A Conjuring of Light
Year: 2017
Author: V.E. Schwab
Length: 1,143 minutes / 19.05 hours
While it took me some time to get to book 2 of the Shades of Magic series, that cliffhanger required me to jump into A Conjuring of Light soon after just to keep everything fresh. At the very least, once I finished this book, I’d be done with the series and could move on to something else. You’d think I’d learn from the first two books, but I didn’t particularly care for this author’s style, and this book kept those flaws.
For a book that picked up at the exciting conclusion of A Gathering of Shadows, it certainly took its time getting started. The stakes never felt significant enough to propel the story, which was why there were so many chapters dedicated to the characters (both major and minor) just existing. And when the main characters are boring enough that there needs to be minor character filler, that’s not a good sign. Perhaps if the ultimate battle was built up a bit more like the magic games were in book 2, then I would have had something to look forward to.
Ultimately, there were too many elements of this series that didn’t feel satisfying in its ending. Alucard seemed to be the only interesting character, and that was mainly because he was so snarky. I was constantly reminded of Lila’s foibles throughout each book, as if I couldn’t remember that she was “different” as the main character. Even the royal characters seemed so flat as to make me wonder what made them interesting besides being heirs to the throne. Maybe if all three books were condensed down into a single one, I might have liked this series. As it stands, there’s too much filler for me to recommend it.
More of the same flaws in the conclusion of the Shades of Magic series, I give A Conjuring of Light 3.0 stars out of 5.
