The fragile threads of power by V.E. Schwab

In White London seven years ago Kosika is surviving by stealing things; coins, or metal, or even sugar cubes. She works with best friend Lark, a little older than her, who has come into his magic, not wind or water but fire. Kosika at not quite seven, has no power yet and may not, as magic has become scarce, so her mother sees her as a burden. When she tries to sell Kosika to a stranger she runs for her life into the Silver Wood where she finds a dead man and places a sugar cube into his outstretched hand. The story shifts to Red London and the shop where Tesali, the apprentice in Master Haskin’s shop is working under the banner 'Once broken, soon repaired'. Young Tess is able to see the threads of magic and repair them, working in the shop with only her little spell-animated owl skeleton, Varis for company. It is Tess’s shop as Master Haskin is a convenient fiction. When an agent for The Hand, a secret organisation intent of usurping the throne, stumbles into her shop with a magical box for her to fix, her life is thrown into chaos. This is the fourth in the Shades of Magic series, carrying forward the interrelationship between the four Londons, red, white, grey and black, stacked together like books through which magic flows manifesting itself in elements like fire, wind and water which can be manipulated into spells. When the flow between worlds was interrupted by closing the doors between them an imbalance was created. I have not read any of the other books but found the world building rich and inventive. The frequent shifts in worlds and timelines fill in a lot of the backstory that I think I would have found tedious had I read the rest. There are a lot of characters to keep track of but the narrative control is tight and the reader can let a lot of the detail wash over them. I think I want to sail on a boat to a magical ice island and see a pale woman in a silver coat conjure a full-size ice ship in the air only to be crushed by an ice sea beast in front of my eyes, that is what good fantasy creates and this does it well. It is good to see a real gender balance in the character roles and a valuing of independence and a healthy self-interest alongside the importance of friendship, loyalty and trust. There is a bit of sexual tension but nothing too torrid and plenty of action and, as the title suggests, the struggle for Power. While I wouldn’t go back and read the earlier books I do look forward to reading the next.

Themes: Fantasy, Magic, Relationships, Power.

Sue Speck