Not everyone gets along and they can’t just avoid them, they need each other to get a job done. This adds some realistic tension to the unreal world – but also some very appreciated humour as well. But then Rhy loves Alucard who Kell absolutely despises. Some characters love each other, brothers Kell and Rhy are close as two brothers could be. What was really enjoyable about the book, is the very fractious relationships between the main characters. But for some reason the break made me pause, perhaps because I thought Lila primarily a thief, rather than the accomplished magician she was becoming. If I had read this book immediately after that one, I think it wouldn’t have seemed so out of place. She of course races off to find Kell and (minor spoiler) gets him back. We ended in the last book at the end of the massive magician tournament where the delightful and vicious Lila Bard had competed. I first thought that this was the strange bit, that didn’t quite fit, but in reflection it did make sense. So the plot picks up just as A Gathering of Shadows left off – Kell captured and Osaron off to capture Red London. His story also needed time to coalesce, as well as stories of all the main protagonists. Rather than just being the super powerful, seemingly impossible to defeat, Osaron has his own flaws, arrogance and needs that make him powerful, but not omnipotent. Otherwise, the insurmountable task of defeating the main baddie would seem too easy and assured.Īnd that, I think, was what sets this book far apart from many other books – in that it gives the resident baddie his own issues and internal conflict. And perhaps, given the scale of the problem that the characters have to face, the length felt like it was needed. However, the worry was for not, it was just as pacey and enjoyable as the first two in the Shades of Magic series. Clocking in at an absolutely delightful 666 pages, I was ready to like it but not love it like the previous books. Through my previous reading adventures, I had become suspicious of 500+ page books because of the amount of padding that is usually involved (and pointless subplots that go nowhere). A conjuring of light by V E Schwab is about twice as long as either of the previous books, A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows, which worried me a bit.

Conjuring of light