The Shades of Magic trilogy is quite a ride and A Conjuring of Light is no exception. For a book that has to do with multiple Londons, magic and power this is book isn’t really about any of those things. It’s about where do people really belong. Kell is an Antari, a very powerful magician that can travel between worlds. He is raised as a Prince, treated as the brother and son of the Royal family in Red London but never truly feeling that he is one of them because he knows he can’t leave. Rhy is the crown prince of Arnes in Red London and for all his privilege and charm he has no magic. There are no rules or reason as to why some people have magic and while others don’t. Rhy is the heir to the throne but feels unworthy because he doesn’t have any magic and in this world is seen as a weakness. Lila is talented thief from Grey London struggling to get by. She ran away from home when she was young and has been running ever since. She had no friends as she sees any kind of attachments as a weakness she cannot afford because she has big dreams of seeing the world. Holland grew up an White London, a hard world that Magic has been slowly going away thanks to it’s nearness to Black London. In his London magic is a gift and curse those who have it have power and those who don’t will do anything to get it. Holland is an Antari like Kell and for that reason he is both feared and targeted. He grew up with stories of a King that will bring back magic to his world and he dreams of being that King but he suffers greatly from those who loved and cared for. Alucard was born to the aristocracy but was cast out of his family because of who he loved and now travels the seas a Privateer for the Crown. All of them are powerful in their own rights and all of them are searching for their place in their world or worlds. Their stories is what makes this series so compelling. As they all struggle to overcome a power far greater then them individually it was their discovering of themselves and overcoming their own fears that allowed them to overcome the darkness and save their world and themselves. One of the themes throughout the book is that magic needs a balance. Just like the Force for there to be peace the Light must balance the Dark. Magic needs to be balanced with non-magic because even Magic has it’s limits. Black London was destroyed before the action of the trilogy because Magic had no counterbalance and burned it down. For Kell, Lila, Rhy, Holland and Alucard, they are all looking for that counterbalance in their lives and until they found it they couldn’t defeat Osaron who was pure magic. I feel like I’m getting real deep here but I think this is true in all of our lives. The Shades of Magic is truly entertaining series. It did have few bumps along the way. I said of the second book about how it started off slow and a little harder to get into and this book I felt had a little unnecessary side trip to a mysterious black market, in the end these are minor missteps to a enjoyable trilogy. A trilogy that I wonder if may become more one day because I think she left things open to a return to Grey London in the future. I kinda hope so because I would love to visit Kell, Rhy, Lila and Alucard again.
Review: A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
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I’ll admit that I had a little trouble getting into this one. I get the feeling that V.E. didn’t plan on this being a trilogy originally because while there were a few loose ends it was wrapped up pretty nicely and could have ended where it did. That meant that she sort of had to start all over again setting up the world and the characters. Lila had left Red London to seek adventures and find herself on a privateer’s boat. Kell and Rhy are left dealing with the new bond between them and the knowledge that their lives are tied to each other. If one dies so does the other. All three are restless in their new realities so of course it’s a good time to put on an international tournament of magic. The Essen Tasch, a competition with neighboring nations Faron and Vesk. A good way to expand the universe but it also meant it took a lot of pages building up the games that by the time we finally do and we get all of characters in one place again, the book is more then two thirds over and you blink and the games are over. I just felt it needed a little less setup and more action. Especially since the real story was going on in White London and we only get a glimpse of. The one saving grace is it has one hell of cliffhanger, with not just one or two but at least three characters lives in peril at the final page. It’s a good thing, I went ahead and bought the last book because I have to know what happens next.
I knew from the description of this book it would be one I would love. I don’t know why I waited so long to pick it up. Kell is an Antari, or a person who has special magic that allows him to go between different worlds. He travels from Red London to Grey London to White London and back. He is the official ambassador between the different Monarchs of the different but he also has a side business of fencing items between back and forth which is strictly forbidden after what happened to Black London. Black London was overrun by magic that it devoured itself. Red London shut it’s doors to the other London’s leaving White London to deal with Black London and Grey London without magic at all. Delilah (Lila) Bard is a thief in Grey London, stealing to get by. She has big dreams of being a pirate and leaving London behind. When one of Kell’s transactions goes bad he is forced to team up with Lila to save all the Londons. It’s a fun read that is full of twists and turns and has some great characters. Kell seemingly has nothing to be upset about being he is treated like a prince and is like family to the Royal family of Red London but he knows he is just one of their possessions. He may live with them and treated as a soon but he wouldn’t be if he wasn’t useful to them. Lila is a orphan who only has herself to rely on. Together they make one of a hell of team. Lila is one smart cookie. On more than one occasion it’s her wits and fast thinking that gets them out of trouble. Kell is not so bad himself. When he figures out what is going on, he knows whatever he has to do and it means sacrificing himself to save others. I can’t wait to read what happens next for Kell and Lila.
** Spoilers **
So what do you do when you have the soul of the enemy of death even though you have no memory of his past life and now everyone else knows it and blames you for the death of your best friend but your innocent? For Call it means you get thrown in jail, broken out and then kidnapped by the very people who’ve been trying to avoid the last three years. Call’s luck is almost none existent. Call is also full of self doubt and guilt. He wasn’t the one to kill Aaron, that was Alex but he still feels responsible for it. If Tamara had chosen to save Aaron instead of Call it would have been Call who died and not Aaron. Does Tamara regret that choice? Call had always assume that Tamara liked Aaron more than him and like most people tolerated him because Aaron did. Now that Tamara, Jasper and Call are kidnapped by Master Joseph and his crew things get a little hazy. Call is not Constantine despite having his soul but he’s been having trouble convincing others of this. He may not be him but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t share some of his ambitions. Without Aaron, Call feels a little lost and maybe all would be forgiven and go back to what they were if Aaron was alive again. Master Joseph gives him the chance. Raise Aaron back from the dead and you can decide whether you want to stay or not. The Enemy of Death was called that because his obsession with defeating death. I’m not sure I buy that if Call is able to bring Aaron back that all would be forgiven and that all of a sudden there would be so much support for his cause but we need to find the conflict. Of course Call is able to bring back Aaron by doing the one thing that Constantine was never willing to do, give apart of himself to do so but you can never go back. Aaron is not as he was because he was dead and should be dead. Call’s plan to bring Aaron back and things go back the way they were goes sideways immediately and battle ensues. If I didn’t know that there is one more book left in the series, I would almost think that this was finale because there was a lot of loose ends tied up. I’m not sure where they go from here but there is still one bad guy still out there.
I didn’t find The Speaker to be as good as The Reader but it was no less enjoyable. Sefia and Archer have escaped the Guard and back on the run. They soon run into more impressors and just like what Sefia did for Archer, they rescue the kidnapped boys. Soon they embark on a campaign to track down the other impressors and free their kidnapped boys using their fighting skills and Sefia’s book. Things start out well but it becomes apparent that the violence starts to take over and everyone starts to wonder if Archer is the one the Guard has been looking for. Also Sefia is dealing with the knowledge of the involvement of her parents with the Guard and the red war. Just like in the The Reader, we get side story that is related. In the first book it was the apprentice librarian and assassin that ended up being Sefia’s parents in their youth. This one is the apprentice politician who is tasked with murdering his king so the next phase of the red war can commence. Unlike the subplot that was evident from the beginning as important, this seemed to be more of a distraction from the narrative. I’m still not sure why it took so much real estate in this book except it started to mirror Sefia and Archer’s story of trying to change their destiny for the people they love. I guess only time will tell how it will play out in upcoming books. I just wished we got to spend more time with Captain Reed and crew then this other story line. I still loved this book. It wasn’t as good as the original but it was damn entertaining and I’m even more invested in Sefia and Archer’s story.
This is the first book in the Shaw Confessions Trilogy, a companion trilogy to the Mara Dyer Trilogy. I would recommend going back to read the original trilogy before starting this one and if you haven’t read the Mara Dyer Trilogy then read it first because this book will not make sense if not. I did not re-read the last series and I found myself hitting up google looking for synopsis to remind myself what happened. The Retribution of Mara Dyer came out in 2014 and so much has happened in the last three years it’s easy to forget who Stella is and what happened between her and Mara. What I remember about the original series was how kind of creepy it was. Is Mara really seeing hallucination or can she really kill people with her mind? The first book was a mind trip. This was a little bit more straight forward mystery. It’s a few months after the ending of the last book and other carriers or gifted teens like Noah, Mara, Jaime and Stella are disappearing and then committing suicide. The problem is that they don’t want to and what do these disappearances and suicides have to do with Noah, Mara and what has done to them? Well we don’t get a lot of answers but then again we do still have two more books to go. What we do get is more incite into Noah. The complicated but loyal boyfriend Noah. He is a kid who has every privilege in the world but doesn’t see the point in living until he meets Mara. What happens when he doesn’t have that anymore? Also the question used to be is Mara crazy? Now it’s is Mara a psychotic killer? I’m really going to have to back and read the first trilogy again.
2 Women, So Many Books 