The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
A Novel
Title: The Fragile Threads of Power
Author: V. E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9780765387493
Rating: 5 stars
Here it is: the much awaited first book in the Threads of Power series. The “now” of this book takes place seven years after the end of A Conjuring of Light, so it’s been roughly the same amount of time in that world as it has been in our world. It was a little hard for me to keep track of that since for me, A Conjuring of Light was just two days ago. However, the entirety of the book doesn’t take place at the time. The current action is all set seven years later, but the book often uses flashbacks to fill the reader in on important events in the time in between. There are three main protagonists of the story: Kosika, Delilah Bard, and Tesali Ranek, their stories are interwoven and move back in forth in time, but I’m going to try to tell them one at a time in chronological order for clarity (I’m not nearly as good at moving back and forth in time in writing as Schwab is).
The book starts in White London seven years ago, when Kosika, a seven year old girl who has yet to manifest magic, finds Holland’s body in the Silver Woods, where he died shortly after Kell transported him back to White London at the end of A Conjuring of Light. A few days after finding Holland’s body, Kosika is discovered to be an Antari and Holland’s royal guard put her on the throne. In the seven years she has ruled between that day and the current time of the story, White London has prospered. They have experienced something like peace and the world has continued to wake up and magic has been restored with more children manifesting powers and even some adults getting them too. Queen Kosika has named Holland a saint and four times a year all Londoners are expected to tithe a few drops of blood, which goes to strengthen the magic of that world. Despite being an Antari, after accidentally traveling to Black London and fearing the same contamination Holland brought back (Osaron), Kosika has no desire to travel between worlds. Holland still appears to Kosika (no one else can see him) and says his powers have been passed on to her. He guides the young queen and serves as an advisor. Despite things looking up in White London, there is still a limited quantity of magic and Kosika worries about running out. At the end of the book, holes in the walls separating Black London and White London have started appearing. Kosika is deeply concerned, but when Holland convinces her to travel to Black London, they find that Osaron’s magic has finally faded there. Holland assures her that if they rekindle the magic there, they can use that to benefit White London.
In Arnes, Lila is still the Captain of the Night Spire, which she has renamed Grey Barron. She technically sails for the crown, but not as a privateer, more like a spy. She has reunited most of the crew members of the Night Spire who survived the Black Night and they enjoy traveling the world under various ruses to get intel for the Arnesian Crown. Kell is one of those crew members. His magic is still broken from the Inheritor and the final battle with Osaron, and conjuring any magic causes him extreme pain. Since he can no longer use his magic to fight, in the past seven years Lila has been teaching him to fight with his body and weapons, like she had to before she harnessed her Antari powers. He is getting better and has even created a mask-wearing alter ego named Kay that he uses on missions (and occasionally in bed), but sword fighting still doesn’t come as naturally to him as magic did. He is super emo about it because he doesn’t feel like himself, but nothing he or Lila has tried has worked, so he is trying to accept his new life. They are still very much in love, but Kell is still overprotective and Lila is still fiercely independent, so that does create some issues for them.
Back in Red London, Rhy is still king. Alucard is still the king’s consort, but because of the need for an heir, Rhy has married Nadiya Loreni. While the marriage caused a lot of jealousy for Alucard in the beginning, Nadiya and Rhy are just friends. Nadiya is a brilliant magician and inventor and she mostly wanted a life with the freedom to work and be a mother—being queen has given her that. All three serve as parents to five-year-old Tieren Maresh, Princess of Arnes and the heir Rhy needs to continue the Maresh line. As you can imagine with that crew of parents, Tieren “Ren” is a very vivacious girl with a big personality and big energy. However, not all is good in London. There is a secret group known as The Hand, who want to assassinate Rhy and end the Maresh rule (it’s never explicitly stated by the group, but I assume that also means killing Ren). The Hand doesn’t seem to be that well organized or together in their mission, but the most commonly cited reason for their existence is that magic in their world is declining and it’s Rhy’s fault because he is a king without magic (the magic is in decline, no one is sure if it’s the natural ebb and flow of the world or if there is a solvable problem), but the magic has been in decline since before Rhy took the throne.
While in Verose on a mission for Alucard, Lila is called to Is Feras Stras to repay the favor she owes Maris from A Conjuring of Light. Though it is supposed to be impossible to steal from Is Feras Stras, someone has. They stole something called a persalis, which is a device that allows normal people to open doors from one location to another within the same world. There is a box and a ring and the box should be able to open a door to wherever the ring is located. The persalis was broken during the theft, but the fact that it’s out in the world is still concerning because only an Antari should be able to open doors like that. Even more concerning, as the thief got away, Maris noticed a brand of a hand on his body, not so shockingly the mark of agents of The Hand. With that clue, Lila knows to begin the search in Red London, so she and Kell head home.
In Red London, fifteen year old Tesali “Tes” Ranek runs a shop to repair broken magical items. She pretends to be the apprentice for Master Haskin, after whom the shop is named, but Haskin is an invention of Tes’s to cover her own rare ability. Tes has no affinity for any of the elements, but like Alucard, she can see the threads of magic surrounding everything. However, unlike Alucard, she is able to touch and manipulate those threads to repair broken magic or improve existing magic. This rare power caused her to flee from her family on the Arnesian coast because her father and one of her sisters were always looking to sell valuable things to the highest bidder and her power is extremely valuable. Other than Vares, a bird skeleton she animated and named after Kell (“vares” is Arnesian for “prince” or “princess”), her only friend is a mysterious boy and thief named Nero. She doesn’t know his last name and he doesn’t know her full name. She tries to keep to herself and just make the requested repairs to make a life for herself in London, but that all changes when a very sick looking boy brings her the persalis for repair. He keeps the ring to keep her from having all the pieces, but loses it (I’m pretty sure Nero steals it) and doesn’t tell her what it is. Just using the magic alone for clues, Tes doesn’t rest until she has the persalis put back together. She is hesitant because she knows a lot of harm could be done with the persalis, but the puzzle is too enticing. When two hired swords come to collect the device, she has some second thoughts about what she’s done and who can control it. Trying to keep the persalis out of the hands of the assassins, she destroys her shop and makes a run for it. However, the assassins are tough and survive the cave in and chase her. With no other options, she uses the persalis to open a door and stumbles severely hurt into Grey London. Because she didn’t know about the ring, she accidentally fixed the persalis to travel between worlds instead of just inside one world.
In Red London, the two assassins are looking for Tes, Lila is looking for the persalis, and one of the higher ups in The Hand is very angry that Tes and the persalis are missing. When Tes heals enough to return to Arnes, she considers taking a ship out of the port to escape again. However, she is loath to keep running and when she spies Lila on the docks, she decides to stick close to her because she hopes if the assassins come for her, Lila will feel compelled to intervene. Naturally, Lila catches Tes following her. When Tes tells her she has the persalis, Lila assumes she’s working with The Hand, but when the assassins come for Tes, Lila and Kell protect her. Unsure of what else to do, Tes destroys the persalis. The assassins are temporarily beaten and Lila takes Tes and Kell back to the palace. When Lila finds out what Tes can do, she demands that Tes fix Kell. Tes has never worked on a living being and isn’t sure if she’d be able to fix Kell. Knowing his death or a breaking of the tether will kill Rhy, Kell refuses to have her try. Lila has Tes imprisoned while they decide what to do. However, with some help from Nadiya, Tes escapes the palace because unbeknownst to Tes, Nadiya wants to use her to draw out The Hand. The assassins kidnap Tes as soon as she’s out of the palace and take her to the Emory estate. Berras, Alucard’s abusive older brother, is unsurprisingly one of the leaders of The Hand. Berras gives Tes a poison that will kill her in an hour and demands that she make a new persalis in order to get the antidote. As much as Tes doesn’t want to die, she also doesn’t want to create this magic that will allow The Hand to kill the king and so many others, so she instead creates a persalis that opens a door to nowhere.
While Tes works, Berras manages to kidnap Lila. He has gotten a hold of a chain that Nadiya created that works like the Antari rings they used to defeat Osaron—the wearer of the ring part of the chain is able to take power from anyone on the bracelet end, with or without their consent. However, unlike the Antari rings, anyone can use it on anyone. Robbed of her power, Lila has to call Kell for help and Kell and Alucard come to the rescue. Alucard is able to destroy the chain and Lila gets her power back. However, the door to nowhere Tes opened is growing and won’t close. Lila isn’t able to close it with her power alone, so Kell puts on the chain thinking that if Lila uses his power as well, it won’t hurt. With his power as well as hers, Lila is able to close the portal, but the pain nearly destroys Kell. With Berras in the dungeon and The Hand temporarily stopped, Lila tells Tes that she owes her a favor and demands once again that she fix Kell.
Tes is still hesitant, but Rhy gives his blessing. The only way to keep Kell from screaming in pain is to keep him constantly drugged, but the drugging also impacts Rhy due to their connection. He cannot continue to rule in any capacity if he has to continue to be drugged, so he is willing to take the risk of death if it means fixing Kell (he was ready to take the risk well before this, but Kell refused—with Kell unconscious, he can’t refuse anymore). Tes is able to fix Kell’s magic. The group decides since there are parts of The Hand still afoot (haha), it is too dangerous for Tes and her power to be in London, so Lila takes Tes to Is Feras Stras where Tes can put her power to good use helping Maris and where she should be safe until things have settled down.
At the very end, as Berras sits in prison, he is visited by another leader of The Hand (we are led to believe there are three). I’m really not sure if it’s supposed to be a big reveal or not. I had been suspecting this person pretty much since they were introduced into the story and I don’t think the hints were subtle. I think perhaps rather than a big “a-ha!” moment this is just meant to confirm what was being hinted at all along and to make sure the reader had caught the previous hints. There is still no confirmation on who the third member is, but I’m pretty sure I’ve figured that one out too. Even though his identity was hidden in the first few scenes he appeared in, I instantly recognized Berras as soon as he came into the story. Again, I didn’t feel like the hints were subtle and Schwab is much better at subtlety and nuance than that, so I don’t think it’s meant to be a huge twist.
When Schwab first announced this book, I was a little confused as to why she was making it its own series. Because The Steel Prince books were graphic novels and the Shades of Magic books were novels, it made sense to me to make them separate series even though they took place in the same world and involved some of the same characters. But when she said she was doing a new series set in the same world and involving some of the same characters and they were also going to be novels, I didn’t really understand why it would be a different series and not just changing the original trilogy into a hexology. After reading this book, I completely understand. Despite being novels set in the same world with the same rules and the same characters, this book is quite different from the Shades of Magic books in terms of craft.
First, the timing is different. The first set of books mostly covers the things happening to all the characters over the space of a few days. Occasionally, there will be a flashback, but these flashbacks are just that and aren’t usually super anchored in time. In that way, the storytelling is a little more straightforward. However, because of the way story lines from the past seven years are interwoven with the events of the current days, it produces a more complex story. It’s not harder to understand, but making sure all of the information is conveyed in a way that makes sense would be more difficult to write. I will be interested to see if she keeps up this convoluted timing in the next two books.
Second, this book was a little edgier. In Shades of Magic, the characters curse, but only in words of the languages native to their Londons (so not English). This book liberally uses the f-word. I wasn’t really bothered by that in terms of sensitivity to language, but it did feel different since it seems that Schwab went out of her way to avoid real-world cuss words in the six books before this one. Also, this book was a little spicier in terms of romance. It’s still not graphic by any means, but there was more of an undercurrent of sensuality and sexuality that I didn’t feel in the original trilogy. These two things together create a different tone and a different feel than the first books. I also thought that was interesting because while this book and both previous series are categorized as books for adults, this book deals with the youngest characters out of all of them. In The Steel Prince Maxim and Isra are young adults, in Shades of Magic, Lila is the youngest at nineteen. This book featured Kosika from seven to fourteen and Tes from about nine to fifteen, and Ren at five, yet is the spiciest book in the series to date. Most of the cursing and sexuality is kept away from the young characters (Kosika has crushes on her friend Lark and her maid Nasi, and Tes sometimes feels crush-like feelings for Nero, but that’s all pretty age-appropriate teenage stuff). One of the things I love about Schwab’s writing is that each standalone book and series feels completely different from anything she’s ever written before and this new series is no exception.
There were some things in this book that felt a little inconsistent. The cussing was one, but another example is Lila’s eye. In this book, Lila has vivid memories of having her black eye cut out in Grey London when she was a child. In previous books, she doesn’t have any memory of how she got her glass eye. It is possible in a world of magic, in the seven years between books, she did something to find out, but Lila has never really been one to be too caught up in the past. In some of the books she’s even said something to the effect that there is no point in looking back, so I feel like she wouldn’t have wasted the time or effort to find the magic to learn how she lost her eye. Also, this book states that most kids get their magic somewhere between the ages of six and eleven. Obviously, that will depend from child to child and there are probably early bloomers and late bloomers as with all child development milestones, but we know that by age five Kell had manifested his Antari powers, been sold to Maris at Is Feras Stras by his birth parents and been sold to the king and queen. I mean, I guess I don’t know how long it takes to buy and sell a child in Arnes, but that just seemed really young. Finally, this might just be reader error, but I feel like the name of the tavern at the corner of the worlds in Red London has changed a bunch of times throughout the series. I thought it was called one thing in the first book, but then in the second book they were calling it something else, and I felt like they called it by yet another name in this book. Despite writing a new (and usually lengthy) book just about every year, Schwab puts a lot of work into planning and craft. She’s not the kind of author that makes simple continuity errors (which is why I think the tavern name is probably reader error). I feel like there is a point to these inconsistencies and that they are intentional. Some of it might be simply to contribute to the unique and individual feel of the series, but I do wonder if these facts will come into play in the next two books in the trilogy.
I also wasn’t really sure how to feel about some of the characters in this book. I already didn’t like Berras from the previous books and I was mistrustful of the second member of The Hand from the time of introduction because of the hinting, but some of the other characters are much harder to read. First is Holland, the constant problem of these series. In the first book of the Shades of Magic trilogy, it was very hard to like him because he was a villain. However, he was also under Athos Dane’s control and not free to act of his own accord. In the second book, he’s finally out of Athos’s control, but he’s kind of the villain again because he resurrects Osaron’s power, but even then, I couldn’t fully blame him because he was just trying to save his city and his world and the people in it. He was truly concerned with improving the lot of the people by improving the world rather than just wielding power and using it to take advantage of others. In the third book, he unleashed the evil, but he also worked with Lila and Kell to try to fix it, even knowing the sacrifice it would require of him. Lila never really likes or trusts him, but Kell does, and the flashbacks in that book went a long way to humanize him and make the reader feel sympathetic toward him. In this book, he is still working to save his world and doesn’t do anything overtly villainous, but there’s a lot of mystery about how Kosika came into her power and how he is able to guide her. I want to like and trust him, but I’m still just not sure. I felt the same way about Nadiya. I really don’t like or trust her and neither does Lila, but Rhy and Alucard have no issue with her and Kell doesn’t seem to either. She doesn’t do anything clearly wrong and it does seem like she’s invested in stopping The Hand to protect Rhy, Ren, and her title of queen. Yet, Berras does end up with the power chain she created. I feel like that was the doing of the second member of The Hand revealed at the end, but I still can’t convince myself that Nadiya isn’t a threat.
While I loved this book and the story and I’m already anxiously awaiting the next installment, I was disappointed by the physical book itself. If you’ve been living in this world for the past few years, it’s not going to be news to you that everything has gotten way more expensive. That is true for the book industry too—first there were difficulties with supply chains for elements like paper and finding printers who could print books on time, but as those things have gone somewhat back to normal, prices keep going up, so publishers are having to find ways to manage costs. Several major publishers have had layoffs this year and almost everyone is looking for other ways to cut costs to keep books profitable or at least to break even. A lot of publishers are trying to cut costs in book production—using cheaper paper and ink, fewer effects on cover art, choosing to print on demand, etc. and that felt palpable to me with this book. The cover is made with what is called soft touch lamination (when a book kind of feels a little fuzzy like a fine suede) with gloss lamination on the cover text and it has decorated end papers (both of these things are additional costs), but the pages itself are almost Bible-thin. This book has roughly the same amount of pages as A Conjuring of Light, but is significantly thinner because of the paper stock used. This thinner paper makes it easier for pages to stick together and the text shows through from one page to the next, which feels a little chaotic to me. If I were designing this book with an eye on the cost, I’d pick plain endpapers and a matte finish cover before I’d use thinner pages. Covers are a huge part of what makes people choose a book, but if the interior makes the book harder to read, they aren’t going to stick with it. But that’s just my opinion.
There were also several typos I noticed in this book, which speaks to hasty or cut-rate copy editing. Copy editors are human and they make mistakes, but the typos here were numerous and glaring. I’m happy to overlook one or two small ones but some of these typos made me have to pause and re-read a couple of times before I realized what was going on. Usually Tor is a lot better than that, and this is a major book for them, so I found this lackluster packaging a little disappointing. I’m also not at all sure what the schedule for this book was, but it is possible that they couldn’t be as thorough as usual due to schedule constraints. But that has nothing to do with the content of the book itself.
This book does have a sad tone and has some pretty serious discussions of life and death and what comes after. I ugly cried a couple of times, but it’s only because I am so invested in the characters and stories. It’s a testament to how well written all of these series are, but you may want to get the tissues ready!
Two and a third series. Seven books. Ten days. 2,554 pages. It’s hard to believe I’m about to be pulled out of the magical worlds of these series when I feel like I’ve been living there for almost two weeks…and that I have to wait months, if not years, for the next book. It’s been such a fun but challenging journey!