The story of Kell, Rhy, Lila, and Alucard Emery comes to a close in A Conjuring of Light as a dark spell from Black London is cast over Red London. The novel picks up on the cliffhanger ending of A Gathering of Shadows so mild spoilers in this review are likely. This dark spell soon reveals itself to be magic come to life, a magical automaton who takes the name Osaron. This creature seeks to become king and supplant Rhy and Kell’s parents. Unfortunately, Kell is not in Red London, he was “convinced” by his rival Holland that he should go to White London which results in Kell’s magical link to Rhy placing all things, including the young prince’s life, in a precarious balance.
Londons fall and kingdoms rise while darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire, and the fraught balance of magic blossoms into dangerous territory while heroes struggle. The direct sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, and the final book in the Shades of Magic epic fantasy series, A Conjuring of Light sees the newly minted New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab reach a thrilling conclusion concerning the fate of beloved protagonists—and old foes.
Early on in A Conjuring of Light, that precarious balance comes through very powerfully through the short chapters conveying the chaos of the novel. It felt as if Schwab was doing a balancing act in those chapters, but an artful balancing act like a dancer on their toes in tune to a beautiful, yet breathless, symphony. What makes this such a beautiful chaos is that the chapters have their own voice, it is easy enough to immediately determine who is the focal character, be it Kell, Alucard, or Lila, for example. The short chapters made for quick, frantic consumption of the novel.
Like many fantasy Sagas (and make no doubt about it, the Shades of Magic series is undoubtedly a big old honkin’ Saga), the world is threatened by a powerful evil as the series draws near. Schwab plays this to the hilt, but with such a fantastic tinkering of the Dark Lord theme that it is barely noticeable how well she’s playing in familiar territory. Osaron is the literal personification of Dark Magic, something that has been building through the first two novels in the series. That dark power comes to a bombastic head when the Dark Magic gains sentience and powerfully tries to exert its own will on others.
Getting to the heart of what makes this book work so well in and of itself and in the context of the trilogy, it boils down to V.E. Schwab’s masterful hand at character and plot and her ability to weave those two essential story ingredients into one whole delicious meal. Like a well-planned multi-course meal, a lot of what drives the success is the pacing and throughout the majority of the novel, especially the early portions of A Conjuring of Light, worked perfectly.
One of my favorite themes when done well is to see characters who were enemies for a considerable portion of the story come together to fight a common enemy to both. Holland had been the antagonist for much of the story in the previous volumes, almost a darker version of Kell himself. We get to see more of his character, some of his underlying motivations and while they aren’t pleasant, his actions based on his past are at least somewhat understandable even though they negatively impact Kell and company. Schwab crafted the relationship between Kell and Holland so strongly in the previous two volumes that having them form an extremely uneasy alliance in A Conjuring of Light was very rewarding as it played to the strengths of what she built in the previous two novels in the series.
What sums up the success of this concluding volume, and the trilogy as a whole is my expression upon finishing. I could feel a satisfied, uncontrollable grin growing on my face, content with where these characters found themselves, how they earned the ending the fought for throughout. The milieu of these books is so rich, so varied and lively with fascinating nooks and crannies that there seems to be so much more to explore. The satisfying ending could lead to some of that exploration, for sure. I
The Shades of Magic series is secondary world Epic fantasy at its inventive best – the world has echoes of familiarity, but with wonderful and ingenious injections of originality from a writer with a powerfully, magnetic voice. V.E. Schwab has proven that Epic Fantasy need not be set in a world with strong echoes of Medieval Europe and that Epic Fantasy need not focus on a Farm Boy hero to save the world from the Dark Lord. Heroes come in different shapes, ages and sizes and worlds of a different variant (and multiple worlds within a milieu!) need saving. This series is populated with characters who explode off the page, characters who change and grow without losing the core of who they are when readers are initially drawn to them. They fit their roles, but in ways those roles haven’t quite been played in the genre before. Taken as a whole, The Shades of Magic saga is a fantastic, highly recommendable series.
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
Shades of Magic, Book 3 , February 2017
Hardcover, 624 Pages
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Excerpt http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/23/ve-schwab-conjuring-light-cover
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
