After years of this series being hyped as one of the best current examples of historical/urban fantasy, I finally got around to picking it up due to the sequel series coming out, and to investigate the recent accusations of plagiarism against Cassandra Clare (again, lmao) following the release of Sword Catcher, and…I am so disappointed at how thoroughly mediocre it is. 

 Overall I found it to be an entertaining adventure story, which has unremarkable prose and moves along at a decent clip; it contains nothing morally or artistically outrageous, but also nothing inspiring; in the it felt quite shallow and unfulfilling, as it has no discernible theme or message to impart, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ve outgrown that sort of fiction. 

The central concept of four cities of London in four alternative universes with different levels of magic had so much potential, but that potential went unfulfilled because the cities were barely explored at all. The only landmarks seem to be the Thames, the palace, and the markets, none of which are described in any great detail; the one location given any sort of character or significance is the traditional SFF trope of an inn that serves as the gateway between dimensions. The political situation in Red London (where Kell lives) is just as vague as the geographical - Kell was adopted by the royal family, which logically would have been difficult to keep a secret, but there’s no indication that the citizens know he’s adopted, and he doesn’t seem to be regarded as the heir to the throne despite being the oldest of the two boys…there would be nothing wrong with this if an explanation of the customs was given. 

Perhaps in order to write this type of novel which is so heavily reliant on setting-as-character, where a real city (or fantasy version of a real city) is that setting, no amount of ‘research’ can substitute for many years of experience living in that city. Schwab is American and apparently fairly well-traveled around Europe; she attributes her experiences of London to holidays with her father, but without the decades of lived experience of Gaiman or Moorcock, her entire milieu is superficial and feebly pale as her White London, compared with the alternate Londons of Neverwhere or Gloriana or Mother London. 

What is most frustrating is that (so far) the four Londons don’t seem to represent anything. The one instance of intertextual awareness is when Kell is mentioned to own a book of William Blake’s poetry, as an artefact from the unmagical Grey London (the nearest equivalent to real London). Since Blake has been the primary ruling obsession of my life for years, I was begging for this to be made relevant to the plot, themes, or imagery, (e.g. the four Londons might have corresponded to the qualities of Blake’s four zoas, or aspects of God and man) but it never amounted to anything. Even the elemental magic system consists of five elements (the four classical elements plus bone), with blood magic as a sixth and superior form, so the four cities of Black, White, Red and Grey might be just a way for Schwab to use her favourite edgy aesthetic colour palette.

I always complain about YA authors who publish ‘adult’ novels largely identical to their YA fare only with more sex and swearing; this has something of the opposite problem, where the three main characters are all suggested to be some stripe of queer, but there’s practically no exploration of romance or attraction at all. The characters are still young enough to be in the upper-YA range (late teens-early twenties) and the story is weighed down by seemingly unnecessary and uninteresting bildungsroman elements

(Kell’s magic amnesia, meaning he has an origin to be discovered, and how Lila’s false eye, suggesting she was born with an affinity for blood magic

- these are the only two mysteries set up for the next books, and I will be very surprised if the answer to either of them turns out to be something imaginative). The magical services and improvements we are told that Kell has performed for the city or the royal family (within the span of about six years) would be more believable if he was older. 

The cast of characters is not very well-developed, so I don’t feel particularly attached to any of them yet, at the end of the first book. Kell is by far the strongest character, and his introduction is one of the most effective and best-written parts of the novel - introducing him through his magical coat of many colours suggests either a certain element of roguish dandyism which I always find immediately endearing in wizards (viz. Wizard Howl), or (as turns out to be the case) a degree of clever pragmatism. This trait is at odds with his sentimental, reactive behaviour for nearly the entire story, except for the one really interesting bit of characterisation he gets -

there was a past incident where the prince was kidnapped by rebels, and was rescued by Kell. The prince later pardoned all the rebels, saving them from execution, but Kell secretly hunted and killed them all anyway.

The hope that I am going to see a lot more of his ruthless and duplicitous tendencies is the only thing motivating me to read the second book. 

Prince Rhy only appears in a couple of scenes, so the only reason the reader has to care about him is because Kell cares about him.

I didn’t hate Lila as much as most people seem to, but her sole character motivation (to have adventures) is not something I find particularly interesting or relatable; she really only gets a pass from me for the totally superficial reason that androgynous crossdressing women are sexy. 

I have to assume that Holland is going to return from the ‘dead’ in the next book, because there’s hardly anything to his personality, motivations or backstory in this one, but Schwab has said she thinks he’s one of the most interesting characters to write. The true villains (evil twins occupying the throne of White London) are also totally flat characters who only appear in a handful of scenes. 

What is really lacking and would elevate the writing a good deal is thematic connections between the characters - it seems that all the characters should be foils of one another (Kell and Holland as the two last true wizards, in service to enemy crowns; the evil twins of White London and the ‘brother’ princes of Red London; probably Kell and Lila as magical orphans of mysterious origins) but not much is made of any of it; possibly this book is supposed to be all set up, but no hints are given that there is intended to be a pay off.