The Charlotte Geeks Book Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month from 7-8 pm at Park Road Books in the Park Rd shopping center. Our illustrious leader and supreme book-chooser, Nathan, alternates the book choices between the fantasy and sci-fi genres. We have a friendly discussion of the novel’s plot points, characters, and themes (that mostly sometimes stays on topic), and then head next door for drinks, dinner and further discourse at Sir Edmond Halley’s. Indulge with the jerk chicken nachos, you won’t regret it. 🙂
October Selection: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Kell is one of the last of the Antari, the powerful magicians with the ability to travel between the parallel universes: Grey London, the least magical, ruled by mad King George III; Red London, the most magical of the three, has King Maxim and Queen Emira on the throne; and White London, a deadly place overseen by a pair of diabolical siblings, the Danes. Years ago, there was also a Black London but it was corrupted by magic and the doors between were sealed to travel.
Kell, as the messenger and ambassador of Red London, is charged with couriering letters between the three monarchies, but finds himself in trouble when his proclivity for smuggling forbidden tokens unleashes dark Black London magic into the other worlds. Teaming up with a wannabe-pirate thief from Grey, Delilah Bard, Kell embarks on a life-or-death adventure encompassing all three Londons.
I flew through this book in about a day, and as soon as I finished the last page, I ordered the second book on Amazon. Darker Shade is one of those stories that pulls you into the world so deep that the real world feels like the fake one…um, this happens to other people, right?
The universe is full and lush, but with enough mystery that I still feel the need to explore and can’t wait to continue the journey with books two and three. The characters are realistic in that they have (to borrow a phrase from a fellow club attendee) plenty of morally gray areas, no one is purely good or purely evil, with the exceptionn of maybe the Danes. I enjoyed the fact that there was no all-consuming love story between our two leads, and the biggest motivators for the female were independence and adventure. I can’t tell you how refreshing that feels. The pace is quick, and each chapter practically forces you to move on to the next which makes the 400ish go by in a blur.
I thought this book would likely have a loyal following and would inspire a bit of fan art and merch. So, I did a little research before starting this post to see if there was anything cool to share, and I was not disappointed!
I found a blog post on Halloween costumes that included Kell, Darker Shade of Magic themed phone cases, amazing Lila fan art, and (my favorite) a crochet Kell that I found for sale on Etsy. The list goes on and on, but I will leave the further searching up to you 😉
Would you like to join us for next month? You can RSVP here on the meet-up site. The November book is Wool, a sci-fi novel by Hugh Howey.
Don’t forget to grab your copy of October’s selection from Park Road Books for a 20% discount!