An Echo of Things to Come - James Islington

Published by Orbit Books: Australia, 2018 (2017).
Book 2 in 'The Licanius Trilogy.' Preceded by 'The Shadow of What Was Lost.' Followed by 'The Light of All That Falls.'

I recently read the first book in this series, and liked it enough that I ended up buying this second book in order to continue reading. I'm glad that I did, as the story picks up immediately after the end of Book 1, meaning that I'm glad that the first story was still fresh in my mind.

Middle books in a trilogy often have a lot going against them, particularly when characters from Book 1 have been separated, and remain separated for much of the run time, so that they can be in the needed locations for the epic conclusion of Book 3 - The Two Towers is an example of a middle book that does this, and still does it well. An Echo of Things To Come also has this hurdle to jump, and does it well, but author James Islington has added more challenges for himself by choosing to add in plot-relevant flashbacks throughout - another trope that can be a bit divisive.

To be honest, both of these structural choices are ones that I sometimes struggle with; I'm just getting invested in a story and all of a sudden I'm spending a few chapters following a character that I am less interested in, or I am reading about a dramatic scene, and all of a sudden I'm subjected to ten pages of a flashback which - although great in a worldbuilding sense - is not the resolution I am waiting for - Rhythm of War jumps out as an example of a book where I struggled with this. Fortunately, for the most part Islington manages to make the case for the existence of these flashbacks and perspective changes, and even if one storyline might have less interest for a scene or two, it usually jumps up in relevance and drama as the story goes on.

In terms of actual plot, the Licanius Trilogy is certainly beginning to twist the classic fantasy tropes it started off with. Our original main character, Davian, is still important, but as his storyline is probably the most 'moving the pieces around' out of our POV characters, he has been given reduced 'air time' in this entry. He still must do battle against a powerful augur who takes control of a city, and also starts to investigate how to heal the Boundary that keeps the generic forces of evil at bay, but this latter point certainly seems to be buidling up to something more important in the final entry. Asha and Wirr both still have important roles to play, particularly politically, but the true main character of this entry is Caeden, who (spoiler for the end of Book 1) is now wrestling with the revelation that he was previously Aarkein Devaed, one of the most feared figures of legend. This is where the flashbacks come in, as Caeden slowly begins to remember his past, and works through his shifting understanding of why he did what he did in the past, and whether he will still choose to do what he previously felt was right, or stand against it now.

It's all very interesting, and it once again builds up dramatically towards a cliffhanger ending.

Yeah, I'll be hunting out Book 3 as soon as I can justify buying it for myself.

Completed 14 October 2026.



(The Licanius Trilogy)

Previous Book ~ Next Book

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Master's Men - William Barclay

Image
Published by SCM Press Ltd: London, 1959. I enjoy early church history, and the commentaries of William Barclay, so learning that he had written a book about the twelve apostles, telling their history, was intriguing. Unfortunately, there are certain aspect to Barclay's writings that I have some issues with, and The Master's Men leans far enough into those issues that I struggled with the book as a whole - actually, I started this in the middle of 2024, and only picked it up recently in order to finish it off, rather than from a sense of enjoyment. Firstly, the good. Each chapter looks at one of the '12 disciples' named in the gospels (as well as some extra individuals - there are 15 chapters), giving the list of scriptural mentions (which, for some, are not very many), and then going into the 'historical' accounts found of them outside scripture. Barclay is quite good at joining the dots, and it is in these moments that the book becomes to most interesting. An ...
Read more

The Fathers of the Greek Church - Hans von Campenhausen

Image
Published by Adam and Charles Black Limited: London, 1963. Translated from German by LA Garrard. First published in German as 'Griechische Kirchenväter' in 1955. A 'proper' theological work by a 'proper' theologian, The Fathers of the Greek Church gives a brief biography of a number of the - wait for it - fathers of the Greek Church. Being written by a theologian, it is no surprise that the book focuses more on the theological writings of each individual than their actual biography, although this is still covered. I love church history, and what I enjoyed about  Fathers was learning more about the beliefs of a number of these individuals, or even (for a few) hearing about them at all! With early church history it is also interesting to track the development of concepts that modern believers take for granted. It is not that these concepts had to be invented - as Scripture alludes to them -   but it took some time for the understanding of these concepts to be soli...
Read more

The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens

Image
Published by Penguin Classics: London, England, 2000. First published 1840-1841. I remember seeing an adaptation of this book at some point, fairly low budget I think, and from that adaptation only remembered the outcome of one particular storyline. Knowing that a particular plot would end in a particular outcome made reading the book an interesting experience, wondering how exactly events would lead to the outcome I remembered, and would have the same prevalent tragic emotion throughout as the adaptation seemed to have.  But reading Dickens is not at all like watching Dickens. So often a straight adaptation of the plot of a Dickens book leads to a movie that is somewhat bleak and depressing, whereas reading Dickens gives fuller scope to the satire and humour of his writing, even in the midst of tragic events. I really enjoyed this book. I am a big Dickens fan (I'm sure this is neither the first nor last time I've said that) but this one is now among my favourit...
Read more