touches of Brandon Sanderson, of Robert Jordan and even good ol’ Tolkien. As my SFFWorld colleague Rob Bedford often says (and I often agree with him), there’s no problem if that is the case, as long as the author brings in his/her own little twists, their own stylistic traits that add to the classic and traditional.
For a book to remain noticeable above the rest of the mass, the thousands of books using the same ideas and principles, it has to have something in there that’s new, that readers will latch on to and remember. A character trait, a key idea, a place that is comforting or scary – the things that make a reader want to read it again. I was beginning to think that Shadow was not that sort of book.
But then, about half way into Shadow, and just when things are settling down to be this pleasantly comfortable Fantasy epic, there’s a rather abrupt slap in the face, when in the bigger scheme of things, Davian encounters time travel and quantum universes and goes a little SF.
This doesn’t last too long before things return back to classic Fantasy style, though. As the book moves towards the end, there’s a lot of mysteries being resolved and things discovered. Lots of secrets are shown and revealed, although as the characters keep telling us this is clearly only the start of something bigger. Davian discovers his destiny (and other things besides) and moves to defend his world against the inhuman soldiers known as the Blind who are doing Davaed’s work for him. Surprisingly, Darth Vader (sorry, Aarkein Davaed) appears very little, letting his evil minions pave the way for his malevolent plans to bear fruit. Nevertheless the book moves towards a logical conclusion, albeit partly a set up for the inevitable Book Two.
Of the parts I disliked, the already-mentioned beginning is a key one – almost to the point where I stopped reading – but I’m pleased that it did seem to get better. Perhaps my biggest concern is that despite Shadow being such a big book there’s a lot happening without a great deal of explanation. Characters do things without being given a real need or understanding of why they must do these things. Though, as readers, we are told that things are important, there’s little said about why they must do things, and so our engagement with things, our concern for the characters, is less. The mysterious and enigmatic enemy has a presence but it never seems as if our heroes are in genuine peril. The deaths of characters mean surprisingly little as there has been little given to make us care about them. In the end it feels like a book with epic width but little depth.
Nevertheless, The Shadow of What Was Lost is a big, fat immersive novel that many readers will love. With characters you may recognise and situations you may recall as similar to what you have read before, as well as by dealing with traditional values such as loyalty, honour and love, it brings back to Fantasy many classic things that in the recent days of Grimdark have been less noticeable. As a new version of what has been loved before, I can see why it may be popular.
I do think the author has potential, although I don’t think The Shadow of What Was Lost is quite there as a definitive classic, for playing make-believe in an area well-known already, even in homage, does not an immediate classic make. It was a typical debut novel in that whilst there were parts that show the author can write well, there were sometimes other elements that were uneven and at times even annoying. It’s good but not that good.
Despite my quibbles, there’s enough here to entertain and enough curiosity created to keep the reader reading and the pages turning. I did enjoy it (and unlike The Wheel of Time series and The Stormlight Archives I did finish it!), but it may be more a case of The Opportunity What Was Lost rather than The Shadow of What Was Lost.
The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
Book One of the Licanius Trilogy
Published by Orbit Books, November 2016. (Ebook: July 2016)
704 pages
ISBN: 978-0356507750
Memories Found: The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
Robert H. Bedford
Tue Nov 8, 2016 4:00pm 1 comment Favorite This
Twenty years after the Unseen War, powerful mages known as Augurs are no longer so powerful. They have been stripped of their standing in society and their powers have failed them. In their place are mages who possess the Gift, but their rise is only a result of the strict rules called the Four Tenets—not unlike Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics—under which they must operate. Though these Gifted individuals are able to use their form of magic—the Essence—they are not looked upon with great favor by society at large. Unfortunately, the world is still under threat of attack from those on the other side of the Boundary, a dark army sealed nearly two thousand years prior to the novel waiting to escape and reap their revenge. As the novel begins, characters are concerned that the Boundary is not going to hold for very much longer. Against this backdrop, the lives of young Davian, Wirr, Asha, Dezia, and Caeden unfold under the auspices of the school for the Gifted where many of them meet. Although using the term school might be generous since the ‘students’ are afforded too much freedom as their Administrators watch over them.
Clearly, Islington is playing with familiar tropes in his debut novel, The Shadow of What Was Lost. Originally published in 2014 in Australia, Islington’s debut—the first volume of a the Licanius Trilogy—arrives in the US today.
Islington devotes a great deal of the novel to providing background information about his characters and the depth of history of his world. The connections between the characters and that deep history is revealed over the novel’s nearly 700 pages giving a great deal of detail to them. Each of the primary characters possesses a mystery or secret about them, they aren’t exactly what they seem. Adding to the “secret mystery” is that most of these primary characters have very thin memories of themselves, only going back to just before the novel began. The most interesting of these character’s secrets felt rather obvious and was choreographed about two thirds through the novel, but Islington’s best passages seemed to be reserved for this revelation at the conclusion of the novel.
While some of the characters and mythology in the novel felt as if they had weighty, deep roots, other elements were not quite as developed. The weakening “Boundary” was continually referenced, but through most of the novel, the consequences and threat lacked urgency. There was no “why” to the threat, just that it existed, which made the potential breaking of the “Boundary” feel as if it would be inconsequential. Another looming threat is a character named Aarkein Davaed, a man who committed both heroic and heinous acts in the past and is rumored to be returning to continue his trail of darkness. You can almost see the letters of another famous character in that name, known for both heroic and heinous deeds (as well as a dark helmet and very audible breathing mechanism), whose heinousness far overshadows his heroism. These elements of things to be expected or known without why they are to be known contributed to the novel feeling more like a middle-book rather than a trilogy’s launch title. In other words, for as much world-building and character-building as the novel has, it feels as if a prologue or first book’s worth of tension and threat-building is missing.
Having read many epic fantasy novels and series, “hints of things to come” in later volumes is to be expected and probably part of why longer series are popular. However, the balance between those hints of something substantive being revealed in later volumes and revealing information in the immediacy of the current volume was uneven. The character’s journeys also suffered from a sense hollowness. They were told to go places, but the destination wasn’t always clear and the reason for their journey wasn’t always clear. It felt like the story knew it needed to arrive at certain points and was determined to get there despite itself, in the same way a parent says “Because I said so,” with no other reason.
Unfortunately, too much of the nearly 700 pages of The Shadow of What Was Lost was world-building and showing what the characters were rather than getting to know who the characters were. While the characters had a great deal of historical depth, their emotive depth was not on an equal footing. With so many Named Things and Character Classifications, an appendix or character list would have been helpful, which would have made the novel something into which I could more fully invest myself.
When a novel is boldly compared by readers to The Wheel of Time, the expectations are clearly high. Those high expectations are also unfair, too. That may be the case for The Shadow of What Was Lost. Although I was able to take that comparison with a large grain of salt, Islington did manage to impress me with the historical scope of his world. He has a knack of sorts for world-building and injecting smaller stretches of narrative with tension and immersion. In the end, The Shadow of What Was Lost offers a great deal of promise, but is ultimately very uneven which is typical of a debut novel. There were sparks of enthralling storytelling sprinkled throughout the novel, but if the whole of the novel could match the immersive, narrative pull of the conclusion, the novel would have been much stronger overall.
The Shadow of What Was Lost is available from Orbit.
THE SHADOW OF WHAT WAS LOST BY JAMES ISLINGTON BOOK REVIEW
James Islington follows The Unseen War with The Shadow Of What Was Lost
By Claire Nicholls 10-11-16 63,685 0
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Author:
James Islington
Publisher:
Orbit
Released:
10 November 2016
Buy on Amazon
Fans of Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time series will want to give this chunky doorstep of a book a look.
The Unseen War saw the end of a life ruled by the imperious Augurs, who appeared to lose their fearful abilities, and are now considered extinct. Left in their wake, the Gifted have only managed to survive by agreeing to abide by The Four Tenets, those who disobey become Shadows, stripped of powers, branded and the lowest of the low.
Davian is Gifted, as are his good friends Wirr and Asha, who have all been kept safely at a special school. Davian knows his gift is different to that of his friends, and is terrified of failing tests that may lead to shadow status. So, when a visiting Elder offers a way out, Davian accepts rather than face failure and banishment. What he does not quite realise is that sinister forces are at work.
What is most joyful about this read is the simplicity of the narrative. Simplicity must not be mistaken for predictability, there are numerous surprises to be found within these silky, smooth pages. There is action aplenty and an ample spattering of violence, which is thankfully neither gratuitous or gorily graphic.
Islington is not ashamed to admit that he has drawn inspiration from the likes of Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, but inspiration aside this is a whole new world with a fresh fantasy streak of its own.