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Cover of A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic

Book 1 of Shades of Magic

  • 400 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 2015
  • 17 editions

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1 About this book

Kell is one of the last travelers--magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes connected by one magic city. There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king--George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered--and where Kell was raised alongside Rhy Maresh, the roguish heir to a flourishing empire.

White London--a place where people fight to control magic and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now. Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh Empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

Good for readers who want: science fiction, adventure, and magic.

  • Magic
  • Fantasy
  • Science fiction
  • Romance, fantasy
  • Fantasy & Magic
  • Adventure
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Young Adult Fantasy

2 About V. E. Schwab

Born 1987

Victoria Elizabeth Schwab (born July 7, 1987) is an American writer. She is known for the 2013 novel Vicious, the Shades of Magic series, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which was nominated for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. She publishes children's and young adult fiction books under the name Victoria Schwab.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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