A Conjuring of Light Review
The third rave review of the final book in the Shades of Magic trilogy. You can read my two previous rave reviews of A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows. I am a husk. Devastated this series is over. What am I supposed to do with myself now? More importantly, how am I supposed to procrastinate now? I waited six months for this book after I devoured the first two. Six months. It was torture. Like the first two books in this series, I read A Conjuring of Light in one day. I listened to the audiobook and I slowed it down to double speed instead of my usual triple speed because I did not want this series to be over. I was “in deep, deep withdrawal,” while waiting for this installment from the library, but now that I’ve finished the series, I am somehow already in even deeper withdrawal.
I was worried that, because I had such a big gap between reading the first two books and this last one, I would have forgotten the larger plot arc and important details. I was worried that I would find it difficult to immerse myself in this story and this world again. I was wrong. I was immediately back into it and the story immediately pulled on my emotions. So many cute little cinnamon rolls that must be protected at all costs.
A quick recap: the Element Games have finished. In the party that follows the culmination of the competition, a dark force rises and threatens the Maresh Empire and the balance of power in all four Londons. Finally all together again, Rhy, Kell, Lila, Alucard, and Holland team up for their biggest challenge yet. This involves quite a bit of strenuous travel in a classic hero’s journey framing. I am usually wary of travel adventure stories (hello, Farseer Trilogy), but Schwab made it work for me. I find the travel sequences too long with too many obstacles that do not relate to the main plot, but this one had the perfect balance of length, pacing, and action. The obstacles in the way were also very inventive, which sucked in my undivided attention.
The first two books essentially bring a bunch of complicated and prickly characters together and force them to work with each other, despite their sometimes strained relationships. This third books solidifies them into a heartwarming found family (and we all know how much I love literary found families!). Their chemistry and spats made me laugh, warmed my heart, and prompted exasperated eye rolls. Schwab is a very talented writer and the prose and dialogue of this entire series was beautiful and flowed effortlessly. I would definitely like to find a token from Red London and disappear through a doorway and into Arnes.
The ending of this book, and therefore the series, was very neat, but I would not have accepted a different ending. I have certainly suffered enough throughout this series and I and all these little cinnamon rolls deserved a nice wrap-up. However, some questions were left unanswered which satisfied my love of ambiguous endings. I am quickly running out of Schwab books to read, so I will probably return to this series in the near future and read it again.
