The protagonist of A Darker Shade of Magic, Kell, is a messenger between three separate Londons: In his own, Red London, where magic is common but his type of magic, Antari magic, is all too rare, he is something like a prince and something like a possession. In Grey London, he trades jokes with a mad king and meets a girl thief who dreams of becoming a pirate. In White London, he tries not to anger the unstable, power-mad Dane twins who rule the city (for now). And nobody goes to Black London anymore, since it was overrun with greedy magic and sealed away from the other worlds.

A Darker Shade of Magic starts off slow, and I had to remind myself of the cover art several times to keep myself going. Once you have a grip on which London is which and what distinguishes each one, it’s okay, but there’s a lot of premise to lay out here, and the result is that the plot takes longer to get going. First you have to establish Kell’s life, then Lila’s life (that’s the girl thief pirate character), then you have to set up the MacGuffin, then you have to get Kell and Lila in one place so they can have an adventure — it is a lot of things, and it just takes a while to crank into gear.

That maybe sounds more negative than I wanted it to, so I’ll add that I’m looking forward to trying the sequel. In a world this complicated, a sequel might be a better read than the original book, because the author doesn’t have to spend so much time setting the scene. Here it was like the first Harry Potter book, where it’s 2 parts scene-setting to 1 part plot, except that here the scene features more blood magic and necromancy and not quite so many delightful pets and broomstick shenanigans.

Too many notes, basically, is my review of this book. Just cut a few, and it’ll be perfect! But I am on board with this trilogy and will be reading the second (with its equally gorgeous cover!) when it comes out.

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