Shangri-La It may be used in this context alongside other mythical and famous examples of somewhat similar metaphors such as El Dorado, The Fountain of Youth, and The Holy Grail. 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
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"