An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, 2) Paperback – June 12, 2018

An Echo Of Things To Come is an incredible sequel that keeps you invested in the characters, building the story with stunning revelations until you're sitting there staring at the last page disbelievingly, and desperate for the next and final book.I sympathise with those who read An Echo of Things to Come way before the arrival of the concluding volume. I couldn't have imagine what it felt like to have to wait two years after an ending like that. My review could only offer fairly broad strokes of why I think this book was so amazing; to say more would be to spoil it for others. While I continued to notice influences from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, there was no doubt that Islington had managed to make The Licanius Trilogy completely his own. It was inspired, but not derived.Say what you will about James Islington, I'd say that the man has audacity. After reading two books of The Licanius Trilogy, I would consider it possibly the most ambitious debut trilogy that I've ever read. I'd even say that this is classic epic fantasy at its finest. It is grand in scope and has a well-designed magic system, a fascinating world with its mysterious history and lore, well-written characters, and a complex but focussed plotline. The story never wavered from its primary plot. Hence, even though An Echo of Things to Come felt like a middle book, it was an excellent one. It gradually sets the scenes and progresses the arcs of the main characters towards the world-at-large peril that was mentioned since the first book."The lesser of two evils, or the greater good. Get a good man to utter either of those phrases, and there is no one more eager to begin perpetrating evil."More importantly, history of thousands of years past were also gradually unveiled - events and moments which consequences brought us to this current storyline. It is complex, mind you, as the the there are many twists and turns along the way. But it was also accessible; information was not so much deliberately obscured but also not known to the main characters, so you learn as they did. The author also included a summary at the beginning of the book - both to recap the pertinent history which was made known in the previous book and the story so far. While there were a few more action scenes in this volume, it was definitely not the driving force in this series, and I found this to be a good thing for this particular narrative where well-crafted expositions and character arcs are more crucial than great action scenes. The writing was also noticeably more polished in this sequel, and I would expect that it'll keep getting better when we get to the concluding volume."We can't start mistaking what we can do for what we have the right to do."All those above made a great book, but what made it amazing is how much I cared about the characters. We still have the four main characters, Davian, Asha, Wirr and Caeden, and each of their POV chapters were engaging to read. The first three young adults I've mentioned above have grown so much since the first book, and it's wonderful to see them holding their own as each of them had to face different challenges. Asha, in particular, had the most unexpected and interesting character arc in this book."It doesn't matter how wrong he is, so long as he thinks he is right. A man who believes is the worst of enemies. A man who believes is more dangerous than anything."Now, we get to Caeden and this is where I was rendered speechless. Caeden's story was hands-down the most compelling of them all, and it packed some serious emotional heft. Every single one of his POV chapter was either heart-breaking or shocking, or sometimes both, as he regained his memories of who he really was. This also meant that there are a lot of flashbacks in this book, but I found each one to be necessary, interesting and important to really develop and flesh-out the characterisation of Caeden. I even had to take breaks after some of his chapters, to digest what I've just read and to recover from the emotions it brought forth. Without a doubt, he is my favourite character in the series for his arc was the most fascinating, captivating and emotionally powerful.The Licanius Trilogy is well on its way to being one of my all-time favourites. The Shadow of What Was Lost started it off with a promise, that it will be one of the best debut epic fantasies I've read in recent years. An Echo of Things to Come reinforced that Islington would very likely be fulfilling that ambitious and audacious promise in a truly epic finish to come.

The second book of a trilogy. Each book so far as been very long with numerous plots going on at the same time. The story focuses on the Gifted, a group that can perform magical feats and the Administration, a group that controls and more or less enslaves the Gifted. At some point in the past the Gifted ruled but a group of them were taking advantage and causing harm to the non-gifted. A war was waged and the non-gifted won and enslaved the Gifted and through a magical device bound then to a set of Tenants that prohibit them from using their gift outside of their few schools.Now Augurs, a form of the Gifted that caused the war and have been put to death since the war, manage to escape being killed and later are allowed to live under close watch by the Administration.The main characters are Davian, once a Gifted student who realized he is a Augur in Book one. Wirr, a Gifted who is also the lead Administration's son and nephew to the king. Ash, also a Gifted who was friends with Davian and Wirr at the school who has been turned into a Shadow, which is a Gifted who has had their power taken from them. Finally, Caeden, a mysterious powerful Gifted that has no memory of who he is but has a large hand in what has happened in the past and the future.Now this group is trying to save the Boundary, a magical wall that keeps evil creatures on the other side from gaining access to the civilized lands.It all sounds terribly complicated but if you read book one first it will all make sense. This is a great fantasy series with great world creation and characters that you will find yourself rooting for. I highly recommend it.

🤯 James Islington has so much depth to his characters and story/world-building. So much so that I would not be able to describe any outline of the plot without spoilers. So much so that I'm not even sure how to feel about some of the characters until (hopefully) when I make it through the final book of the trilogy. So addictive, and yet you really have to pay so much attention to detail or you will miss very important foreshadowing. It helped me a lot to have audiobook with the novel (I'm doing this with all 3 books).There are a LOT of visions from the past to make sense of, and a lot of shifting between different characters storylines, as many of the main characters get split up and sent on different journeys. So, be aware that almost every chapter will jump to a different group of characters. Well worth the jumping around though! Everything Islington writes is WELL thought out. Love. Following through with the 3rd book, and may have to have a second read through at some point to make sense of things I may have not understood with the 1st read.