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  • The Shadow of What Was Lost

  • The Licanius Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: James Islington
  • Narrated by: Michael Kramer
  • Length: 25 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,334 ratings)

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The Shadow of What Was Lost

By: James Islington
Narrated by: Michael Kramer
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Publisher's Summary

It has been 20 years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs - once thought of almost as gods - were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. 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.

A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience. As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought - and lost - before he was born. 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. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests. But 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.

To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. 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...

©2014 James Islington (P)2015 Podium Publishing

Critic Reviews

"Robert Jordan fans should check this out!" (Pop Bop, Top 500 Amazon Reviewer)

What listeners say about The Shadow of What Was Lost

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Performance
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Story
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

heckin good boiiieeee

I was looking for something to listen to/read to hold me over till oathbreaker comes out. In all of the lists if things people recommended while waiting for oathbreaker this book was either not mentioned or so little mentioned It didn't stick. it has some wheel of time vibes. It's well written and was a joy to listen to.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great start for a Series (I want more)

What did you like most about The Shadow of What Was Lost?

A very believable story involving youngsters (I'm 84 but my kids tell me I've never grown up)
Some nice Hi Faluting Psuedo-Hi-Sci

Who was your favorite character and why?

Blaes, or Blase, I see myself in this character

Have you listened to any of Michael Kramer’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No, but I'm wanting to see more of this series

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The shadowing of Asher

Any additional comments?

I just loved the story, its characters, and the action....gimme more!

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ignore the narrative style at the start

This is a great story, after reading the reviews I was hesitant to buy. After listening to the sample of the first chapter the narration grated on me to the point that I didn't buy this audiobook, sounding like some cheap 90's trailer voiceover. But thankfully after purchasing and getting past that first chapter the narration improved immensely. That or I grew accustomed to it and the story was great enough for it to not matter.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly recommended

Good book all round, characters are easy to follow and has a good narrator. Looking forward to the second book.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

disappointed

The good: the magic system works: there's enough detail to connect with, yet still vague enough not to trip alarm bells in my scientifically trained mind. Positive female characters. The narrator has a wonderful repertoire of accents, cadences and pitches to easily distinguish characters from each other.

The bad: The emotional responses of the characters are way off the mark. Dialogues are often forced, e.g: too many words in high stress scenarios. Some scenes feel set up and pointless, and are obviously placed to be followed up - signs of a cut and paste job to fix plot holes after the first edit, but never worked into the story properly. It all feels like a teen bubble, where the significance of the actions and opinions of the teen characters are unrealistically inflated. The narrator makes everything sound melodramatic.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A story that grows

The story is not a genre I would normally read but as it was on special I thought I would give it a go.
The book started off slow for me and the readers voice took some getting use to but , as the story line unfolded and the characters became familiar, the story grew on me. As the book drew to its conclusion I thought to myself " where is book 2 I need it now"

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Quickly became a chore

Had a few nice ideas in the magic but was flat and uninspiring with procedural dialogue, cliche after cliche and characters I couldn’t care for. Lasted 8 hours then couldn’t stomach the idea of a trilogy.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars

Difficult narrator

Unfortunately the narrators performance made this book really difficult to get into for me.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Kaz
  • 20-10-2019

Highly Recommend

I will try to write about this book without giving any details of the actual story as everything needs to come fresh to the listener, to avoid spoiling the telling. So apologies to those who prefer a review to be more of a story summary.

There are story arcs within story arcs, just as a trilogy should be - excellent. The protagonist of the series ... maybe, looks to be a mysterious character in this book, whom we are given foreshadowing about throughout, but don't really get to know at all until the last third of the book. He may even turn out to be the series antagonist - future books will reveal more, I'm sure.

But in the meantime, the protagonist BN of this first book (who I imagine we will see a lot more of in future volumes, and may well turn it to be the series protagonist) transforms slowly, yet inexorably to a bit of a 'superhero', although he still has a lot more developing to do.

The secondary and other support characters are fleshed-out well too, sufficient for their roles, and the world-building is excellent. At no point did I feel like I was being given a 'lesson' and still I have learnt about a world completely new and fresh, with magic lore, history, geography, politics and beliefs.

I bought this audiobook at an introductory reduced price, but I recommend it so highly that the full price should not be a block. I will certainly be buying the next two at the regular price.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Guy
  • 03-06-2019

can't listen to the voice

should have tried the trial only 10min in and struggling to listen to the voice. finally got through it the story isn't much better.

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2 people found this helpful

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