Irvine has built a history and wonderful culture for his vivid world. His first novel vibrates with originality

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

The complex cultures, detailed geography, and the palpable weight of history provide a solid background to an intense story that ... becomes increasingly compelling. This stands out as a worldbuilding labour of love with some truly original touches

LOCUS

Magic pathways from world to world were a curse, making possible invasion and enslavement, and long ago those paths were closed leaving three worlds and the void between them a hopeless jumble of what had been and what is now. Ian Irvine's A Shadow on the Glass, first volume of his fantasy quartet "The View from the Mirror", takes us to one of those worlds and to two adventurers, a scholar and a psychic, who find themselves dragged into the conflicts of the mighty and the ambitious. Karan is blackmailed into helping steal a magic mirror, and finds herself on the run from warlords and warlocks; all that Llian wanted to do was find a great story to tell, and clarify some minor ambiguities in the archives of the college of storytellers--but he finds himself expelled and ostracised, and accompanying Karan on her breakneck journeys on high barrens and treacherous rivers. What Irvine brings to the mix is a sense of irony and some intelligent observation of character: Llian and Karan are not your average squeaky clean hero and heroine, and their opponents are hardly villainous, just people acting out the planned treacheries that seemed like a good idea.

Roz Kaveney, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW