Kell is one of the last magicians with the ability to travel between parallel universes, linked by the magical city of London. It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into his possession and he met Delilah Bard. Four months since the Dane twins of White London fell, and the stone was cast with Holland's dying body back into Black London.Now Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila. And as Red London prepares for the Element Games-an international competition of magic-a certain pirate ship draws closer. But another London is coming back to life. The balance of magic is perilous, and for one city to flourish, another must fall...
- ISBN10 0765376482
- ISBN13 9780765376480
- Publish Date 17 January 2017 (first published 23 February 2016)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Tor Books
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 512
- Language English
Reviews
herseriallife
Mercy
Quirky Cat
A Gathering of Shadows, written by V.E. Schwab, is the second novel in the Shades of Magic Series. It's a series that I took far too long to read, and yet it has utterly enchanted me.
Four months ago, Red London fell into chaos and danger. Four months ago, Kell and Delilah stood against the worst odds, and managed to save the day. Now, Kell is trapped in the castle, which to many wouldn't feel like a prison, but to Kell it does. All while Delilah is off who knows where, doing who knows what.
What's more, the city is about to celebrate, as The Element Games are occurring once again. This is the rare opportunity for those with talents to showcase them, and it draws people from all over the world for the competition. Including a few surprises.
“Whatever I am, let it be enough”
Guys, I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed A Gathering of Shadows. It was fast-paced, thrilling, and frankly, I loved every minute of reading about Delilah and Kell. My only regret came when the book concluded.
The first novel in this series had me kicking myself about not reading it sooner. On the bright side, that does mean I was able to binge the whole series in one go. And binge I did! In fact, I literally picked up A Conjuring of Light immediately upon finishing this book. So to me, the events in both kind of flowed together. Ah, the problems of a book worm, right?
A Gathering of Shadows was brilliant for a variety of reasons. The building tension between Kell and Delilah, the tension surrounding Alucard, the dynamics revolving around the King, Queen, and Princes.
Oh! And don't forget the Element Games, which gave us more opportunities to see the magic of the world, and the creative ways in which they can be used for battle. My only regret here is that we didn't get to see more of the fighting (and really, we did see quite a lot of it).
“I know where you sleep, Bard." She smirked. "Then you know I sleep with knives.”
The antagonist of A Gathering of Shadows is...divine sounds like a weird word to use here, but it works. It was shockingly complex, and that made it all the more difficult to process. Ironically, it is far from being a black and white situation, and I loved that so much.
This novel does end in a bit of a cliffhanger, which is part of the reason why I dove right into A Conjuring of Light. Still, I have no regrets in that department (and yes, I did finish it).
Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
Berls
I enjoyed this so much. I took a while to get to the meat of the story, with the real danger only fully presenting well after the halfway point. That was totally okay though, because there were other, smaller conflicts happening from the get-go, with established characters that I already loved and was invested in. I love Lila Bard, she's one of my favorite characters I read all year.
We meet some new characters too and I quickly fell for them. I was suspicious of Alacard, but mainly because I didn't like the potential romance brewing between him and Lila (I want her for Kel). We also get to know some of the crew on Alacard's ship and the new guards on Kel. All very interesting characters.
Finally there's the deeper exploration of magic in this book - how it works, its dangers, its beauty, its evil. And magic is a character all it's own in this book... one that leaves you hanging on the edge of a pretty good cliff at the end. Just be ready to pick up book 3 as soon as possible. You've been warned :)
Renee
It's the second book, it always is. It is a shame that they are written just to become a filler and get more money. I don't blame VE Schwab, she is a lovely human being, I blame the whole publishing industry in general. They seem to forget that duologies are a thing as well. However, the stakes were high at the end, it makes a great start for the third book, and the writing was captivating. Few complaints there. I just wanted to see more plot progression during the first three-quarters of the book.
celinenyx
jamiereadthis
Anyway. This one is all about a big games. And I really don’t care. It just feels like filler, lacking the intrigue and otherworldliness of the first book. I lost interest in Kell and Lila (grrrrr, LILA) because they’re just… playing games. Moping around. Making dumb choices. Games. Yay?
Four stars to whatever book Rhy was in, though, because I would read that one. And I’ll read the next one, if only to see if it can ruin Rhy for me too, or redeem the rest. (Grrrrr. Lila.)
empressbrooke
Edit 4/13/19: As I'm working on finishing a different trilogy, I wanted to come back to this review and comment on how well this book avoids the "middle book syndrome" - it tells an engaging and exciting self-contained story while moving the entire series forward. Most trilogies don't improve from book 1 to book 2, and book 2 often feels like treading water between books 1 and 3, but A Gathering of Shadows defies those trends.