An Echo of Things to Come
Ratings159
Average rating4.1
Well then... People were gushing about how the main book was alright, but the epilogue was incredible and made the book worth reading. They are both right and wrong at the same time. An Echo of Things to Come was a step up in quality from the first book, which was unsurprising. If you've ever read the Inheritance Cycle, you'll understand when I say this is the Eldest of this series. In the first half there's not a lot of action. Enough to keep you sated and on your toes, but not enough to become stale. There's a lot of revelations in the first half. The second half felt like a boulder slowly starting to roll down a mountain, picking up speed and momentum as it goes, until finally it meets some immovable object, shattering into a million pieces. The epilogue was incredible, tying minor details in the first book to major plot elements, darkly mirroring the very last part of the final chapter, and offering foreshadowing of the ultimate conclusion of the story. It is an incredible work of fantasy.
I want to address the Wheel of Time comparisons. Spoilers for both series to follow.
The comparison between Wheel of Time and Licanius is entirely justified. There is an enormous amount of Wheel to be found within the books. Ancient abandoned city of great evil swathed in mysterious mists? Check. Large cast of characters? Check. Madness? Check. Intricate magic systems? Check. One half of the magic spawning from a Dark God? Check! Immortal servants of the enemy? CHECK! Barren wasteland to the north in direct contact with the dark god? Check. I could go on.
I do not think that the comparisons are unjustified. Tal'Kamar seems to pull inspiration from Rand Al'Thor. Asha from Egwene. I haven't found a stand in for Matrim yet. Orkoth and Mashadar. Deilannis and Shadar Logoth. The comparisons are strong. However, as much as I love Wheel of Time, Licanius is more efficiently written. It is tighter. Major plot elements from the first book are actually major elements of the overall narrative, where I've always felt Eye of the World was almost a standalone story with very few real ties to the Wheel of Time's overarching plot. The Eye of the World is mentioned only a handful of times after the first book, and always in passing. A great example of what I'm saying is Deilannis. Deilannis is this books stand in for Shadar Logoth, and it plays a much more important and prominent role. Sure, Rand and Nynaeve cleanse the taint using Shadar Logoth, but otherwise it is largely forgotten. Most of the events that happened there could easily be placed in other locations. It exists to cleanse the taint as a plot device and that's about it, everything else surrounding it is fluff. Deilannis on the other hand, is the goal of the enemy. It is where he needs to get to in order to achieve victory. Tal'Kamar's plans center on Deilannis. It is where Davian is killed by Tal'Kamar (which hints at Tal's over all plan to end the Augurs is by having them time travel and killing them one by one in the past. Potentially. I haven't finished the third book yet.) Davian lives in Deilannis for months. It is where Tal'Kamar and Nethgalla met and Nethgalla gave him the siphon. It is so interlinked into the plot that it makes Shadar Logoth's impact on the plot of Wheel of Time look like childs play. This is just one example, cherry picked of course. But it really does feel like Wheel of Time with a more structured plot and much tighter writing.
Well then... People were gushing about how the main book was alright, but the epilogue was incredible and made the book worth reading. They are both right and wrong at the same time. An Echo of Things to Come was a step up in quality from the first book, which was unsurprising. If you've ever read the Inheritance Cycle, you'll understand when I say this is the Eldest of this series. In the first half there's not a lot of action. Enough to keep you sated and on your toes, but not enough to become stale. There's a lot of revelations in the first half. The second half felt like a boulder slowly starting to roll down a mountain, picking up speed and momentum as it goes, until finally it meets some immovable object, shattering into a million pieces. The epilogue was incredible, tying minor details in the first book to major plot elements, darkly mirroring the very last part of the final chapter, and offering foreshadowing of the ultimate conclusion of the story. It is an incredible work of fantasy.
I want to address the Wheel of Time comparisons. Spoilers for both series to follow.
The comparison between Wheel of Time and Licanius is entirely justified. There is an enormous amount of Wheel to be found within the books. Ancient abandoned city of great evil swathed in mysterious mists? Check. Large cast of characters? Check. Madness? Check. Intricate magic systems? Check. One half of the magic spawning from a Dark God? Check! Immortal servants of the enemy? CHECK! Barren wasteland to the north in direct contact with the dark god? Check. I could go on.
I do not think that the comparisons are unjustified. Tal'Kamar seems to pull inspiration from Rand Al'Thor. Asha from Egwene. I haven't found a stand in for Matrim yet. Orkoth and Mashadar. Deilannis and Shadar Logoth. The comparisons are strong. However, as much as I love Wheel of Time, Licanius is more efficiently written. It is tighter. Major plot elements from the first book are actually major elements of the overall narrative, where I've always felt Eye of the World was almost a standalone story with very few real ties to the Wheel of Time's overarching plot. The Eye of the World is mentioned only a handful of times after the first book, and always in passing. A great example of what I'm saying is Deilannis. Deilannis is this books stand in for Shadar Logoth, and it plays a much more important and prominent role. Sure, Rand and Nynaeve cleanse the taint using Shadar Logoth, but otherwise it is largely forgotten. Most of the events that happened there could easily be placed in other locations. It exists to cleanse the taint as a plot device and that's about it, everything else surrounding it is fluff. Deilannis on the other hand, is the goal of the enemy. It is where he needs to get to in order to achieve victory. Tal'Kamar's plans center on Deilannis. It is where Davian is killed by Tal'Kamar (which hints at Tal's over all plan to end the Augurs is by having them time travel and killing them one by one in the past. Potentially. I haven't finished the third book yet.) Davian lives in Deilannis for months. It is where Tal'Kamar and Nethgalla met and Nethgalla gave him the siphon. It is so interlinked into the plot that it makes Shadar Logoth's impact on the plot of Wheel of Time look like childs play. This is just one example, cherry picked of course. But it really does feel like Wheel of Time with a more structured plot and much tighter writing.
One of my most pleasant surprises of 2024 was The Shadow of What Was Lost, the first book in James Islington’s Licanius trilogy. Going into that book, I was expecting a solid but not spectacular Wheel of Time knockoff and came away very impressed by Islington’s natural talent as a fantasy writer. That book did everything right in terms of being the opener to a door-stopper fantasy series, so I was very excited to see what Islington had in store for the rest of the series. With that said, second installments are notoriously challenging and so I tempered my expectations.
As it turns out I didn’t need to do that! An Echo of Things to Come is in many ways better than The Shadow of What Was Lost. My biggest gripe with Shadow was its characters. I liked the characters there but I didn’t find myself growing that attached to them. I felt that the characters were mere conduits for some really strong storytelling and great worldbuilding. Here, that changes. The characters in Echo feel a lot more fleshed out and interesting than they ever were in Shadow, allowing for a lot more emotional resonance as I started caring a lot more about them.
What’s even better is that this increase in character quality does not come at the expense of what made Shadow as good as it was. Islington’s pacing is once again quite strong and in Echo that’s even more necessary as the scope expands a lot more. A lot of Echo follows four POVs in at least three different locations, making it a really tough juggling act. This is an act that many writers would fail but Islington doesn’t and the result is as good of a second volume to a fantasy trilogy that you’re going to get. My expectations are officially through the roof for the final book in the trilogy.
One of my most pleasant surprises of 2024 was The Shadow of What Was Lost, the first book in James Islington’s Licanius trilogy. Going into that book, I was expecting a solid but not spectacular Wheel of Time knockoff and came away very impressed by Islington’s natural talent as a fantasy writer. That book did everything right in terms of being the opener to a door-stopper fantasy series, so I was very excited to see what Islington had in store for the rest of the series. With that said, second installments are notoriously challenging and so I tempered my expectations.
As it turns out I didn’t need to do that! An Echo of Things to Come is in many ways better than The Shadow of What Was Lost. My biggest gripe with Shadow was its characters. I liked the characters there but I didn’t find myself growing that attached to them. I felt that the characters were mere conduits for some really strong storytelling and great worldbuilding. Here, that changes. The characters in Echo feel a lot more fleshed out and interesting than they ever were in Shadow, allowing for a lot more emotional resonance as I started caring a lot more about them.
What’s even better is that this increase in character quality does not come at the expense of what made Shadow as good as it was. Islington’s pacing is once again quite strong and in Echo that’s even more necessary as the scope expands a lot more. A lot of Echo follows four POVs in at least three different locations, making it a really tough juggling act. This is an act that many writers would fail but Islington doesn’t and the result is as good of a second volume to a fantasy trilogy that you’re going to get. My expectations are officially through the roof for the final book in the trilogy.
