Most people only know one London; but what if there were several? Kell is one of the last Travelers - magicians with a rare ability to travel between parallel Londons. There's Grey London, dirty and crowded and without magic, home to the mad king George III. There's Red London, where life and magic are revered. Then, White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. But once upon a time, there was Black London...
“What sons our parents have,” said Kell gently. “Between the two of us, we’ll tear the whole world down.”
Three very different Londons, in three very different countries, and Kell was one of the only living souls to have seen them all.Welcome to the Darker Shade of Magic realm, where parallel Londons exist in very different countries and outside the understanding of all inhabitants save royalty and a select few. Long ago travel between the Londons was possible, but the doors have long since been closed to all but the two remaining Antari - rare magicians with the ability to travel between the Londons. A Darker Shade of Magic is the first installment to the Shades of Magic trilogy and I am excited for more!
"There's Dull London, Kell London, Creepy London, and Dead London. See? I'm a fast learner."What a roller coaster of emotions this book was for me! I was instantly hooked with the opening lines, was bored with the pacing and repetition, and then was completely sucked in again. It was really weird and while I have my conversation with my buddy reading partner Sam about how we struggled with the pacing in the beginning, I still do not really know how to adequately describe the disjointed feelings that I had during the exposition. I love flowery writing and expansive worldbuilding, but there was something that didn't quite jive with me for the first 5 or 6 chapters of the book. I wrote to Sam, "Imagine if this wasn't pages of descriptions" and she agreed.
Such is the quandry when it comes to magic, that it is not an issue of strength but of balance.
'I'd rather die on an adventure than live standing still.'The majority of the narrative is told from Lila and Kell's perspectives, both of which I enjoyed equally (which is rare for me). However, I did struggle a bit with a couple narrative shifts that went to random side characters as they weren't notated and I found it to disrupt the narrative flow.
Antari could speak to blood. To life. To magic itself. The first and final element, the one that lived in all and was none.Really cool elemental magic system - earth, air, fire, water, bones (people). It seems that people have an aptitude for one, and the Antari can command over all of them plus blood (which enables their London travel). A lot of time in fantasy I am left wanting more explanation of the magic system - oftentimes I feel like its glossed over because 'magic needs to explanation' - but Schwab took care to think about and explain how magic works... and that ties into the very being of every character in the book. It made for more opportunity for conflict and I look forward to seeing that exploited.
If red was the color of magic in balance - of harmony between power and humanity - then black was the color of magic without balance, without order, without restraint.The fact that Red London is thriving with magic while Black London crumbled under its weight, and White London seems to be infected with Black while Grey has none makes for an underlying theme of power and corruption. I cannot wait to learn more about Black London and what happened there.
Grey London had forgotten magic long ago.I love this world and what I feel like is an expansion of our world (are we living in the world of Grey London?)! The world that Schwab created is vast, detailed, and comes alive on the page - just as her characters do. Even though this book is first-in-trilogy, it comes to a satisfying ending and could be read as a standalone - no cliffhangers here! This was my first book of Schwab's and I can see why she her work is so coveted. Looking forward to continuing on with this series.
