Right off the bat, I feel
like I should mention that The Heart of
What Was Lost is the first book by Tad Williams that I’ve ever read, and I
absolutely loved it. I have numerous reasons for why I decided to check out
Williams’ books, but as strange and as random as it might seem to some people,
one of the main reasons is because I’ve read the first three books in George R.
R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
series (A Game of Thrones,
A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords), and while I
absolutely loved A Game of Thrones, I
honestly ended up finding A Clash of
Kings and A Storm of Swords to be
rather disappointing and difficult to get through. I’m definitely a big fan of
the TV show Game of Thrones, but I’ve
found myself having a lot of complaints with George R. R. Martin’s writing for
the A Song of Ice and Fire series,
especially when I read A Clash of Kings
and A Storm of Swords.
If I’m being completely
honest about my thoughts regarding the A
Song of Ice and Fire series, my disappointment and frustration with the
series has gotten to the point where I’m not entirely sure that I even want to
continue reading the series now. My disappointment with A Storm of Swords, and my desire to find some good adult fantasy
books that I like since I’m a huge fan of YA fantasy books is ultimately the
main thing that prompted me to look into Tad Williams’ books after seeing
copies of The Witchwood Crown on
display at Barnes & Noble. After reading this book in preparation for
reading The Witchwood Crown, I have
to say that I’m really glad that I decided to read The Heart of What Was Lost, because while I do have a couple of
complaints about this book, it’s still the best fantasy book that I’ve read
since I read A Game of Thrones back
in 2015.
The Heart of What Was Lost is written from the point of view of three different
characters, and it’s definitely a very rare example of a book where I honestly
like all of the P.O.V. characters. Plus, I became very invested in each of
their lives, which is something that I really loved about this book. There’s
the mortal Duke Isgrimnur, who is the leader of
Rimmersgard, and he’s leading an army in pursuit of the Norn; determined to end
the their attacks, and defeat their ageless Queen Utuk’ku for good. There’s
also Porto, along with his friend,
Endri, who are two southern soldiers that joined the mortal army in order to
help defeat the Norn. Finally, there’s Viyeki, a leader of the Norns’ military
engineers, the Order of Builders, who’s desperately seeking a way to help his
people reach their mountain, and prevent the destruction of their race.
While I loved Duke Isgrimnur, Porto,
and Viyeki, Viyeki definitely stood out as my favorite character in the book. The Heart of What Was Lost as a whole is
great, but the parts of the book that focused on Viyeki, and the other Norns,
as they were dealing with the defeat of Queen
Utuk’ku really stood out as some of my favorite parts of the book. Even though
I think it’s pretty safe to say that the people who read this book are supposed
to view the Norns as the villains of the series; I felt like Williams wrote
this book in such a way that I was able to really understand both the humans’
view of the war that they had fought against the Norns, as well as the Norns’
view of the war. By getting a great deal of insight into Viyeki’s and the other
Norns’ lives throughout the book, I felt like I was able to really see why they
felt like they were the victims of the war that they had had with the humans.
That ultimately led to me feeling at least somewhat sympathetic towards the
Norns since they’re clearly suffering now that the Storm King, Ineluki, has
been defeated, and Queen Utuk’ku isn’t around either, because she’s currently
in a deep sleep. The fact that the Norns ultimately came across to me as being
very complex, and well written villains is definitely one of the many things
that made me fall in love with Tad Williams’ writing for this book; and it’s
also one of the many reasons why I’m even more excited to read The Witchwood Crown than I already was
before I read this book.
The parts of the book that focused on Porto and
Endri definitely did a truly fantastic job of providing the reader with the
prospective of common soldiers fighting in a war, and I felt like they served
as an excellent counterpart to the sections of the book that focused on Viyeki
and the other Norns. By featuring two soldiers who are at very different points
in their lives, with Porto being an older and more experienced soldier who’s
also a husband and a father; whereas Endri is a young and more inexperienced
soldier, Williams was really able to show how every soldiers’ outlook on
fighting in a war is going to be different. Williams’ writing for the parts of
the book featuring Porto and Endri definitely contributed a lot to The Heart of
What Was Lost having a very intimate
feel to it, despite the fact that the story takes place in a grand and
incredibly well thought out world. Plus, the sections of the book focusing on
Porto and Endri were one of the first things that really pulled me into the
overall plot of The Heart of What Was
Lost; and made me become truly invested in everything that was happening throughout
the book.
The fact that I became very
invested in each of the characters’ lives is definitely one of the main reasons
why I ended up liking this book more than the first three books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Even when
it comes to my favorite characters in the A
Song of Ice and Fire series and on the show Game of Thrones, the level of emotional investment that I feel for
them definitely isn’t quite on the same level of emotional investment that I
felt for Duke Isgrimnur, Porto, Endri, and Viyeki; and I think that’s a real testament to Tad
Williams’ talent as a writer. That being said, even though
I definitely liked Isgrimnur as a character, I do feel like he was kind of
overshadowed by the writing for Porto, Endri and Viyeki. I enjoyed the parts of
the book that focused on Isgrimnur, but at the same time, I don’t think they
were nearly as memorable as the parts of the book that focused on Porto, Endri
and Viyeki.
In the past, I’ve read
novellas where I felt like the author was trying to do too much in a short
amount of time, and it really caused the overall plot of the novella to suffer.
For example, Stephenie Meyer’s gender reversed version of Twilight, Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, which she wrote for the tenth anniversary
edition of Twilight, is for the most
part the same as Twilight in terms of
the plot; with some tweaks here and there to account for changing the genders
of most of the characters in the book. However, towards the end of the book
Meyer pretty much crammed a bunch of plot points from the last book in the
series, Breaking Dawn, into the plot
of Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined.
Meyer doing that ultimately led to the ending of the book feeling very chaotic
and rushed, and it simply just didn’t work for a book that’s supposed to be a
novella, as far as I’m concerned. Fortunately, despite the elaborate setting
for this book, the writing for The Heart
of What Was Lost doesn’t come across as if Williams was trying to do too
much in terms of the overall plot of the book. The Heart of What Was Lost ultimately works very well as a novella,
in the sense that it’s full of enough action to keep the reader interested and
engaged in the plot from beginning to end; and yet I also never felt like
Williams was trying to do too much in terms of the book’s plot, since the page
count for the book without the appendix and Williams’ short essay “An
Explanation…” is only 197 pages long. If you include both the appendix and
Williams’ essay, the book is 210 pages long.
Despite the fact that The Heart of What Was Lost is pretty
short, I still feel like Williams was able to accomplish a variety of things
with this book very effectively. As someone who hasn’t read the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy yet, I
think that Williams did a great job of writing The Heart of What Was Lost in such way that even though it’s pretty
short for a fantasy book; it still works very well as an introduction to the
world that both this series and the Memory,
Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy takes place in for people like me who haven’t
read the first trilogy. Personally, I feel like The Heart of What Was Lost is a great way for new readers to kind
of dip their toes into the water, and get sense of the very complex and well
thought out world that this series takes place in. While I admittedly felt like
I was having a lot of details and information thrown at me to the point where
it did feel somewhat overwhelming when I first started reading this book, I
ultimately didn’t feel too overwhelmed by all of the details and information
that were given in this book regarding the series’ setting, and the overall
premise of the book by the time I finished reading it.
In terms of how effective The Heart of What Was Lost is at serving
as a bridge between Williams’ Memory,
Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, and his new The Last King of Osten Ard series; I’m probably not the most qualified
person to critique this aspect of the book, but I still thought that this book
did a good job of giving people like me who haven’t read the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy a
sense of what happened at the end of the trilogy. At the same time, I felt like
Williams also did a really good job of using this book to set up the Last King of Osten Ard series. Plus, reading
this book definitely heightened my excitement to read The Witchwood Crown.
When it comes to my thoughts
on the fact that the events that take place in this book take place six months
after the end of the third book in the Memory,
Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, To Green
Angel Tower, I thought that it was really interesting to read a fantasy
book that shows the characters dealing with the relatively immediate aftermath
of a war. Aside from the last book in a fantasy book series typically having one
to three chapters to show the characters dealing with the aftermath of the
series’ villain’s or villains’ defeat, as well as wrap up other storylines that
the series might have had; I feel like the majority of fantasy books that I’ve
read over the years don’t really go into too much detail about the immediate
aftermath of the defeat of the villain or multiple villains at the end of a
series, and I oftentimes think that’s a real shame. The fact that only six
months have passed since the events that take place at the end of To Green Angel Tower is something that I
really like about this book, especially since To Green Angel Tower was published back in 1993. Even though I
haven’t read the Memory, Sorrow, and
Thorn trilogy or The Witchwood Crown
yet, I still think that only having a fairly short amount of time pass between
the events that take place at the end of To
Green Angel Tower and the beginning of The
Heart of What Was Lost is one of the reasons why this book works so well as
a bridge between the two series. Personally, I’m really glad that Williams
didn’t try to write The Witchwood Crown in
such a way where he simply jumped ahead thirty years at the start of the Last King of Osten Ard series, without
writing and publishing this book first.
The only complaint that I
really have about The Heart of What Was
Lost is with the book’s nontraditional chapter structure. The book is split
into five different parts, but aside from that, it’s not divided into actual chapters.
Whenever the book switches to a different character’s point of view, the changes
in point of view occur at section breaks. I often found the shifts from one
storyline to another rather confusing, especially at the beginning of the book
when I was still getting a sense of who all of the characters in the book were.
The fact that the book isn’t broken up into anything resembling a traditional
chapter structure that most books have, and it’s only broken up into five
different parts really caused storylines, plot details, and my ability to keep
track of which characters were involved with each storyline to blur together
when I first started reading the book. I definitely feel like most of that
confusion could have been prevented if Williams had written this book with it
having a more traditional chapter structure, especially when it comes to moving
from one storyline to another storyline throughout the book. That being said,
while I definitely have some major issues with the way the plot of The Heart of What Was Lost is
structured, I still think that Williams definitely did a great job of picking
the perfect moments throughout the book to end a section on, and move onto a
different storyline.
As someone who hadn’t read
any of Tad Williams’ books prior to reading The
Heart of What Was Lost, I really appreciate the fact that he included his
supplemental essay, “An Explanation…” along with all of the other information that
he included in the appendix of this book. I’ve also found all of the background
information regarding both his Memory,
Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, and his new Last
King of Osten Ard series that he has on his website very helpful
as I read this book; and have slowly immersed myself in the rich and elaborate
world that Williams has created for the two series. On a related note, I also
really appreciate the author’s note that he included at the beginning of The Witchwood Crown, which was primarily
geared towards people like me who haven’t read the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy yet. The author’s note that
Williams included in The Witchwood Crown is
honestly one of the reasons why I decided to buy the book when I saw it at
Barnes & Noble, even though I hadn’t read any of his books before. In my
opinion, writing all of the supplemental material that Williams has written
regarding the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy
and the Last King of Osten Ard series
really helps a lot when it comes to making his books accessible to people like
me, who haven’t read any of his books before. I’ve definitely read fantasy and
science fiction books that I felt weren’t entirely accessible to the reader;
which is something that can be very frustrating at times when it comes to those
two particular genres of books.
For example, I read and
reviewed the first book in Neal Asher’s Transformation
trilogy, Dark Intelligence, last year. Dark Intelligence and the Transformation trilogy as a whole, is
set in Asher’s Polity universe, which a lot of his books are set in. While I
really liked Dark Intelligence, as
someone who hadn’t read any of Asher’s books before, I was definitely rather frustrated
by the fact that it was pretty obvious as I was reading the book that Asher was
referencing things that had happened in some of his previous books that are
also set in his Polity universe. Considering the fact that Dark Intelligence is the first book in a trilogy, I really think
that Asher could have done more to write the book in such a way that it could
be a good starting point for people who are interested in getting into his
books like I was trying to do. Given my frustrations regarding Dark Intelligence not being entirely
accessible to people who are unfamiliar with Neal Asher’s books; I can’t help
but really appreciate and praise Tad Williams for all of the work and effort
that he has clearly put into making the Last
King of Osten Ard series, as well as his other books, accessible to new
readers.
All in all, I absolutely
loved The Heart of What Was Lost for
the most part, and I’m definitely even more excited to read The Witchwood Crown now than I was
before. Tad Williams definitely made a fantastic first impression with me when
it comes to the writing for this book, and I’m already incredibly fascinated by
the world that both the Memory, Sorrow,
and Thorn trilogy and Williams’ new The
Last King of Osten Ard series take place in. The various storylines in The Heart of What Was Lost were all very
interesting and engaging. All of the characters were very enjoyable to read
about, especially Viyeki, who’s definitely my favorite character in the book. I
don’t know if Duke Isgrimnur, Porto, and Viyeki are featured in The Witchwood Crown, but given the fact
that I really liked all three of them, I would love it if they were featured in
the book. If Duke Isgrimnur is featured in The
Witchwood Crown, I’m hoping that he’ll get more of an opportunity to really
stand out and shine as a character since I personally felt like Porto, Endri,
and Viyeki overshadowed him in this book. The Norns in general as the villains
of the series really fascinated me, since I felt like Williams portrayed them
in a very complex and fairly sympathetic manner throughout The Heart of What Was Lost. I’m definitely anxious to learn more
about them, and what their society is like in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, and the Last King of Osten Ard series.
As I said earlier in this
review, the only legitimate complaint that I really have about The Heart of What Was Lost is the fact that
it isn’t written in a traditional chapter structure; which definitely caused
the characters and various plot details to blur together at times as I was
listening to the book on audiobook. I looked at my copy of The Witchwood Crown to see if it’s also written in what I would
consider to be a nontraditional chapter structure. Thankfully, The Witchwood Crown is written in a more
traditional structure, and the overall plot of the book is broken up into
actual chapters. I’m really hoping that will make The Witchwood Crown easier to follow, and an even more enjoyable
reading/listening experience than this book was for me since I’ll be listening
to it on audiobook like I did with this book. Speaking of the audiobook, I
thought that Andrew Wincott did a really great job of reading The Heart of What Was Lost and bringing
the book to life. If people decide to check out The Heart of What Was Lost, I highly recommend listening to it on
audiobook.
That being said, my final
score for The Heart of What Was Lost
is 8 out of 10.
