This is book 1 of a fully published trilogy. I'm kind of excited about the prospect of reading a trilogy for the first time, back to back. So spoiler alert, the next two blog posts will probably be the sequels to theses books.Unless they suddenly suck. Then we'll see what happens. They came highly recommended by a trust book confidant, so I have high hopes they all pan out.
Anyways. An amazon summary, "Kell is one of the last Antari―magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes―Red London―and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
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.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
There are four Londons that seem to exist on different planes; Grey, Red, White, and Black. Each of these Londons have different levels of magic. Black London was sealed off from the other Londons to prevent their magic from consuming the other Londons. White London stands between Black London and Red London, and is filled with vicious magic of sorts. You must possess a certain ruthlessness to survive White London. Red London has friendlier magic; Red London stands between White London and Grey London. Grey London has relatively no magic, but just a hint here or there.
Kell, an Antari who is one of two Antaris that can still travel between the parallel Londons, serves as a messenger to the royals and as a smuggler for himself. Kell travels between the different Londons by using his Antari blood magic.
Delilah, or Lila, is a thief who is struggling to survive life. She dreams of adventures, she dreams of owning a ship and becoming a proper pirate. But for now, she settles for thieving until she can get herself a proper boat, a proper hat, and some proper boots.
While he's delivering messages, he comes across someone with another letter for a different London who is not royalty. They ask him to please take their letter with him and gives him payment as well in advance. Kell takes the letter and payment to the agreed upon location only to realize it's a trap. He leaps to grey London, and runs into Lila.... who is happy to relieve him of his payment. Only now they're after Lila instead. Kell and Lila are now in this together, because Kell knows he needs to deliver the payment to Black London, but Lila doesn't want to let go of this taste of magic and adventure, so she insists on accompanying Kell.
That's enough summary.
I know I only talked about Kell and Lila, but there's really three narrators to this story. There's a third narrator that kind of follows the people around who are after Kell and Lila. The storytelling was very rich and well woven; I wasn't bored for a moment when I was reading it. There's also a hint that Lila is more than she appears to be, and a curiosity if Kell is not from Red London.
I also thought the different Londons were going to be confusing when I first read the book summary, but in practice, it was really easy to keep track of the different Londons since all of their settings and tones were so different. Plus, there was even different behaviors of the people because of the differences in magic. It was really easy to keep track of where they were and when throughout the story.
There's also so much more to be done or explored with our two main characters, and there's a lot of unanswered questions that I think the answers will come in the next books. Like what's reallllllllly going on with Black London. dun dun dun dunnnn
Happy reading!
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