★★★☆☆ There might be better to come...

A Darker Shade of magic

V. E. Schwab

I was a little disappointed by Victoria Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, the first novel of her Shades of Magic trilogy, but only a little, because it felt to me like the beginning of a story with yet-to-be-fulfilled promise.

Darker Shade (and presumably the entire trilogy) takes place in a world in which there are four versions of Earth: Grey (ours), Red, White, and Black. Although these are quite different from each other, each of them has a version of London. (London is special in this way -- other world-famous cities don't exist in parallel in the same way.) All the universes have magic, though the magic in Grey London is so attenuated as to be imperceptible for ordinary purposes.

Our principle protagonist is a native of Red London named Kell. He is an Antari, that is a magical person. (Magic in this story is of the Harry Potter variety, where only those born with the power can do it, rather than the Rivers of London variety, where anyone willing to put in the work can learn it.) Most Red Londoners have some magical ability, but Antari are exceptionally powerful. For one thing, they can make doorways from one universe to another. Thus, Kell serves the royal family of Red London as an ambassador to those of Grey and White London. (Black London is on a dead world.) There's a big magical fight, which, to avoid spoiling, I won't tell you anything about.

Kell, honestly, is just not very interesting.

There is, however, a second protagonist. She's a Grey London thief named Delilah (Lila) Bard. She is introduced as a run-of-the-mill picaro. By the end of the novel, however, it has become obvious that there is more to Lila than meets the eye. I found Lila more fun than Kell and plan to continue reading in order to follow her further development.

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