Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. These rich, lifelike characters draw the reader in and make this well-realized fantasy impossible to put down.įans of A Darker Shade of Magic will love its sequel, and fantasy fans who haven’t yet read the first book in this series should hurry to catch up.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. This sequel to Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic (2015) expands the world beyond Red London and deepens the appealingly unconventional people that populate it.

But there are deceptions lurking beneath the glittering surface of this festive event, and there are old enemies waiting for their chance to strike. Along with the rest of Red London, Rhy and Kell are getting ready for the upcoming magical tournament called the Essen Tasch. Meanwhile, Kell is struggling to deal with the aftermath of the battle in which he and Lila saved the world, in particular, the magical bargain he made to save his adoptive brother Rhy’s life, the bargain that links their lives and means they share each other’s pain-literally.

She’s been absorbed in learning as much as she can about the magic that’s everywhere in this new world.

It’s been four months since Lila Bard, thief from another world, talked her way onto a ship called the Night Spire and sailed away from Red London with an enigmatic captain named Alucard Emery, in search of adventure. An absorbing fantasy adventure set in a world where magic can be a gift-or a weapon.

A gathering of shadows by ve schwab