A Darker Shade of Magic

I enjoyed my time, definitely not in love quite yet though. I understood the first half of the book was about character and world building, and I have no issue with that, particularly because I thought the whole journey with taking the stone to Black London was going to be the whole three books, and so I was a bit taken back with the speed of the second half.

The first half nothing was really happening, I didn’t know what the story was, and then that Holland bloke shows up and the story and proper conflict actually begins, and it was a pretty good time.

But then Kell kills him, which was quite anti-climactic. There was clearly some history between them, and I figured again he was going to be the main protagonist throughout. And to be honest all of the antagonist deaths felt quite anti-climactic, there was some kind of fight where Kell gets his ass kicked, but then he pulls one quick move and insta-kills his enemy.

(I would have liked something on Holland and Kell before this story, even a whole book about Holland and their relationship so when he’s chasing Kell down there’s two types of tension. That would have explained more so why he didn’t just kill Kell, and his death would have made more sense, as Kell said something like he saw the move coming and allowed it.)

I’m not used to my main protagonists being as weak as Kell (physically/power level or whatever) which was different. He’s obviously strong willed which I think is a key ingredient to making any likeable character, so that’s good. But yeah he really got the shit kicked out of him pretty easily.

Also didn’t really understand how the magic actually works? I think I get it now after I’ve read the book but it would have been nicer to understand what Kell could do when he was in a conflict, so I could have weigh up his options and chance of survival. Before he got into a fight I didn’t even know if he could fight with his magic.

People with magic - Can manipulate elements, water, earth, wind. Some can manipulate bone which is hell powerful, Kell does blood stuff, but in battles he was suddenly moving metal around which seemed to come out of nowhere, would have been nice to know he could do that (unless I just wasn’t paying attention I guess).

The guards being controlled against their will was really cool (In Red London), but then again Lila just kills that guard boy with no issue. I felt like that should have gone on for a bit, she’s trying to fight him and subdue him but can’t and has no choice but to end his life. I mean I guess she was in a rush but still. Kid was hardly a defence, just a mild inconvenience with no negative repercussions from killing him (which still could come of course, perhaps some moral struggles with Lila, but it didn’t seem that way at the end of the book).

Also are we supposed to understand how the London’s work? There’s 4 different worlds, and the London’s are where they overlap. So if you want to travel between worlds London is the only place you can? Am I right/on the right path or completely wrong?

The biggest positives were definitely the main characters.

I liked Lila, quite enjoyed the relationship between her and Kell, I like their dynamic, and I do look forward to seeing them cross paths again.

I also liked the relationship between Lila and the bloke who owns the pub (Bard?) that Holland killed.

Overall I like Kell and Lila and even Rhy as main characters, which is probably the most important part.

I’m going to give a break before I start the next one though, just got a whole manga set from a geezer off of marketplace so I’ll go through a couple of those before I get back into it.