strange and random happenstance

A Conjuring of Light by V.E.Schwab
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: February 21st, 2017
Format: Paperback, 624 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Osaron, the oshoc, the demon made of magic that destroyed Black London escaped his prison using Holland. The Antari thought it was a chance for his world to thrive, instead it was Osaron's chance to become a God again, but not in Holland's dying London, in the vital London, in Red London. Arnes is ripe with magic and the Isle pulses with power and within minutes of his arrival Osaron has the city bowing at his feet. Those who do not submit to his insinuating call will be killed. The Isle turns black and a thick fog creeps through the streets. In the palace the competitors are celebrating the end of the Essen Tasch. Soon those competitors and their entourages will be the only people not under Osaron's spell. The priests of the London Sanctuary place wards all around the Soner Rast in an effort to keep out Osaron's influence and for the moment it is holding. But a plan needs to be formed before people get desperate. Having so many loyal supplicants Osaron abandons Holland and Kell thinks this new prisoner of the crown could work as a lure to destroy the oshoc. Their first attempt fails, Osaron showing far more interest in this new Antari then his previous Antari vessel. That interest makes Kell, Holland, and Lila realize that perhaps they are the only way to destroy him, along with a device rumored to be capable of draining and transferring magic. A device that was last seen on a floating black market, a market that might just hold the true key to defeating Osaron. While the three Antari go in search of their best hope against Osaron, the King, the Aven Essen, the Prince, the Veskans, the Faroans, and the competitors all attempt their own plans to beat Osaron. Whose plan will work? Because with these stakes failure equals death.

And we come to the end. For now. With much fanfare but without much satisfaction for this reader. The Big Bad is banished but instead of tying all the threads together to give us any kind of closure we are given a repetitive book with way too much death. Thought you might learn where Kell came from and the history of that knife with the "KL" on it? Think again and have a few competitors from the Essen Tasch die needlessly. Hoping to learn the history of Lila's false eye? Wait in vain as Schwab describes something with the exact same wording ten or more times over the course of a few chapters oh and here's Alucard's beloved sister dead on the floor of his ship. I'm not saying that this book was Red Wedding levels of death, oh, who am I kidding, I am SO saying it's Red Wedding levels of death. The thing is, this series has never shied away from death and brutality, but this all felt so needless, so out of left field. Just a few pages in with the previous Essen Tasch victor Kisimyr flaking away as she is reduced to ash had me appalled. Shock value is good, but there's a point where it's no longer shocking and I stopped bracing myself for the next death because I became numb and indifferent after Ojka, Jinnar, Calla, Anisa, Lenos, Hastra, on and on, so much death. I seriously believe now that A Gathering of Shadows was written to give us all these characters we'd come to love only to kill them off in A Conjuring of Light. I didn't back anyone to survive because of this cavalier attitude where everyone was fair game. And that's where my problem lies. Schwab doesn't give us a single beat to mourn these characters. The book is constantly pushing the narrative forward and when the survivors make it to the end they want to put everything behind them and move on, never taking the time to grieve. If the author doesn't show sympathy for her own creations how are we as readers supposed to care about their demise? It lessens the impact of the story and for me it made me not care.

So while I came to really enjoy the beginning of this series the second time around I just can not get behind A Conjuring of Light. It's not just this mass slaughter that had me disengaging from the book but the fact that it felt so different to A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows that it didn't feel a part of the overall series. In the first book we basically have two POVs, in the second we have a little more than double that, but here it's a free for all, every character ever gets their chance. All these different characters getting stories doesn't just pull focus away from our central characters, it dilutes the reader's connection to the story. Here's King Maxim, here's Queen Emira, here's a guard you've maybe heard of once before... I get that Schwab wanted to expand her universe, but this was too much too soon. Resolve what you've already started and then build off that. Don't use the conclusion of one story as a starting off point for a ton more. Yes, Schwab has built this great universe, but new people and new powers left and right seriously did not help defeat Osaron. Well, maybe Dracula's did... OK, Alucard. But here's the thing, WTF is up with Alucard!?! All of a sudden out of left field he has the ability to "see" magic!?! And EVERYONE knew about it!?! This was too convenient, too much of a deus ex machina. So Alucard could have told Lila the second he met her she was Antari because of her "magical aura" and being able to see this "aura" leads him to an artifact on the floating black market that makes all the difference in the battle against Osaron!?! Really!?! I mean, REALLY!?! The LEAST Schwab could have done is started to hint at this in the previous volume, instead it was yet another WTF moment of incredulity. I really, I just can't anymore with this book.

The books ONLY saving grace amongst the din of trying to balance all these characters like plates in the air was Holland, the White London Antari. I've always felt sorry for Holland because no matter how good his intentions he always ends up being screwed. Here we get even more of his story, badly typeset by someone who thought it would look "cool" to have his flashbacks different than the rest of the book's copy. He has suffered loss after loss and still he just wants to save his home. He is willing to give up his freedom, to put a cage around his own identity if his London will thrive. This is epic stuff, showing that Holland is the true hero of the series. What's more it leads into an important discourse on freedom. So many of our characters are trapped, Kell by the crown, Rhy by his perceived inadequacies, Alucard by his family, Lila by her station, each and every person we come in contact with has a prison. Some of these prisons are of their own making, some aren't, but that feeling of being trapped is universal. They are all searching for some kind of freedom and their battle against Osaron is able to highlight their struggles both big and small. I think this, more than anything else in the series, is where I connect. Even though I don't currently live in a prison, I have cages of my own making. Obligations, some real, some I force on myself that I struggle with daily. If I could physically and psychologically remove these burdens, I just wonder, what does it feel like to be free? I can't be the only one reading this book and wondering the same thing, and that's how this book just ever so slightly redeems itself, by holding up a mirror to which the readers can actually relate.

Though Queen Emira comes a close second in redeeming this book. I am of the age when everyone I know is either on the precipice of or already has kids. As I've gotten older I've realized that many of the things that make me me is why I could never have kids. I'm not talking the time, the lack of sleep, I'm talking the worry. I seriously worry about everything. I can grind my mind to a halt with "what ifs." Queen Emira admits she never wanted children. Her affinity is with water, ice, and ice breaks. Everything breaks. When she had Rhy she became terrified with worry, thinking about what could happen. The hurt, the pain, the possible death. All the wounds that could be inflicted on her son. These paralyze her and lead her to seeming cold, remote. She is so scared she basically turns herself into stone. The ice queen, hardening her heart because she feels too much. This would be me. I would never sleep, I would never rest, I would be there listening to every little breath my child took just to make sure nothing was wrong. I bought a baby monitor for my cat when he was sick, that's how stressed I get. Like freedom, this was another hard truth that was almost lost in the muddle of multiple character arcs and magical spells. While we readers love to read about things that can't happen and worlds that don't exist unless a book is grounded in something real then you can not emotionally invest, you can not just connect. So while my issues with this book are many and various, Schwab was able, in the quieter moments, to get at something true, and while I don't want to think about how I impose such walls around myself I have to acknowledge, like Emira, that they are there before I can hope to at the very least understand them before I can try to break them down.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Conjuring of Light, A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, A Storm of Swords, Antari, Cages, Children, GRRM, Holland, Magic, Osaron, Red London, Red Wedding, Regency Magic, V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E.Schwab
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: February 23rd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

In four months a lot can change. Lives have been lost. Lives have been changed. Rulers have fallen. Worlds are in flux. In Grey London the natural succession has occurred on the death of the mad king. But in White London power is what you need to rule, and that comes from a surprising and dangerous source. A source that almost destroyed Red London four months ago on the Black Night when the prince died and his life was tethered to Kell's and Lila Bard, going against all her instincts, helped save a world by putting her neck on the line. Since that night Kell is virtually a prisoner of the crown. If something happens to him Rhy's life is in danger and therefore Kell must never be in danger. Frustrated and ashamed at his part in that deadly night he trains and trains to be the weapon he needs to be to protect Rhy. Lila Bard is also training. That night showed her that she has powers. She might come from a London where magic is dead, but there is magic in her. Reluctantly she is learning from Captain Alucard Emery of The Night Spire. She initially wanted to steal his ship and lead the life of piracy she always dreamt of, but it dawned on her that she doesn't know the first thing about ships and this is a good way to learn. But she is becoming complacent. Life should never be comfortable or safe and when the ship returns to London for the Essen Tasch, a magical tournament between the countries of Arnes, Vesk, and Faro, she decides that like her captain, she wants to compete. The problem is the competitors list is set. So she needs to steal an identity... but little does she know that Kell is also competing under another identity. Juggling multiple identities and The Essen Tasch are such distractions that it might be too late before our heroes realize that Red London is in danger. Again.

A Darker Shade of Magic is such a frenetic book literally taking place over the span of hours the relatively languid pace of A Gathering of Shadows tripped me up. I felt like this book was almost unnecessary to the Shades of Magic series and was wondering if perhaps Tor had told Schwab that they were only interested in trilogies at the time she was selling the series and she turned a duology into something more by just having our characters drag their heels through "The Hunger Games: Red London Edition." But I'd really like to take that back now. The thing with time is that opinions often change. I have often wondered how many books that I disliked and therefore sold I would like if I read at a later time and then I'm gripped by the opposite of buyers remorse, sellers remorse. What if I just got rid of a book I'll love years from now!?! I try not to dwell on those thoughts but re-reading A Gathering of Shadows kind of triggered my sellers remorse because literally what a difference a year made with me and this book, and oddly enough it was literally almost a year to the day! What I found as hundreds of pages of nothing happening turned into a character study where I finally had the luxury of connecting to the characters in a different way. The Essen Tasch which I viewed as the dominate theme of the book was now just something to highlight our characters flaws and strengths, nothing more or less. All the issues I had with Rhy and Kell's relationship previously, while not fully assuaged, I at least got to see them together more and understand their connection versus just being told that they were close. New characters, backstories, wish fulfillment, all these concepts are explored and they gave the series a depth it lacked before. So seriously, I was hasty to judge, so sorry.

Though there is one character I grew to dislike with all this added time I got to spend with her and that's Lila Bard. Oh Lila, I have so many issues with you and the truth is, I shouldn't! When I was younger I dreamt of being a pirate, adding thief and magician on top of that would have made me the happiest girl in the world. But I do. I have so many issues. I think once I realized you were written more as the reluctant anti-heroine in the vein of Becky Sharp I understood you more, but I still don't like you. OK, let's talk about why I dislike Lila! She self-sabotages anything good in her life, be it her berth aboard The Night Spire, or her friendships, because if she feels the least bit safe she runs. Now that's more a problem for a psychiatrist and I can understand where she's coming from even if I'm yelling at her to stay. What my issue boils down to is how selfish she is. Yes she's had a hard upbringing but that doesn't give her the right to screw people over to get what she wants and that is exemplified by her assuming the identity of Stasion Elsor. Stasion Elsor is a man who presumably worked his ass off to compete for Arnes in the Essen Tasch. Of ALL the magicians in Arnes, and seeing as Red London is so magically rich there are a lot of people who could compete, he was selected as one of the twelve competitors. And Lila takes that all away from him because he has the same build as her and she just attacks him in an alley and ships him off to a penal colony! WTF! How is that acceptable? Even Alucard is like, that's too much. Yes, she is using this to push those who have gotten close to her away, but more importantly it shows that she thinks that she deserves whatever she can take. I'm just not OK with this. Becky Sharp at least got what was coming to her and I have a feeling Lila won't.

Yet oddly enough Lila isn't the character I had the most problems with, that would be her captain, Alucard. Here's the thing about creating names in a fantastical story, they have to be close enough to English that you know they're like a more magical version of everyday names but at the same time be easy to read and easy to say. I can still remember LONG before there was a Game of Thrones TV series I went to a George R. R. Martin book signing for A Feast of Crows and almost all the questions asked were how to pronounce character names. Because readers want to know what this new name sounds like. So that there is rule one and Alucard passes that one with flying colors. Rule two is that the name shouldn't make you think of someone else in another story because it will take you out of the narrative. Alice Cooper in the Archie Comics does this for me but I will be quick to point out that the singer Alice Cooper actually came later so it's not the Comics fault. This is where Alucard fails MISERABLY. Because do you know what Alucard is? It's freaking Dracula spelled backwards! WTF Schwab!?! While Schwab claims "YOU GUYS ALUCARD EMERY IS NOT A VAMPIRE. I DIDN'T REALIZE HIS NAME WAS DRACULA SPELLED BACKWARDS I JUST LIKED IT" I call foul. HOW can you look at the name Alucard and NOT see Dracula? Not to mention several books, even ones by my friend Paul Magrs, use Alucard as Dracula's "in disguise" name. I mean seriously!?! And not one editor went, hey Schwab, do you mean to be referencing a book that in your series chronology doesn't come out for another 77 years!?! I just don't get how NO ONE caught this. It's just so freaking obvious and EVERY SINGLE TIME I read his name I inwardly groan and am taken out of the book. At one point I even thought of given him another name to not annoy me, but that just seemed like too much work. But it was Westley if you're interested.

Though I think for me, at least the first time I read this book, the biggest disappointment was the lack of Grey London. Those sections just draw me in every time. There's something about seeing Kell, such a magical being, in this normal historical setting that captures my imagination. Seeing the opposite with Lila in Red London just isn't the same. She was outside the bounds of polite society in her London, never fitting in there, and she's actually attempting to fit into Red London so there's no real excitement to be had in the dichotomy. But I think this is just my desire to make this book more of a traditional Regency Magic book... I should embrace it for it's differences not lament it because I want to see what would happen if the Prince Regent tried to kidnap Kell and force him to do magic for him. And yes, I really really wanted that to happen. But this is just me wanting to be surrounded by the familiar because it gives me comfort and if anything is a comfort read to me it's firstly Jane Austen and secondly anything Regency Magic. On top of this my favorite character is Edward Archibald Tuttle III, AKA Ned. Perhaps this is because I relate most to Ned, and he'd be SO happy I was referring to him as Ned, because that means we're friends, and we are. He lives in this dark grey world and has always believed in magic and he was proven right. Here's someone I can relate to, someone I can love. What's odd to me is going back to Lila, she's the character we're supposed to relate to because she's from our world and we're following her on her adventure, but she has so many negative traits I can never connect to her. Now if Ned was the one who went on this adventure? Well, it might be more interesting... Lila is a survivor and has proven her mettle on the street time and time again so of course she'll succeed, but could Ned? Now I'd read the heck out of that!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Darker Shade of Magic, A Feast for Crows, A Gathering of Shadows, Becky Sharp, Dracula, George III, Grey London, GRRM, Paul Magrs, Pirates, Regency Magic, Shades of Magic, The Hunger Games, V.E. Schwab

Ever since I first did Regency Magic three years ago I have been determined to keep it going as long as I could. The problem is that, in my mind, not enough people are writing in this very niche genre, so authors, get on that won't you? Therefore I had to take a hiatus last year... a dark time in which I was hunting, searching, begging people for suggestions. I actually was harassing people on twitter for some recommendations, that's how low I sank. I even did an article for RogueCart talking about my love of this genre hoping against hope that someone would give me some more suggestions. Some leads panned out, some didn't, I was even keeping my fingers crossed that authors previously featured would release the next book in their series, but in the end fate intervened. I'm sure almost everyone knows about V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic series, the bestsellers lists don't lie. I though was not one of those people. So how DID I finally learn about this series? In my book club instead of spending the majority of our meetings arguing about what the next book should be, and yes, this is something my mom's book club did the few times I went and it drove me crazy, we are more enlightened, we leave it up to fate. Every member writes down on a piece of paper the book they want to read and we throw it in a hat and a book is randomly drawn. Last spring while I was hoping my choice of Sense and Sensibility would be picked instead we got the rogue element of fate doubled in that what was pulled out of the hat was "Current Bestseller" on which list I can't remember, but it was the final book in V.E. Schwab's series, A Conjuring of Light.

Seeing as whose choice this was isn't a masochist, he let us do the first not the last in the series, and thus I started to read A Darker Shade of Magic. I rarely read blurbs for books I'm reading for book club, because I just know I'll read them. But about five minutes into A Darker Shade of Magic I was posting on our Facebook page that I was beyond excited because little did we know that we had picked a book that was Regency Magic! And in that moment I had hope, as well as a lot of joyful shouts and maniacal laughter that my friends would be introduced to this genre. But my hopefulness was not just of bringing back Regency Magic to my blog but that maybe, just maybe, I'd find more books. As it turned out I did! I found tons of new books, though the two month extravaganza will wait for next year, this year it's just for April and it's just three authors, one of which, Heather Rose Jones, has been featured before because she added another book to her series as I had hoped for, see above! As for my new authors, obviously there's V.E. Schwab, but also the lovely Kelly Jones whose book Murder, Magic, and What We Wore debuted last fall and is a delightful addition to this genre. I hope you are as excited as I am to dive back into Regency Magic. I can't wait for all the delicious reading I have ahead as I continue to read the books for this month and start on the books for next year!  

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Conjuring of Light, A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, Alpennia, Heather Rose Jones, Kelly Jones, Mother of Souls, Murder Magic and What We Wore, Regency Magic, Shades of Magic, V.E. Schwab