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

The final Shades of Magic book arrived on my doorstep two days early, courtesy of Amazon.  If you have Prime shipping, the book has release-day delivery, and you live in the right area--namely, near a distribution center--that happens sometimes.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to it right away.  But upon reading A Conjuring of Light, I didn't find myself wishing I'd read it sooner.

As an offering, ACoL falls somewhere between A Darker Shade of Magic (book one) and A Gathering of Shadows (book two).  The plot deals with the descent of the "shadow king" Osaron upon Red London and the plight of that London's inhabitants, plus White London Antari Holland and Grey London Antari Lila, as they try to oust Osaron from his new position of power.  The central plot is solid, and involves several "tried and failed" schemes to defeat Osaron, from trapping him in a body and then killing the body to hacking him apart with weapons spelled to dispel magic.  It even involves a sea journey to what was a very cool floating marketplace full of magical artifacts.  Holland plays a larger role in this book, as do Prince Rhy and Alucard Emery.  We even get some of Holland's back story, which has largely been missing until this point.  But despite all that, I found myself wanting more.

A Darker Shade of Magic had magic (duh) and wonder and the wide-eyed amazement of these three or four Londons stacked atop each other, and the movements between them.  That went away in the second book, and it was largely lacking here, too.  Ninety-five percent of this book takes place in Red London, and Osaron turns out to be a uniquely Red London problem.  Ultimately, the interplay of the various Londons isn't really brought onto the stage, nor is it acknowledged that, despite Osaron's defeat, Black London appears to still be infringing on White, and when White falls, isn't Red next?  And what of Grey after that?  I would have loved to see the worlds tied more closely together once again, especially since we officially had an Antari from each world on the stage.  And while Osaraon is eventually defeated (obviously) it doesn't seem like a permanent solution to me, and rather more seems like something Schwab might potentially be setting up for future books.  Something like "Osaron is released once again and Lila must make good on her promise of favor to Maris," which is another plot line that was never truly wrapped up.

The relationships here were satisfying, building up without taking away too much central plot time.  And while I was initially frustrated by so many chapters from so many different characters who had, until this point, been on the fringes at best--like the king and queen--I think their involvement ultimately paid off.  I would have liked to see more from Mr. Edward Tuttle, the wannabe magician of Grey London, but again, it seems like that might be something that Schwab is setting up for the future.  Possibly.  It's hard to say distinctively, but this book lacks a solid ending.  It feels like she's done with it, but also like she might want to come back later, and so she didn't wrap things up.  Which is fine if she does come back to it, but with no announced plans to do so, it comes across as sloppy.

Overall, I liked this book, but it didn't totally engross me.  A Darker Shade of Magic was breathtaking, A Gathering of Shadows was just okay and suffered from Second Book Syndrome, and this one was good, but nothing that absolutely blew me away or left me reeling and eager to read it again.  Consequently, I'll score it right between the first two.

4 stars out of 5.

A Darker Shade of Magic - V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic #1)

Wow!  What a story!  I put off reading A Darker Shade of Magic for what feels like forever because people were going so gaga over it.  The last fantasy book that I read that people went so crazy over was The Name of the Wind, which left me less than impressed.  I'd been burned; I didn't want to be so again with this.  But the library had it available for Kindle, so I finally though, "Why not?"  And man, all those people who I doubted so much?

They were right.

A Darker Shade of Magic is the story of Kell and Lila.  Kell is Antari, a user of blood-magic who can travel between three different worlds, all of which happen to have a city called London, though the city itself is very different in each.  Kell hails from Red London, a land of magic (obviously) that apparently smells like flowers, where the Isle (aka the Thames) is a source of power, and people in general can use elemental magics.  He also has a very neat coat that is actually a bunch of coats and must have some sort of inter-dimensionality charm attached to it for it to function as it does.  As one of only two living Antari, Kell works as a messenger passing letters between the monarchs of the three Londons.  Oh, and he also smuggles items between the worlds, something that is strictly forbidden, because he has a bit of a fascination for items from the other Londons.  He's basically a male, land-based, world-traveling version of Ariel.  He's got gadgets and gizmos aplenty, he's got whosits and whatsits galore.  You want thingamabobs?  He's got twenty.  But who cares?  No big deal...

And then there's Lila.  Lila is from Grey London, our own London.  She's a thief who wants nothing more than to be a pirate.  Basically, Lila is awesome.  She has her own code of honor and she dreams of getting away, doing more.  Basically, if Kell is Ariel, Lila is Belle.

She wants it more than she can tell.  And for once it might be grand to have someone understand she wants so much more than they've got planned.

When Kell winds up in Grey London with a mysterious artifact from the fallen Black London, he ends up on a collision course with Lila--literally.  And when he decides that he has to take the item back to Black London and seal it away, even it means that he won't be able to make it back, he finds out that he's not going to be able to go without Lila tagging along.  Of course nothing goes smoothly, everything gets messed up, and now it's up to these two to save the world(s).

I loved this.  Schwab has a great writing style, not too ornate or too simplistic, just enough to draw you in without drowning you in unnecessary details and without trying to hide things away for the sake of being clever.  The world building here was awesome.  It has strong elements of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, with the way that worlds can overlay each other and what's in one place might be in another, but be different, but Schwab makes this concept (which is certainly in use in other places, as well) her own.  Red London was absolutely breathtaking and I want to live there.  White London was coldly terrifying, just alien enough to put you on edge.  And Black London...  Well, call me crazy, but I would love to see Black London.  The way the mythology is set up here makes Black London seem like a place that could be beautiful or terrible, or both at once, and those are the sorts of settings I love the most.  I hope that we get to actually see it in future books.  And while I usually immediately start shipping people in this book, I liked that Lila and Kell remained somewhat friendly, somewhat exasperate partners for this.  Might that evolve into something more in the future?  Maybe.  I can't really tell from this, though there are a couple of instances that hint it might.  I could go either way on this part; I think they could be good together, but I'm just as content to see them remain friends, which is honestly pretty rare in books, and even more rarely done well.

This was, overall, a beautiful, riveting fantasy.  I absolutely loved it, and I'm already thinking of how I can get it into the hands of some other people I know would really enjoy it.

5 stars out of 5.