Book Review: The Heart of What Was Lost (The Osten Ard Saga, #3.5) by Tad Williams
Cover art illustrated by Michael Whelan
The Heart of What Was Lost by Tad Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: The Osten Ard Saga (Book #3.5 of 7)
Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Pages: 222 pages (Kindle edition)
Word Count: 78,000 words
Published: 3rd January 2017 by DAW Books
The Heart of What Was Lost is the action-packed epilogue to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, and it is also a great setup to The Last King of Osten Ard.
It has only been a few months since I finished reading Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, and yet I already felt the strong pull to go back to Osten Ard. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams was one of the best highlights of 2023 for me. Starting from The Dragonbone Chair, I was enthralled up to the end of To Green Angel Tower, which, by the way, at more than 520,000 words long is the biggest single-volume novel I have ever read in my life. As I have mentioned several times, I am determined to read every book published in The Osten Ard Saga by Tad Williams. This is why… Before I dive into the sequel series titled The Last King of Osten Ard with its first installment, The Witchwood Crown, in 2024, I decided to read the bridge novel between the two series first: The Heart of What Was Lost. And I am glad I did this. Not only The Heart of What Was Lost work as an extra closure for To Green Angel Tower, but although I haven’t started reading The Witchwood Crown yet, I have no doubt what I read here will be beneficial to my reading experience of the sequel series soon.
“We call darkness our friend, but when the elders tell us stories of the Garden, they talk of the holy, unending light that was there. How did shadows become our only dwelling?”
This does not mean you should read this solely for the purpose of reading The Last King of Osten Ard. At 78,000 words long, this is a relatively short novel, especially compared to any book in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. But the dual functions of the novel I mentioned earlier plus the addition of the book having an engaging story, ensure fans of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy can earn more satisfaction from reading it. That said, there is something to remember when you are going to read The Heart of What Was Lost for the first time. This is comparatively the most action-packed installment in The Osten Ard Saga. So far. I loved Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, but action-packed is not what I would categorize it. The entire trilogy was a slow-burn narrative with minimal action or battle scenes. I was surprised by the action-oriented nature of The Heart of What Was Lost. Duke Isgrimnur is one of the main characters of the novel. He is the only returning POV character from the first trilogy. It was easy and quick for me to feel comfortable reading Isgrimnur’s chapters. Porto and Endri are new characters that took me a long time to feel invested in. Fortunately, this is balanced by another new POV character, Viyeki the Builder, and I found Viyeki to be an intriguing character that provides needed insights into the Norns and the priceless gem named after the title of this book.
“Wars don’t end, he thought suddenly. They become stories, told to children. They become causes that are taken up by those who were not even born when the war started. But they don’t end. We are a fierce race, we men. We will give up even our short, precious lives for revenge—no, for justice. No wonder the immortals fear us.”
War is a central theme in The Heart of What Was Lost. The entire book is essentially building momentum toward the Siege of Nakigga and the details of the siege itself. The confrontations and fierce resistance between the two sides felt surprisingly humane, too, depending on how you observe the situation from both sides. Although it took a while before I felt connected with Porto and Endri, Tad Williams did a magnificent job of showing the brutality of the recurring cycle of war through their perspective. Maybe even more than Isgrimnur and Viyeki. Personally, for such a relatively short and war-oriented book, Tad Williams was efficient and effective at implementing more details about the intricate lore of the Osten Ard. There is no cliffhanger here. As I said, this book works both ways. As an epilogue to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy and as a prelude to The Last King of Osten Ard. Some characters, their fates, and the world-building elements discussed here will, for sure, play a role in the sequel series.
“Do not neglect what beauty may have been created—if there were no flaws in order, life would be immeasurably poorer.”
The cycle of war is doomed to be repeated in The Last King of Osten Ard series. I am not sure how the second series will proceed. At all. And if my mind is a blank page, then I am eager to have these pages filled with Tad Williams’ beautiful storytelling and writing again in The Last King of Osten Ard. The Heart of What Was Lost was a short and sweet return to the world of Osten Ard, and it made me even more excited to continue my journey in the series soon.
“A lesson is here for all: Do not trust in what seem to be the truths of the moment. Put your faith instead in the things that are eternal. Love our queen and love our mountain, love and remember the Garden That Was Lost, and the song of our race will find its proper melody.”
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