Bookish Thoughts

This whole trilogy was just amazing. A lot of that is thanks to Lila, one of the best characters I've encountered in years. Bu Schwab really does an amazing job of balancing character and plot and exposition. Of building up to exciting events and paying off her foreshadowing. Of teasing out all the different relationships between her characters. Of not letting anything be easy. The second book ended on a terrible cliffhanger, and this one wastes no time jumping right back into the action. Schwab expands her points of view to include nearly every character with a stake in the outcome, allowing for all sorts of tension to build up just in the first hundred pages. And beyond that, the book keeps the excitement up. Old enemies have to find ways to work together. People form new alliances and friendships and fall in love and get way too wrapped up in duty. Schwab really has a gift for giving each of her characters a unique motivation and setting them up to bounce off each other and ...

The second Shades of Magic book starts off a lot slower than the first one did. It takes it's sweet time getting to the action, choosing instead to spend time with Kell and Lila. They haven't seen each other since the events of the previous book, four months earlier, and they're doing their best not to think of each other. Lila has found a place aboard a pirate ship as thief and is starting to learn more about magic. Kell is trying to win back the trust of the king and queen. This book also spends a lot more time with Rhy, which was a nice surprise. It was fun to get inside his head and get to know him better. And also to get his perspective on Kell. The centerpiece of the book is competition for magicians, which helps keep the peace between the three main empires. It's a lot of fun and seems relatively low stakes, even with Kell and Lila both sneaking their way into the competition. It's a spectacle and a fun way to flesh out the world, while also bringing Kell...

This was a really fun book with a take on parallel dimensions that I hadn't quite encountered before. Rather than two or infinite parallel dimensions, there are four. They have a common city, London, in which people with certain magical abilities can travel between the different worlds. Kell is a diplomat based in Red London, the most balanced and prosperous of the worlds. He's also a smuggler, moving contraband between the worlds for a price, a habit that lands him in deep trouble. Kell's interesting, and just young enough that his mistakes are understandable. But the real star of the show is Lila, an orphan turned thief who is sure that she's meant for a bigger, more exciting life. She convinces Kell to smuggle her across the border, and ends up having the adventure of a lifetime. Even with the constant threat of death, it's exactly what she's always wanted. I was surprised by how well the story wrapped up, and even more surprised when Kell and Lila actual...