Hardcover, 400 pages
English language
Published Dec. 25, 2015 by Tor.
STEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.
Kell is one of the last travelers--magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes connected by one magic city.
There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king--George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered--and where Kell was raised alongside Rhy Maresh, the roguish heir to a flourishing empire. White London--a place where people fight to control magic and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.
Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh Empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. …
STEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.
Kell is one of the last travelers--magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes connected by one magic city.
There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king--George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered--and where Kell was raised alongside Rhy Maresh, the roguish heir to a flourishing empire. White London--a place where people fight to control magic and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.
Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh Empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cutpurse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.
This description comes from the publisher. A Darker Shade of Magic is the first book of the Shades of Magic trilogy.
Even I didn't know at first I got hooked with the main characters and the possibilities the world(s) the author created, is an fast and easy read (even though it took me a while). I can easily recommend this to anyone how likes fantasy novels, but I'm gonna wait until I read the entire saga, the next book is already on its way.
Phu,
I had issues with this book when i read it the first time, that's why i never picked up the second one afterwards. But on second readthrough, the issues became more hard to ignore.
This feels like an adult book, with YA characters. and that did not work for me at all. So many things in this book felt "meh" or just were "plot convenient". Especially the middle of the book had a ton of fillers, that were unnecessary and could have been removed. Just unnecessary blow up.
But if I would have liked the characters, i think i would not have cared, but for me the characters were so stereotype-y that i was very bored and felt they were very annoying? So, it really wasn't my case.
The good parts are the dane twins, and the bloody parts. I also loved the aesthetic of the world building and …
Phu,
I had issues with this book when i read it the first time, that's why i never picked up the second one afterwards. But on second readthrough, the issues became more hard to ignore.
This feels like an adult book, with YA characters. and that did not work for me at all. So many things in this book felt "meh" or just were "plot convenient". Especially the middle of the book had a ton of fillers, that were unnecessary and could have been removed. Just unnecessary blow up.
But if I would have liked the characters, i think i would not have cared, but for me the characters were so stereotype-y that i was very bored and felt they were very annoying? So, it really wasn't my case.
The good parts are the dane twins, and the bloody parts. I also loved the aesthetic of the world building and the magic. But it just wasn't enough?
It also did not mature well with time. A lot of things have been done so much better by now, that it just does not feel original anymore. And a lot of the tropes just became very bland over time.
It's a good book, if you have read YA and are now searching for books to get into adult fantasy. And it's a good book, if you like stylistic characters and like comic inspired characters. But if you look for something deeper and more fleshed out, this is not the book to go.
