A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. SchwabMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well constructed and hugely entertaining, this is a great novel and a wonderful start to a series.
I can't explain how a beautiful signed copy from Phoenix Comicon languished on my TBR pile for 5 years. Maybe I just needed to wait for the right time... But from the moment I opened it, I enjoyed every page. In case you don't know, this is as good as you've heard.
Lila's a great character--tough, uncompromising, and kinda trouble, but with enough human kindness to be a hero rather than an anti-hero. I liked her. And Kell is both admirable and flawed, just as you'd wish in a MC. Their relationship [mildly spoilery, but just barely] so far follows a nice arc that isn't forced, that doesn't rush, and leaves lots of room for sequels.
Well done.
The setting is a character on its own--four versions of London, each in a world quite different from the others. Able to move between these different worlds, these different Londons, Kell is the center of the story in many ways. He is at once the risk to the worlds' stability and the hope for their future. That's an interesting place to set the story, metaphorically and literally, and the author makes the most of it.
The plot moves quickly, and the writing is brilliant and expressive, but what impressed me most about both was the clarity of the author's prose. The plot is sufficiently complex that a reader might get tangled up, but I never felt like I was struggling to make sense of the worlds Lila and Kell passed through or laboring to understand how events fit together. V.E. Schwab put it together with such care and precision that the story fairly flew by without conscious effort on my part--which is how I like it. :)
Recommended for readers of fantasy, especially those who accidentally buried it in their TBR pile. Dig it out.
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