Line #22 Literature/ShadesOfMagic


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darker_shade_of_magic_special_edition_small.jpg]]
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3	''Shades of Magic'' is a fantasy trilogy by Creator/VESchwab. The first book was released on February 24, 2015. A sequel trilogy to ''Shades of Magic'' called ''Literature/{{Threads of Power}}'' was announced, and its first installment will be published in 2023.
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5	There is also a prequel comic series called ''Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince'' which follows Kell and Rhy's father Maxim as a young man. The first issue was published on October 10, 2018; a bind-up of all issues was released in February 2019.
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7	The series itself focuses on the antics and life of Kell, who is part of a dwindling species called ''Antari'', who have the power to travel between dimensions, each having a separate London. Red London, ruled by the Maresh dynasty and Kell's adopted parents, is full of magic. Grey London is our ordinary world. White London is so drained of magic its people are slowly starving to death. And Black London is forbidden, after a terrible magical cataclysm that killed everyone there. Kell secretly smuggles objects between the worlds, thinking it a harmless sideline to his real business of maintaining political ties between the different royal families. But then someone pushes a mysterious black stone on him...
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9	Books:
10	# ''A Darker Shade of Magic'' (2015)
11	# ''A Gathering of Shadows'' (2016)
12	# ''A Conjuring of Light'' (2017)
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14	----
15	!!Tropes:
16	* AdoptedIntoRoyalty: Kell was adopted by the Mareshs, the royal family of Red London, because they wanted to turn his Antari powers to their service.
17	* AmplifierArtifact: A magical stone imbued with dark magic is a {{Plot Device}}.
18	* AnotherDimension: The premise of the series is the fact there are 4 Londons Kell travels between.
19	* BadPowersBadPeople: Athos Dane is TheDreaded in part for his prodigious talent for magical mind control and in part for his sadistic love of destroying people with it.
20	* BlackEyesOfEvil: A mark of being ''Antari'' is having one completely black eye. At the fall of Black London, this was interpreted as being a sign of their corruption, leading to mass killings. [[spoiler:And Holland has them, when Osaron takes him over completely.]]
21	* BloodMagic: ''Antari'' magic is more powerful than other types of magic, but requires the caster to spill some of their own blood.
22	* BookEnds: Both the first chapter of ''A Darker Shade of Magic'' and the last chapter of ''A Conjuring of Light'' start with Kell's coat.
23	* BurningTheShips: The Sea Serpent raiders do this immediately before they attack a ship, signifying that they don't need it since they'll soon have ''yours''.
24	* CrapsackWorld: White London has been doing ''very'' badly ever since Black London went under and Red London slammed their interdimensional doors shut. There's so little magic that it's always winter and people are starving, there are human sacrifices as a matter of course, and the rulers are nearly always violent sociopaths.
25	* DemonicPossession: ''Vitari'', a being of pure magic which is capable of possessing multiple bodies.
26	* DimensionalTraveler: The ''Antari'' have the unique ability to travel between worlds with a bit of blood, an incantation, and an item from the destination point.
27	* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Holland.
28	* ElementalPowers: A good chunk of magic is fire, earth, water and air manipulation. Most people of Red London master one or two elements, with triads being remarkably rare. ''Antari'' wield all and more.
29	* ElementNumberFive: Bone. Mages with a talent for it are strongly encouraged to ''unlearn'' it in Red London, since it lets them make PeoplePuppets out of humans, a cardinal offense in that world.
30	* EthicalSlut: Rhy is well-known for having a steady and fast-moving stream of male and female companions, and is a NiceGuy who treats everyone in his life as well as he can.
31	* EyeScream: It's not until late in the first book that we find out [[spoiler:that Lila has a glass eye, apparently because she lost one as a child. Since she turns out to be an Antari, it's likely that when her eye turned black, her parents didn't know what it meant and paid a surgeon to remove it.]]
32	* FalseFlagOperation: In the third book, [[spoiler: the Veskans try to have Kell killed]] and try to pin the blame on [[spoiler: Faro, by paying the assassins in Faroan face-gems.]] However, Lila quickly figures out it's a frame job, because the "evidence" is something the framed party would never have used as payment.
33	* FirstEpisodeTwist: It's hard to talk about the second and third books without mentioning that [[spoiler:Lila has magic.]]
34	* FoldThePageFoldTheSpace: Kell uses the analogy of pages in a book to explain to Lila how one has to travel through the Londons in sequence:
35	--> Kell shook his head. "I can't make a door from here to there."
36	--> Lila let out an exasperated noise. "But you just said--"
37	--> "The other Londons sit between," he explained. A small book rested on the table by the bed. He brushed his thumb over the pages. "The worlds are like pieces of paper," he said, "stacked one on top of the other." That's how he'd always thought of it. "You have to move in order." He pinched a few pages between his fingers. "Grey London," he said, letting one fall back to the stack. "Red London." He let go of a second. "White London." The third page fluttered as it fell. "And Black." he let the rest of the pages fall back to the book.
38	* GoodParents: The king and queen in Red London love their son very much, and are affectionate towards Kell. [[spoiler:This starts to wane in the second book, where Emira drops all pretenses that she sees Kell as equal to Rhy and Maxim starts pushing Kell too hard.]]
39	* HealingFactor: ''Antari'' heal from injuries more quickly than other people.
40	* HealingMagicIsTheHardest:
41	** Normal healing magic requires a command of all five elements in precise balance, a rare gift that even impresses Kell when he learns one of his guards has it. In Red London, healers are believed to have been chosen by Magic itself for the priesthood.
42	** The ''Antari'' healing spell drains a disproportionate amount of magic to use, so they tend to avoid it except in life-or-death situations.
43	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
44	** How Kell defeats Athos, despite Athos's greater power. [[spoiler:He goads Athos into using his half of the black stone to summon a monster, having previously learned that creations of the stone always turn on their masters]].
45	** The Mareshs are a milder, more heroic example. They wanted Kell to love Rhy like a brother, so he'd always protect him; unfortunately, they failed to realize that Rhy would do the same for Kell.
46	* InnBetweenTheWorlds: The Stone's Throw/Ruby Fields is a "fixed point" between dimensions.
47	* KlingonPromotion: You become the ruler of White London by murdering the previous ruler.
48	* LeonineContract: This is how [[spoiler: Holland ends up possessed by Osaron. He takes Osaron into his body and save White London, or die in Black London of the stab wound Kell gave him.]]
49	* MagicAIsMagicA: Or B, or C, or D. There are 4 types of magic in the books: [[BloodMagic Antari magic]], that allows for [[AnotherDimension inter-London travel]], [[ElementalPowers Red London magic]], the more traditional/less restricted sorcery of White London, and the [[SwissArmySuperpower extremely powerful]], [[TheCorruption extremely dangerous]], [[EldritchAbomination ambiguously sentient]] magic of Black London.
50	* MarkOfTheSupernatural: All ''Antari'' have one pitch-black eye.
51	* MotivationalKiss: Lila gives Kell a kiss for luck when they first cross worlds, and he echoes it [[BookEnds at the end of the book]].
52	* NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus: Red Londoners worship magic itself, but as an intrinsic part of humanity and nature rather than a divine being, and Kell is outright scornful of Grey London's belief in God. They also rebuff Osaron, a being of magic itself, when it calls itself a god.
53	* OutOfCharacterAlert: When a villain tries disguising herself as Lila, Kell immediately stabs her. He tells Lila he knew it wasn't her because the villain used the word "please".
54	* PossessionBurnout: Bodies possessed by Vitari gradually char and eventually crumble to ash. Osaron ''can'' do this on purpose, but doesn't have to.
55	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: In the last book, [[spoiler: Holland gives up his magic to imprison Osaron. It doesn't kill him immediately, but he's very clearly not well and dies as soon as he gets home.]]
56	* RedOniBlueOni: Rhy is cheerful, emotional, colourful, and magically weak. Kell is dour and pale, prefers black clothes, and has tremendous magical power. Each is absolutely devoted to the other.
57	* SealedEvilInAnotherWorld: The first book revolves around an ArtifactOfDoom from Black London, an [[AnotherDimension alternate Earth]] that fell in a magical apocalypse. [[spoiler:Kell disposes of it by sticking it on a dying Holland and sending them both on a one-way trip back to Black London.]]
58	* SharedLifeEnergy: Kell's [[HowDareYouDieOnMe desperate attempt]] to revive his brother Rhy triggers a nearby AmplifierArtifact, permanently binding Rhy's life force to Kell's. It doesn't affect Kell's life, but Rhy can only live while Kell lives, and ''[[ResurrectiveImmortality can't]]'' [[ResurrectiveImmortality die]] until Kell does.
59	* SweetPollyOliver: Across the series, Lila consistently dresses in male attire with the intention of passing on as a man. Even being referred to as a {{Crossdresser}} by other characters. Lila's alias as The Shadow Thief and constant effort to present as a man are due to her and society's views on the fragility and weakness of most women and her trying to subvert them (although also having an influence by the character's canonical queerness). And, during the second book, [[spoiler:Lila steals the identity of Stasion Elsor to fortake his place in the Essen Tasch, being able to fool most.]]
60	* SwitchingPOV: The book switches between many characters perspectives.
61	* TapOnTheHead: Holland knocks Lila out like this so he can use her as a hostage to make Kell give him Vitari, and all it gives her is a goose egg. [[spoiler: Justified, however, as she is an Antari, and they are both more durable and faster-healing than most people.]]
62	* ThrillSeeker: Delilah believes that getting close to death is the only way to feel truly alive, hence her penchant for {{Indy Ploy}}s and hugely audacious schemes.
63	* TournamentArc: The bulk of the plot of ''A Gathering of Shadows'' centers on the ''Essen Tach'' (Element Games) a gladiatorial-style tournament for magicians, meant to entertain and keep healthy relations among the participating countries. Participants are required to wear masks and armor that breaks off in 28 pieces - the participant that loses 10 pieces of armor loses the round. In the finale, the armor is made up of 38 pieces, and all pieces must be broken off by the winner. Of the main characters, Kell, Lila and Alucard participate. Kell and Lila do face each other, [[spoiler:Kell throws the fight in order to avoid being unmasked. Lila loses at a later round, however.]] [[spoiler:Alucard makes it to the final round and wins.]]
64	* TwoPartTrilogy: The first book can stand on its own, but the second and third book are directly connected - the third starting right where the second one ended.
65	* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:{{Invoked\|Trope}} by Kell when he has an opportunity to learn about his birth family. He decides his new family is the only one that matters and destroys the spell that would have restored his memories of his early childhood.]]
66	** That said, [[spoiler: his real name]] ''is'' revealed in a short story Schwab included in the collector's edition of the third novel. It's [[spoiler: Kastion Laros]].
67	* UnskilledButStrong: [[spoiler: Lila]] is very naturally talented and strong with magic, but has no formal training and doesn't know when to stop pushing. So though she advances quite far, she still [[spoiler:loses the Essen Tach.]]
68	* TheVirus: ''Vitari'' spreads itself this way, either as an STD or through wounds.
69	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Holland. All he wants is to save his world. Unfortunately for our heroes, he'll do literally anything to achieve that goal, including torture, murder, and [[spoiler:deals with demons who want to be gods.]]
70	* TheXOfY: The titles of the series itself, and all three books. (''Shades '''of''' Magic'', ''A Darker Shade '''of''' Magic'', ''A Gathering '''of''' Shadows'', ''A Conjuring '''of''' Light''.)

Context Literature / ShadesOfMagic