The great war against the evil Storm King has been won and the armies of his people, the Norns, flee Northwards, pursued by Duke Isgrimnur and his Rimmersgard. If Isgrimnur doesn’t end the Norn threat now it will only return when their dread Queen is revived. But at one point does the quest to defeat the Norn become genocide? And how far are both sides prepared to go to survive?
The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy was an important part of my youth. So much so I couldn’t read William’s other work, nevermind the idea of returning to Osten Ard, and it took me a long time to brave this book.
I’m so glad I did. The original trilogy was always more than heroes vs villains, but this story takes this much further. We see the war from both sides, the desperate struggles and horrors suffered by both Rimmersgard and Nords, and with each battle you are not only unsure who will win but also who you want to win.
I often have the feeling that Tad Williams isn’t quite the writer he could be. There is something missing, a poetic completeness, that I can’t pin down. He is still a very good writer. It's one of those problems really good writers have - they hover on the edge of greatness. This makes me want to read his future books even more. Regardless, this book has far more depth than your average fantasy novel, and Williams is a sophisticated writer. Read it you like fantasy at all (if you can, read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn first). If you don’t like fantasy, consider William’s as one of those writers who transcends the genre.
(Not that there’s anything wrong with an honest to goodness fantasy novel – I love them. But some writers transcend the limits of the genre. An extreme example being The Buried Giant by Kazuo Inshiguro: anybody who refused to read that book because there is a dragon is, I’m sorry, an idiot. )
The Heart of What Was Lost: A Novel of Osten Ard
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