Bookish Thoughts

VE Schwab is a master story-teller. Her books are always fun and twisty and unexpected. Everyone in this book was a monster in one way or another. I barely knew who to root for. But I loved reading about all of them and the havoc they wreaked. The sequel to Vicious once again has Victor and Eli locked in competition, but with a few new twists. Eli is trapped in a prison cell reminiscent of Magneto's in the X-Men movies. Victor is slowly dying from his power and looking for a cure. And there's a new EO on the scene: Marcella. She starts out seeking revenge on her husband for killing her, then decides to take over his position in the local crime syndicate before her insatiable ambition has her climbing ever higher. Everyone wants to stop her, but everyone has their own idea about how to do it. This book also introduces June, a shape shifter assassin who comes to care about Sydney and is trying to extract her from Victor's influence, which is a whole lot harder than it sounds....

Vicious is a classic superhero origin story. Victor and Eli were college roommates who discovered how to give themselves super powers. Then they had a falling out. And ten years later they're circling back towards each other for an epic confrontation. The only thing this super hero story is missing is a superhero. Because Victor and Eli are both very much villains. It's a fun twist that lets the story go to some dark and outlandish places. Since Victor and Eli both have such skewed moral compasses, they're both capable of some pretty outlandish things. And since both believes that the other one is much worse, they're determined to come out on top. The jumping timelines and complete cast of morally compromised characters made this a really fun read.

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...