Kitty G Books's Reviews > An Echo of Things to Come

* I was sent this for free from the publisher *

This book is a highly anticipated sequel to The Shadow of What Was Lost which was a stand-out read for me when I read it back in April of last year. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical of whether this one would be as good as the first, because book #1 I read as a self-published story and this is now being published traditionally, but it did not disappoint and I still found that I really enjoyed this once I got back into the word.

I do admit it took me a little time to re-establish who was who in my mind and I found it a little difficult at the start, however, once I was abouyt 50+ pages in, it all started to click into place and I remembered why I had enjoyed the first one so much.

We have four main characters in this book, Davian, Wirr, Ashe and Caeden. In this book they all start out with their own distinct storylines and plots right from the start, and as they are spread out we get to see a lot more of the world as a whole and the different people scattered around it.
As the story goes on we do see many of these characters coming back together and trying to fix the woes of the world. There's plenty of problems right now in the land, not least the Augers return, the boundary breaking and death threats all around. We also have one character who is still not really sure just who he is and how he fits into everything, which makes for some grey-areas in the motives too.

One element I do really enjoy about this world is that it feels incredibly fantastical. Magic is a key part of the world, the people within, and the problems they face. Augers have some extraordinary abilities, and we also have the Gifted and the almost god-like beings too. There are abilities to do with slowing time, magical weapons, being able to influence one another, being able to tell truth from lies etc. Pretty much all the magic is very cool, even the evil parts of it which strike with vengeance and terror at our heroes.

This book definitely ends on a cliffhanger once more, it makes me want to dive into book 3 (which, let's be honest will probably not be out for ages!) I definitely felt like once I was halfway through the story it all started to ramp up in intensity and become a lot more high-stakes and drama-filled (which I very much enjoyed).

Overall I felt that this was a very solid continuation of the series and it remains one of the true 'good old' fantasy tories I've seen published in recent years. I have to admit I like the fact that this is updated enouhg to have women as cool characters, but it still retains the escapist feeling of Jordan, Tolkein or Sanderson :) 4*s overall