Tag: kell

A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab

A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab concludes her multi-world, dimension-traveling fantasy trilogy in A Conjuring of Light. And you know what, I liked it the best of the three.

He’d stood, half dead, before the onyx throne, and spoken to the king carved in stone, and traded freedom for a chance to save his London, to see it bloom again.” pg 10, ebook.

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I thought this plot flowed more smoothly, without the detours to introduce readers to new characters. We understood the magic, the dangers, the relationships between everyone. This was Schwab’s chance to just write a good story. I feel that she succeeded.

“Lila thought it would be easy or, at least, simple. Something you either survived, or did not. She was wrong.” pg 9, ebook.

He may not be everybody’s choice, but Holland was my favorite character in these books. Talk about born under an unlucky star… his world is dying, most of his life he spends under the compulsion of the Danes, and yet, he hasn’t been driven completely insane by the unfairness of all of it. And, unlike some characters I can mention (cough, Lila), he doesn’t kill without a reason.

I could not believe how many times Lila murdered people. And she was supposed to be one of the “good” characters. More like a loose canon. I never liked her much. Consider this Lila soliloquy:

“Because the shadows can’t touch me, and the fallen won’t. Because I’m good with magic, and better with a blade, and I’ve got more power in my blood than you’ve got in this whole damned palace. Because I’ve no qualms about killing, and on top of it all, I’ve got a knack for keeping your sons — both of them — alive.” pg 175

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“No qualms about killing” isn’t a positive attribute in my book.

Kell still comes off as a bit one dimensional because of his god-like magical powers. But his motivations made more sense to me in this book than in previous ones.

“The flame hovered in the air between Kell’s hands, brilliant and white. He made it look so easy, and Rhy felt a flash of anger toward his brother, hot as a spark — but just as brief. It wasn’t Kell’s fault Rhy couldn’t do magic.” pg 21, ebook.

Rhy, on the other hand, makes a few decisions I couldn’t wrap my head around. I suppose you could put it down to rampaging emotions, but, in a crisis, he rarely seems to choose the right path.

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Everything in Kell tightened at that. “I was out there trying to protect your people.” “And for every one you shielded, a dozen more were taken by the dark.” pg 82

Recommended for young adults. You may be able to read this book and understand it without slogging through the other two, but I think you’ll get more enjoyment out of it by taking the entire journey with the characters.

Here are my reviews of the other books in the series:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) by V.E. Schwab

And thanks for reading!

A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) by V.E. Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) by V.E. Schwab

The characters from A Darker Shade of Magic are back and up to their usual tricks. Rhy worries about Kell, Kell worries about Rhy and Lila, Lila worries about where she’s going to get her next knife. We also get to meet someone new, a dashing privateer named Alucard Emery.

Walking away had been easy. Not looking back was harder. pg 30, ebook.

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The second entry in the series is usually when you get to know the characters better. What are their motivations, loves, hates? We get a bit of that in A Gathering of Shadows but, mainly, the author uses this book to introduce what has become the young adult trope of “dangerous contest” to get the characters together. Think Hunger Games or Maze Runner or the Tri-Wizard Cup but without as much excitement.

Kell is suffering after what he went through in the first book. “Once he would have hesitated — once he had hesitated — but not this time. With a flick of his hand, metal spikes slid from the sheath at his wrist and into his palm. They rose into the air and shot forward, burying themselves in the specter’s throat, his heart, his head. But there were still more shadows. Always more.” pg 43, ebook.

Rhy is suffering too: “Who drinks this?” Kell coughed. “People who want to get drunk,” said Rhy, taking a long, pained sip.” pg 58, ebook.

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The pace of the story is quite slow. What goes on in Red London isn’t nearly as interesting as what goes on in other places (no spoilers). But there were so few chapters about the other Londons.

“Saints,” cursed Rhy, “do all the Londons get this cold?” “As cold,” said Kell as he followed the prince away from the bright beating heart of the city, and down a series of narrower roads. “And colder still.”

I am still enthralled with the idea of different worlds and only a few characters having the ability to walk between those worlds. I like how magic functions here. I like how Schwab gives everybody a back story. But, as in the first book, I feel like I’m probably not the target audience for this tale.

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That’s not going to keep me from reading the last one though. 🙂 Recommended for young adults who adore fantasy reads.

Here’s my review of the first book: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Thanks for reading!

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic is a young adult fantasy novel about a rare-type of powerful magician who can travel between worlds and who also has a penchant for smuggling items between these worlds. It also concerns a young woman from our world who may or may not have a secret relating to magic, who wants to be a pirate and find a life of adventure, far from the dreary and almost magic-free realm of the real world. Their worlds collide when Kell, the magician, secrets a particularly dangerous item from one of the worlds to another.

“So when Kell passed through the palace wall and into the anteroom, he took a moment to steady himself — it took its toll, moving between worlds— and then shrugged out of his red, high-collared coat and turned it inside out from right to left so that it became a simple black jacket.” pg 1

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I forgot to mention, he also sports a fabulous jacket with multiple “sides” and pockets, the extent of which he hasn’t even been able to discover. Wish I had one.

The worlds Kell moves between are different in almost every way, except there is a city called London in each of them.

“And so Kell — inspired by the lost city known to all as Black London — had given each remaining capital a color. Grey for the magic-less city. Red, for the healthy empire. White, for the starving world.” pg 15

Magic is something that can be dangerous in this universe, not just pretty sparkles. Because one of the worlds succumbed to magic and it ate their souls, the doors between the worlds have been severed. Only Kell, and magicians like him, can travel from place to place.

But the thing about magic,” added Kell, “is that it preys on the strong-minded and the weak-willed, and one of the worlds couldn’t stop itself. The people fed on the magic and the magic fed on them until it ate their bodies and their minds and then their souls.” “Black London,” whispered the Prince Regent. pg 23

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It’s actually a fascinating premise for a series. My quibble with this book, which I sometimes have with young adult fare, is that the characters never really came alive for me. They felt like a series of cliches.

“And Lila left feeling empty, hungry, and hollow in a new and terrifying way. Or maybe it was the same kind of hunger she’d always felt, and now the missing thing had a name: magic. She wasn’t sure.” pg 160

But even so, I think I’m going to pick up the next book to see how things go for them. Recommended for young adults. Other readers (ahem, older) may, like me, be left wanting more substance.

Thanks for reading!