Review: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
In short: Decent read, a bit shallow.
A Darker Shade of Magic is a blood-fuelled piece of fantasy set in parallel worlds and filled to the brim with magic. It is the first book in the Shades of Magic series, and when I say blood-fuelled, I don’t mean it as in Game of Thrones-style, I mean it as in “the main character is a blood mage”-style.
The story revolves around Kell, an Antari, a dying breed of mages capable of using blood itself for their magic, rather than the more traditional elements of earth, water, air, fire and bone. Blood magic is the only way to travel between the parallel worlds, and so Kell naturally runs correspondence between the rulers of each world, as well as doing a bit of smuggling on the side, giving him ample opportunity to fuck up and endanger his home. Which is precisely what happens when he ends up in possession of a mysterious stone. The book is rife with descriptions of the magic and its seductive nature, and well establishes that fact by showing how it affects Kell and to a lesser extent Lila, the other POV-character with more than just a couple of chapters from her view.
The entire story takes place within the city of London, or rather three different versions of it, and great care is taken to distinguish them all from each other but there are only a few mentions of the world(s) outside these cities, and for the purposes of the story they might as well not exist at all. Kell acts the messenger between the three different Londons’ rulers, but it is never mentioned if any other rulers in the world(s) need messages sent to other worlds or if they have their own Antari to do so which feels a bit like an oversight what with how rare Antari are said to be.
I really want to like this story. I really do. But it does not live up to all the praise covering the back. It’s not a bad story. The writing is actually pretty good; I was smiling on the first page. The humour hits its mark when it appears. However, once the introductions were complete, the excitement fizzles and it never seems to recover. It didn’t bore me, but it also didn’t make me want to keep reading it. The book promises adventures throughout the different Londons, possibly some wacky hijinks, and none ever really show up. The story only covers a few days and for taking place during such a short time there is little change in pace in the actual writing – even during the climax there is a lack of urgency.
The magic is lovely, but what we see of the three Londons I can only describe as minimalistic; no images pop into mind when I read the descriptions, leaving anything that does stand out surrounded by white (which, incidentally, could make for some stunning visuals in another medium and meshes well with the book’s cover). Another aspect of the worldbuilding that was disappointing is the language. All of the languages we see spoken seem to have much the same structure as English. Which isn’t exactly a problem as it all takes place in some version of England, but more distinct languages would have been nice. As it is, only the look of the words distinguishes the languages from each other. White London for example is ruled by the Dane twins, one of whom is named Astrid, and has its own language, however the first sentence of the language we read is a word-for-word translation of the English phrase it translates to. It’s not a huge deal, but for a language nerd like myself it is a bit immersion-breaking.
As for the main characters… My immediate thoughts on Kell went two places; fan-fiction, and anime. Anime for his appearances, fanfiction simply because of the initially snarky narration. None of which is necessarily a bad thing, but he doesn’t really reach my “I love this main character” folder. He doesn’t really reach any folder but “undecided”. Meanwhile, Lila is presented as a clever survivor of Grey London’s seedy underbelly (as is expected of a thief), but she carries with her an Idiot Ball on more than one occasion which is a bit jarring considering her character’s experiences. Some of it can be explained by her lust for adventure, but she really needs to be smarter around magic. And I really have to question the part in her second appearance where she almost gets raped. It had no impact on her character even though she trusted her would-be-rapist enough to leave her door unlocked! It served only to get her out of her pre-story status quo. If the point was to show off how she can take care of herself, there is plenty of trouble a thief could get into that still leaves ample room for badassery. As it is, it feels cheap.
Neither Kell nor Lila were unlikeable, but somehow I still find myself being more interested in the various side characters and learning more about them. Unfortunately my favourite died. And, just to contradict myself, the book ends with a pretty high body count for the amount of characters in it.
The book very much feels like a pilot episode, so I am actually going to purchase and read the second one in the future. The book did not grab me or turn me into a fan, but it was a quick and easy read (owing to its very modern feel writing-wise) set in an interesting, if underdeveloped, world and there were plenty of hints of future twists and mysteries to be solved. I would also go so far as to say that it has the feel of a Young Adult book, rather than one intended for an older audience which it apparently is.
I would recommend this book if you like fantasy with heavy emphasis on magic and more focus on the characters rather than the world. But on the whole it just feels a bit… unfinished.
