A Darker Shade of Magic

Short Review: This is multiverse historical fantasy centered around victorian London that exists in four worlds all with different understandings of magic. The concept is good. The characters are decent, but a little flat in the first book (the second is out, the third comes out in Feb 2017).

The story is straight forward and maybe a bit too simple on its face. I enjoyed it as I was reading (I alternated between the audiobook and the kindle book), but after I am finished and sat with it for a week, it seems more fluff. There is a quest to return an evil magical object that wants to destroy the three good Londons but the actual resolution was mostly a series of fights.

There is some moral quandaries about if and how dark magic can be used to save others and/or destroy dark magic. But they exploration of them is too simple at least in this first book.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/darker-shade-of-magic/