A Darker Shade of Magic

Synopsis:

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…

Summary:

An amazing fantasy world filled with magic, mystery and betrayal set across three different Londons, with the fourth having been consumed by the magic that now threatens the safety of the remaining cities.

My thoughts:

This book has definitely been one of my highlights of this year. Compelling and gripping, I just couldn’t put it down as Kell’s and Lila’s story unfolded. To have such a huge story set in not one but four Londons is insane yet V.E Schwab pulls it off brillantly so that the world that she has created isn’t too overwhelming as can be the shortfall of many fantasy novels.

Kell is an extremely dynamic character. Not only a servant and adopted son to the Royal Family of Red London, he is an Antari or Blood Magician. A prominent race that is now rare after the backlash that ensued after the fall of Black London.  Antari are the only people that have the ability to travel between worlds as well as containing a constant source of magic in their blood, a much craved ability and source of magic for those residing in White London.

Holland is the only other remaining Blood Magician who acts as consort for the Dane Twins, the tyrannical duo controlling and tormenting White London through their own cruel perversions of magic. Both are like two sides of a coin, Kell is daring yet compassionate and has a generally good moral compass whereas Holland has a very distorted moral compass(courtesy of the Dane Twins) but damn is he a good villain, even if I do feel sympathetic towards him and his fate.

Lila is our other protagonist. She’s as bold as brass for a young girl braving the streets and trying to carve a new life for herself, preferably as a pirate with her own ship. Lila resides in Grey London and much like everyone else in her world(collectors not included) doesn’t know anything about magic outside the taboo whisperings of Black London but a chance meeting with Kell soon blows everything wide open. Lila’s head is already full of longing for exploring her own world and the lands beyond become a swirling storm of prospects. There are other worlds and altogether they sound all the more exotic. One of my favourite quotes from her being:

“I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”

Kell and Lila are both feisty and compelling in their own right, Kell being driven by purpose, Lila driven by adventure, wanderlust but also survival. Something that connects them as the story unfolds and they struggle to fight off the evil that stalks them around every corner. The evil being a mix of something very deadly – the bad magic that destroyed London which threatens to creep into the remaining Londons which as you expect would be catastrophic, and those that would have them killed.

The plot has many layers – magic, betrayal, politics, danger and excellent magical fight scenes so there really is something for everyone but no tangent or theme overshadows the other and I feel like the book as a whole is incredibly well balanced and fast-paced. We switch from viewpoint to viewpoint and the story never falters as a result, each character has their own fair share of problems that give us the suspense and action we need.

Each scene is expertly choreographed to the letter and it left me gripping the pages so hard and wishing I could read faster and often resulted in my silent squealing whenever ‘Kell and Holland’ or ‘the Dane Twins’ appeared on the pages.

Final Thoughts:

“Word of mouth was its own kind of magic.”

ADSOM is a brilliantly captivating fantasy world filled with intriguing and not-soon-forgotten characters that will ignite your imagination, your wanderlust and then some. I for one am ridiculously excited that this is to be part of a series which I’m expecting will be the next best fantasy series since Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician series.