This continues the story of four parallel Londons (Grey, Red, White and Black) begun in A Darker Shade of Magic. The first book was complete initself. This, being the middle book of a trilogy, doesn't feel complete (it's plot-light) and it has a cliffhanger ending. Lila and Kell parted at the end of the first book, though it was pretty obvious that their story would continue. They spend the first half of this book just missing each other as Lila (feeling special for no justifiable reason) returns to Red London, having spent four months aboard a privateer ship with Captain, Alucard (who is actually one of the better characters) . She's learning the unfamiliar language and also learning magic. Kell has spent the intervening four months missing Lila and frowning. He doesn't have much character development in this book apart from brooding. There's a contest for magicians, organised by Kell's adopted brother, the prince, Rhy.In the first book Rhy died, only to be brought back by Kell tying his own life-force to Rhy's, but that means if anything happens to Kell, Rhy suffers, too (and vice-versa) so the king and queen are restricting Kell unbearably. When both Kell and Lila enter the magic competition, in disguise, sparks fly. ( I should point out here that Lila is a novice and all the other mages are the best of the best, so she should have been mincemeat on Day One, but because she's special she seems to get all the luck. That bit isn't very realistic. Yeah, OK, it's fantasy, but you know what I mean.) (I should probably also point out that the magic competition takes up a lot of page space without moving the story forward.) At the same time something is happening in White London as, freed from its previous cruel rulers, it begins to regenerate under Holland's kingship. (Spoiler: Holland did not die at the end of book one after all.) But Holland is being ridden by a darker power from Black London, and Red London is in danger. Unfortunately, just as this segment of the story seems about to resolve, something happens which pushes the story towards the third book and Book Two simply stops. Have I said how much I hate cliffhangers? Fortunately, I already had the third book waiting, ready to go. The first book was read by Steven Crossley. The second is read by Kate Reading & Michael Kramer depending on whether we're in a male or female point of view. The viewpoint characters are mostly (but not exclusively, Kell and Lila. This works well, but I'm glad I had a bit of a gap between the first and second book, otherwise the change of reader would have been jarring.
I tried listening to the first book but bailed after a few chapters. There was too much cruelty for my taste sadly, particularly now when I'm mostly in the mood for comfort reading. It was a shame because the four Londons was an interesting premise.
I'm part way through the third book now. My feeling is that Books 2 and 3 could have been condensed into one book. Yes there is some cruelty, but my threshold for reading that kind of stuff must be higher than yours.
I did get quite a long way with the story, but I mostly listen to audiobooks when I'm cooking the evening meal. If I'd been reading the book, I could probably have skimmed a little when the deliberate cruelty was happening, but of course you can't do that with an audiobook. It's quite a subtle thing, it's not necessarily what happens, it's how it's depicted and I felt there was a little too much dwelling on the cruelty. I also couldn't see that the story was going anywhere interesting and I lost patience with it. I'm now listening to an Adrian Tchaikovsky novel, The Doors of Eden which is faster paced and I'm enjoying it much more.
Re Adrian Tchaikovsky. I liked 'The Doors of Eden' and, more recently, 'Guns of the Dawn.' I particularly loved 'Service Model' about a robot valet who doesn't quite understand the apocalypse. (Written and read by Adrian.)
I think our library has those audiobooks. I'll see about reserving them now I know I like Tchaikovsky's work.
It's difficult to find things for me to listen to because G and I also listen together at mealtimes. I therefore can't choose things that he will like for my solo listening. But he won't have anything to do with fantasy or SF, which is why I've been focusing on those genres.
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Narrated by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
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It's difficult to find things for me to listen to because G and I also listen together at mealtimes. I therefore can't choose things that he will like for my solo listening. But he won't have anything to do with fantasy or SF, which is why I've been focusing on those genres.