DNF @ 55pages. I just couldn’t get into it

Seven years after the defeat of Osaron, Rhy Maresh's kingdom is under threat from enemies old and new. Alucard is still the lead man in his life (both personally and professionally) but has failed to identify any members of "The Hand", an underground group determined to overthrow the king. Lila and Kell return from covert seafaring missions to assist. While revisiting beloved characters from the Darker Shade of Magic series is satisfying, the real gem of the story is a Tes. The new character is a scrappy tinkerer who cannot wield magic but can see it and, most importantly, repair it. Meanwhile, in Gray London, the child queen is seven years older and determined to restore magic to her nearly magic-less land. The extensive flashbacks are confusing and could have been integrated more efficiently. Schwab's lavish descriptive style would be irritating if not for the skill in using it. ( )

Vor sieben Jahren wurde der Schatten besiegt und eigentlich könnte alles gut sein, doch es gehen Gerüchte, dass man mithilfe eines magischen Artefakts ein Attentat auf den König verüben will. Die Magierin Lila geht der Sache nach. Dabei trifft sie auch auf eine junge Tüftlerin namens Tes, welche die Fäden der Magie manipulieren kann. Damit könnte sie das Gleichgewicht der Welten verändern.
Ich mag den sehr besonderen Erzählstil von V. E. Schwab und konnte an diesem Buch daher nicht vorbeikommen. Als ich mich für dieses Buch (den Auftaktband der Threads of Power Reihe) entschieden habe, wusste ich nicht, dass es das Spin off zur Weltenwanderer-Trilogie ist. Es hätte mir den Einstieg wahrscheinlich leichter gemacht. Dennoch ist es auch ohne diese Vorkenntnisse lesbar.
Die Charaktere sind sehr gut ausgearbeitet und jede Figur hat ihren eigenen Charakter. Das Zusammenspiel verläuft nicht ohne Konflikte. Ich mochte Tes sehr gerne, aber auch Kell und Nadiya haben mir gefallen. Lilas Art dagegen mochte ich nicht, aber eine interessante Figur ist sie schon. Dagegen ist die Darstellung der Welten für mich etwas zu kurz geraten, aber vielleicht fehlen mir da einfach die Vorkenntnisse.
Viele Zeiten- und Perspektivwechsel machen die Sache spannend. Außerdem gibt es Einblicke in die Vergangenheit, so dass man auch einen Überblick bekommt, wie sich in den letzten Jahren alles entwickelt hat.
Es ist eine fesselnde Geschichte mit einer komplexen Handlung und einem tollen Erzählstil. Eigentlich ist es so gar nicht mein Genre, aber dennoch habe ich das Buch gerne gelesen. Nun bin ich gespannt auf die Fortsetzung. ( )

It's been seven years since the events of A Conjuring of Light and life in Red London continues with new dangers on the horizon. Rhy sits on the throne but is facing threats from the mysterious society that calls itself the Hand. The Hand is convinced that magic in the kingdom is waning and that the fault lies with their king being unable to wield magic. As the Hand plots, it will pull a young woman named Tes who can see the threads of magic into the fray. The conflict will also bring Kell and Lila back from their lives on the sea to the rougher waters of politics and conspiracy. Meanwhile, in White London there is a child queen on the throne who is helping the kingdom as its magic slowly revives. But all may not be as it seems with the young monarch...

Diving back into the world Schwab has created is such a delight. Her characters continue to hold amazing depth and was so pleased to see familiar faces and encounter new ones. Schwab does a brilliant job of building suspense and setting up mysteries, some of which are resolved in this novel and others which remain open. A fantastic opening to a new trilogy that fans of The Darker Shade of Magic trilogy should definitely seek out. My only quibble is that the hardcover edition of the book has quite thin pages. It makes the book less hefty, with its 600+ page count, but it did lead to accidentally turning more than one page a few times. ( )

The Fragile Threads of Power is V. E. Schwab's return to the world she created in the Shades of Magic trilogy. While other readers are lauding this new trilogy and its characters, I confess their enthusiasm baffles me. I did not enjoy my time with Kell, Lila, Tes, and Kosika. Even worse, I had to force myself to finish the book, each time hoping something would click and I would find it impossible to put down.

I suspect part of my issues with The Fragile Threads of Power is that I never finished the original series. In theory, you don't need to read the Shades of Magic books before starting this new series. Ms. Schwab encourages new readers to jump right into The Fragile Threads of Power without worrying about what happened. Unfortunately, much of the story refers to events or people from those first three books. There is an entire untold story behind Lila's and Kell's every interaction. It isn't just between Lila and Kell. There are entire unspoken conversations between almost every character who you were supposed to first meet in the previous trilogy. Without that knowledge, you are missing a key component of this new story.

Plus, Ms. Schwab often refers to events in the Shades of Magic trilogy, the big battle, the enemy they fought, and the consequences. Unfortunately, she refers only; she provides no details for new readers. You can only infer what you can from these references without grasping the full picture. There is no world-building because Ms. Schwab already did it. She might be encouraging new readers that The Fragile Threads of Power is the first book in a stand-alone trilogy, but I do not believe it is. She relies too much on the events from the first trilogy and the world-building she already did for that series.

To make matters worse, The Fragile Threads of Power is slow. Most of the book is one long introduction to each of the characters, with particular attention to the new ones. For Tes and Kosika, we get their complete backstory and everything they experienced that brought them to this point. This doesn't leave much in the way of establishing a new story. What action exists occurs at the end, and it has all the feels of a skirmish meant to test each side. By the end of the novel, there are still too many players and too many side stories to be able to discern what the main threat will be.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed The Fragile Threads of Power more had I not read the first book in the Shades of Magic trilogy. It might be that I would have been less frustrated without what little knowledge I had about the different Londons and the returning characters. Maybe The Fragile Threads of Power is the first book in a new, stand-alone series. All I do know is that I found The Fragile Threads of Power to be tedious reading, with more character introduction than plot, and overly reliant on details from the previous series. I did not click with any of the characters and do not feel that any are in the type of danger that would make me want to read more of their story. I'll leave that to the fans, of which there are many. ( )