Shangri-La Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel "Lost Horizon" by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – a permanently happy land, isolated from the world. In the novel, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The name also evokes the imagery of the exoticism of the
The Heart of What Was Lost leader, Duke Isgrimnur, leads his army in pursuit, determined to destroy the Norns and their ancient Queen Utuk'ku once and for all. The book is told from three points of view: Duke Isgrimnur of Rimmersgard; a Norn leader, Viyeki; and Porto, a Perdruinese mercenary. Jason Heller, a book reviewer for NPR, reviewed the book, stating the novel balances "warmth with grimness, and gentle bits of humor with violence and vengeance. Williams has tapped back into the dynamic that made "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" so absorbing." Aiden Moher at Barnes & Noble's fantasy blog called "The Heart of What Was Lost"