I enjoyed Vicious a sort-of-superhero novel from V.E. Schwab but completely missed the Shades of Magic novel. Shades of Magic is a New York Times bestseller which features parallel versions of London.
There’s Red London in which life and magic is revered under the Maresh Dynasty. Then there’s Grey London, a drag realm without magic and ruled by mad King George. There’s also White London, a harsh place in which people and magic fight and the menacing Black London.
The prequel is set before Kell and Lila’s adventure in the first novel A Darker Shade of Magic and follows a young prince Maxim Maresh as he is sent to a violent port city to learn about military life from his strict father. While taking orders from the King he meets an unruly band of soldiers and a newly returned pirate queen.
V.E. Schwab told press;
I grew up wanting to tell stories, but never sure what form they would take. From short fiction to drawings, scripts to animation, I wanted to tell stories people could SEE, inside their heads or on a screen. Or, as it turns out, on a page. I’ve been an avid reader of comics for more than a decade,”
“I’m over the moon to say I’m officially becoming a writer of them, too. I am so grateful to the team at Titan Comics for helping me bring this dream to life–and tell a new story from the Shades of Magic world. I can’t wait for readers to see Andrea Olimpieri’s stunning illustrations, and meet Maxim Maresh before he was king. This is the story of the Steel Prince, the Blood Coast, and the Pirate Queen.”
Andrea Olimpieri worked on Dishonored the graphic novel series based on the Bethesda Softworks video game. Her character sketches from Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince are shown in this post.
