A Darker Shade of Magic

How was this book so good? How is it even possible to write a book this good? And why did I wait so long to read this?! Okay, I actually know the answer to that one.. It was marketed as adult, and that was scary. But honestly, I knew I would love this, so I was just being silly. And I do think I was also just as scared of the heartbreak that I still suspect this series will bring.

But seriously, this book is SO good! I won’t say that I fell in love with it from the first sentence… That would be wrong, the first sentence was good, but I didn’t quite fall in love. No that honour goes to the second sentence. Because while I can’t say that the first one hooked me all that much, by the time I’d finished reading the second sentence I show more knew I was going to love this book. No scratch that. By the time I’d finished reading the second sentence I did love this book.

I literally can’t find anything about this book I didn’t like. It was just too perfect.

I love the writing. I didn’t love Schwab’s writing style as much in Monsters of Verity, but for some reason it was different here. In A Darker Shade of Magic the writing was perfect. I can’t decide whether the style was different in this one, or whether it fit this book better, or if I just like it more now, but whatever it is, I adored the writing in this!

The plot is intense and twisty and incredibly well thought out. It’s never slow. Never boring. It had me on the edge of my seat constantly, needing desperately to know what was going to happen next.

I also love the world. Er… Worlds. Grey London isn’t really anything special, but I sort of love books set in historical England, so honestly I liked even Grey London. White London was creepy in the very best way, and I really enjoyed the few glimpses of it we got. And then there was Red London. Can I please live in Red London? I mean, maybe not during the events of the book, but before or after? When it’s peaceful? Please? I really loved Red London, can you tell? It was so unique and magical, and OHMYGOODNESSILOVEITSOMUCH!!! Can I at least visit Red London? Pleasepleaseplease?

And actual worlds aside, I love all the other aspects of the world building! The magic is fascinating, and so well developed! The Antari are so cool! And while elemental magic isn’t exactly original, this is a fresh new take on it, and it’s fascinating! I love the politics within the worlds, and the politics between the worlds, and every aspect of these words really!

The characters are absolute perfection! ALL of them.

- Kell is one of the best main characters I’ve read for a while. He’s well developed. He’s a good person, and he always tries to do the best he can. But he’s also very flawed. He makes mistakes. BIG mistakes. He’s very human. He longs to be loved. To belong. He’ll do anything for the people he loves. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make mistakes that put them in danger. Mistakes that hurt them. He feels so real, and he suffers so much, and I JUST WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY!!!
- Lila is so sassy and awesome! I love her so much. I mean, what’s not to like? She’s a sassy pirate girl who manages to rob Kell and then convince him to bring her to another world. And yes, he wasn’t exactly in great shape at that point, but seeing as he’s one of the most powerful magicians of his time, that’s still pretty darn impressive.
- Rhy. Rhy is my darling. I love Rhy with all my heart! From pretty much the first scene he showed up, I knew I was going to love him! He isn’t actually in this book much, but something about him just captured my heart.
- Holland is creepy and villainous, but I felt incredibly sorry for him, and honestly I’m still holding out hope that he’ll turn out to be a good character. Even if he doesn’t… well, I still sort of like him.
- The Dane twins were also creepy and villainous. Unlike Holland however, there is absolutely no redeeming them. They were just plain evil. They maybe could have been a tiny bit more three dimensional, but honestly they don’t really need to be. What incredibly creepy villains.

Overall? This book is pure perfection! If you haven’t read it yet what are you even doing?!?! This series is an absolute must read if you even remotely like fantasy. It’s so amazing! show less

I gave four stars instead of five because Lila is so insufferable, irritating, and downright annoying. Much of this I attribute to the novel's other characters, even the ones who appear for just one scene, being better crafted in comparison. If everything else weren't well written, she'd be less irritating, but it is what it is. She comes off rather flat and like a collection of tropes dressed up as a main character, which as I said is a shame since even very minor characters are written with more nuance. I am not sure how such a grating character came about in this book because it's otherwise amazing--the prose, plots, other characters, world building--it's exquisite. Ordinarily a character like Lila would have made me chuck the book show more at a wall, but everything else had me on the edge of my seat, so I gave it some slack. The mythology was really wonderful. I'm obsessed with the world building, multiple Londons, and am excited to read the sequel to get more of Rhy and Holland in particular. So I definitely recommend this book, but just be aware that you may end up finding Lila to be annoying. I know other people like her, so she might be an acquired taste. She grew on me once she faced more consequences for her actions, which for some reason often involved people torturing her. show less

I feel as though I should be making a clichéd but heartfelt break-up speech as I abandon this book. You know the one I mean. It starts, 'It's not you, it's me...'

This is the first book of a well-loved series. I'd been looking forward to reading it and yet, two hours in to an eleven and a half hour audiobook, I'm setting it aside.

I can see why it's so well-loved. It combines a complex magic system with linked but parallel worlds and adds larger-than-life characters, a magician with the title of a Prince but the mark of stolen memories and a sense of being a valued Royal possession and a young woman, living by her wits in a hostile world. Both have restless yearnings in their souls and secrets in their past and there's is an implicit show more contract to connect them as the story continues

So what's not to like?

My problem started with the narrator. Steven Crossley delivers the book in the slow, even, slightly condescending tones of an unamused adult reading 'Wind In The Willows' to a child not their own. He sounds bored, so how am I supposed to feel?

Then there's the pacing. I'm two hours in and everything has been set up and slightly chaotic data-ladened set up at that. Yes, there's been one attempted rape and a killing but there was very little fire in either. This is a book that says to the reader, 'Make yourself comfortable, this is going to take a while'. Sometimes, I love that but not this time.

Next, there's the tone. It all feels a bit too safe and tame. The kind of adventure imagined by someone who has never had anything bad happen to them. Which is fine. Like I said, 'It's not you, it's me...' but the title led me to expect something darker.

Finally, there's the London thing. Or rather, there isn't. This could be Xanadu and it would make no difference. There's no sense of London here. I don't just mean the geography, I mean the sense of a city that has always used the weak and consumed the over-ambitious while feeding the powerful few. Nothing wrong with a well-imagined Xanadu but why call it London?

These little dissatisfactions are like having sand in my shoes, they take the pleasure out of walking. So I'm going to stop for now. Maybe I'll come back to an e-book version when I'm feeling young and light-hearted but, the way the world is right now, that's not going to be anytime soon. show less

Not a bad book, and I see why it was popular, but...
I had about 3 false starts with this since a copy found its way onto my shelves. Sometimes that ends up well, the timing just not being quite right to really dive headlong into a book at first. More often, its just a sign that a book isn't going to grab me at all. Unfortunately the latter was the case here. The world itself is a interesting creation. The four London's how they interact, various subsets of magic. I could have stood for quite a bit more, or more detailed, worldbuilding in fact. Maybe more about how the London's interact historically, more about the broader worlds than *just* the city, maybe more about the magic itself because I feel like we barely got information on show more two-ish types of magic, and even that tended to be pretty repetitive and brief. The characters themselves just weren't that interesting to me. Not their interpersonal conflicts, their internal conflicts, or the conflicts with the broader world/the plot. It also felt a surprisingly light and fast read for its length and the type of fantasy setting I assumed I was in for. It almost felt like I was watching a tv show or movie...the pacing, the surface level details of the world, the repetitive nature of a lot of the magic, the not exactly flat but fairly uninteresting characters. And maybe I was? It seems as though a pilot script for pitching at least was written by the author either around the same time as or withing less than a year of the book. Maybe that was the plan all along...make something that can be used to supplement a pitch and tie-in to sales if/when the movie or show gets made. I'm speculating...it could also just be someone who's strength *is* writing for the screen writing a novel instead? Anyway, I'll skip the rest of the series, and unless they end up free at some point, probably anything else by Schwab. But this could very well be to your, and is in many cases to someone else's, tastes. show less

TOR books gives away a free book from their back catalog every month. I like being on their list because I can catch up on writers I don't know. V.E. Schwab is one of those writers.

It took me a couple of chapters to get into "A Darker Shade of Magic" but once I got oriented to the Red, Grey, White, Black multiverse London, Ms Schwab's excellent storytelling kicked in.

The book was published in 2015 is followed by two following books with others rumored to be in the works. You can find the plotline on your own.

What struck me more than anything else about the writing is that Kell and Delilah are equals, gendered but equal. There interaction is glorious without being aggressive. There is no "Look at me I am a free agent woman", or "Look at show more me, I am a good man." No, they are two people who have adventures and face dangers together without making a fuss over gender or sexuality. It's way cool.

If you are reading this review you are interested in this book. I think that it will be worth the investment of your time and money.

I received a review copy of "A Darker Shade of Magic" by V. E. Schwab (TOR) directly from the publisher. show less

I don't know where to begin! I read about this book on io9 in the must reads of 2015 and preordered a copy on my iPhone on the spot! I love magic, and the premise was intriguing. This book surpassed every expectation and every piece of speculative praise I found. I devoured it reading even small segments at a time whenever I had the chance because I could not leave the world behind! I dreamt of Kell's coat, of the daring Delilah Bard and the murderous Danes. I am dying for more of this world. It could not be so easy, I cannot wait for more for their surely is!

Yes, V. E. Schwab first published A Darker Shade of Magic in 2015, and it helped make Ms. Schwab popular with the crowd of fantasy readers. For whatever reason, I never got around to reading it back then. But with the new series set in the same world set to release later this year, it was the perfect time to finally this series.

I went into it cold. I knew Kel had an unusual coat - because that is one of the more popular opening lines in the book world - but that was all. I was essentially a Shades of Magic virgin, knowing nothing more than what the synopsis told me, and I'm glad of it.

Because I had no expectations or any ideas of what was to come, I could let A Darker Shade of Magic sweep me up into its different worlds instead of show more looking for things I read about in reviews. The different Londons and the characters deserve your full attention, and I was able to give mine to them.

Ms. Schwab always creates the most fascinating characters, so it did not surprise me that Kell, Lila, and even Holland are as vibrant and well-developed as they are. Kell is the sweetest hero I've discovered in a long time. He may have some hang-ups about his patronage, and he may have killed others in his past. Yet, I only see a person who loves what he does and wants no conflict. I'm sure Ms. Schwab only scratched the surface regarding Kell's personality and past in this book, just as I'm sure I will discover if my initial assessment is correct in the rest of the series.

Lila is, by far, my favorite character in the book. In my notes, I describe her as a spitfire, and I love her for it. I love that she charges ahead despite her fear, that she doesn't rely on others for protection, and that she so fiercely seeks her independence within society. I know that there is so much more I don't know about her, and she is the one character about whom I cannot wait to learn more.

Some books only have great characters, but A Darker Shade of Magic is not one of those books. It also has a great story and fantastic world-building. Ms. Schwab's world-building is always excellent, and her different Londons are so clear they practically pop off the page. The pacing allows for a good balance between development and action. As for the mystery which sets Kell off on his scramble between Londons and introduces us to Lila, it kept me guessing until the end. I had no idea where the story was going or what answers we would discover.

A Darker Shade of Magic is one of those books that seemingly has it all. The characters make your heart ache or cheer out loud in triumph. Its mystery keeps you guessing. The different worlds are so well-developed that even the poorest imagination can envision them. And there is enough action to sate the bloodthirstiest reader. As with Kell's magic coat, I know there are many more layers to uncover in this series, and I'm excited to do just that. show less