Billy The Kid reviewed A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab (Shades of Magic)
Review of 'A Conjuring of Light' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It was an enjoyable romp but doesn't necessarily hit the highs of the previous books in the series. As the third and final(ish) book in the series I was expecting something a little bit more. Or maybe I was expecting a little bit less, a more tightly edited and polished story. Either would have been nice.
Here's some thoughts:
- It's difficult to tell a story about an antagonistic character who is basically a god. You have to constantly give reasons to explain why they don't just kill everybody and achieve their evil goals. More than either of the two previous books, I had to shut my brain off and just enjoy the ride no matter how implausible the plot felt at times.
- Giving minor characters their own POV chapters brought a lot of life into them. Making the world feel a little more interesting and less centered around …
It was an enjoyable romp but doesn't necessarily hit the highs of the previous books in the series. As the third and final(ish) book in the series I was expecting something a little bit more. Or maybe I was expecting a little bit less, a more tightly edited and polished story. Either would have been nice.
Here's some thoughts:
- It's difficult to tell a story about an antagonistic character who is basically a god. You have to constantly give reasons to explain why they don't just kill everybody and achieve their evil goals. More than either of the two previous books, I had to shut my brain off and just enjoy the ride no matter how implausible the plot felt at times.
- Giving minor characters their own POV chapters brought a lot of life into them. Making the world feel a little more interesting and less centered around the larger than life main characters. Unfortunately all these characters are eventually killed off, which ends up feeling a little cheap.
- Kell is a bit of a boring character. He doesn't really have an arc or change at all from the start of the story all the way through to the end. That said, most characters in this series are pretty stable in terms of their goals and beliefs throughout the story but at least they're a bit more interesting than Kell.
- The side story where most of the main characters escape from the city in search of the MacGuffin feels like filler. Also, I hate MacGuffins.
- A bunch of characters bite their lip and I don't think that's an actual thing people do (other than in Twilight). Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Overall I enjoyed the time I spent with the book (and the series as a whole) but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was a little shorter.
