Shades of Magic (series)

The Shades of Magic series is an adult fantasy series written by V. E. Schwab.
==Main series==
===Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince===
* Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince (2019)
* Shades of Magic: Night of Knives (2019)
* Shades of Magic: The Rebel Army (2020)
===Shades of Magic===
* A Darker Shade of Magic (2015)
* A Gathering of Shadows (2016)
* A Conjuring of Light (2017)
===Threads of Power===
* The Fragile Threads of Power (2023)
* Untitled #2
* Untitled #3
==Extra content==
Short stories included in special editions:
* A Treatise on the Erasure of English Magic
* Brothers
* Winner Takes All
* The Gift of Magic
* Rhy's Guide to Red London
* The Consequence of Triumph
* Unfinished Business
* A Life Erased
* A Friendly Game
Others:
* A Royal Affair — a short story included in A Universe of Wishes: A We Need Diverse Books Anthology about Alucard's courtship with Rhy and how he became the captain of the Night Spire"I wrote a story called "A Royal Affair" for this anthology. It's Alucard's story, from his courtship with Rhy, to the events that led to him becoming captain of the Night Spire."
==Future projects==
* A Darker Shade of Magic (movie)
* Untitled short story about Lila Bard"Today's office. Pictured: a 400-year-old house, and a computer containing my next novel, a short story about Lila Bard, a TV pitch, daily footage from First Kill, and a pile of big ideas."
* "Ballad for Black London":File:IG September plans.png
==Official merchandise==
On October 27, 2018, an official clothing line, A Darker Shade of Clothing, based on the Shades of Magic series was launched on Jordandené."dear #shadesofmagic fans, we have what you need. our official collection with best-selling author @veschwab is now live! ✨🖤"
V. E. Schwab has teamed up with Lit Escalates to produce official merchandise based on various of her books. The first product was an element set; it was limited to 250 and came with a signed certificate of authenticity. The item was released on June 24, 2022."Collaboration with Lit Escalates" — V. E. Schwab on Instagram They also released a replica of Lila Bard's dagger on October 28, 2022."Lila's dagger" — Lit Escalates on Instagram They were handmade by Joshua Polus (The Orange Armory)."Dagger production" — Lit Escalates on Instagram
Apart from replicas, the company also sells regular merchandise such as clothing, patches, and tote bags.
==History==
Around 2012/13, Schwab started working on Shades of Magic"THE JOURNEY TO A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC" — V. E. Schwab on Wordpress when she got the image in her mind of Kell Maresh and Lila Bard's collision in an alley in Grey London."Long before A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC was a story, or even a real idea, it was nothing but an image in my head, a still frame of a single moment, when a young magician collided with a mysterious girl dressed as a boy, and she picked his pocket. This moment, the meeting of Kell and Lila, was the true first step on the journey that would become the Shades of Magic series.""5 Questions with V. E. Schwab!" — Owlcrate"I wanted to write a book about magic, and multiple worlds, and then one day I had this image in my head of a boy running through a wall, trying to escape something bad, and colliding with a girl dressed as a boy, who promptly robbed him. The rest came from that collision."
==Trivia==
* The majority of people in the Shades of Magic world, a "not binary" world, are attracted to power rather than gender."TITAN COMICS THE STEEL PRINCE: 10 MINUTES WITH V.E. SCHWAB" — Book Riot Furthermore, V. E. Schwab has stated that all characters "should be presumed queer unless stated otherwise""Canon is tricky in Shades, since characters should be presumed queer unless stated otherwise." and that, so far, "only" George III and George IV are heterosexual."The only He[t]ero person in that series is King George."
* While Schwab loves portal fantasy stories, she dislikes maps. She, thus, decided to create one world four times in four different ways instead of four wholly different worlds for the Shades of Magic series. She hoped this would make it easier for readers to grasp the worldbuilding as they only had to learn about one world, essentially."Week1- Shades of Magic Readalong" — V. E. Schwab on YouTube
* She decided to set the series in London because her mother is from southern England and when Schwab first went to visit England as a child, she was fascinated by the fact that individual places were older than her homeland the USA and that "history [was] an ever-present thing all around [her]." It was her "first real physical sense of history and antiquity.""Not Yet 30, This Fantasy Writer Is an Old Pro" — The New York Times"My mum's English, and I remember the first time I traveled to London with her as a child, there was just something...enchanting. Coming from the US, where everything is so comparatively young, London was my first taste of true antiquity, of history layered like strata in a city, buildings upon buildings, new upon old. It always struck me as magical, full of secrets, and then when I decided that ADSOM was going to play on the idea of 'sources' of magic, the Thames seemed a natural pin in the map."
** She also chose London because she "wanted a city with strong but simple geographic markings (like the Thames) so that [she]--and readers--could hold a minimalistic version in their minds as [she] scraped off the details in each world and then built new ones."London setting — V. E. Schwab's comment on YouTube
* The concept of Vitari was added rather late to the story as the first draft of A Darker Shade of Magic did not feature it."An argument for revision: the first draft of A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC had no Vitari. The black stone was a tool of magic, but there was no entity within it, no creature guiding it, nothing with a WILL. Thus, there were no possessions, no spreading sickness. Vitari was added in the first round of edits, that magical time when an author takes their book apart and searches for ways to make it better. As you can imagine, ADSOM would have been a very different book without it."
* The world and story of Shades of Magic was created by both V. E. Schwab and her editor, Miriam Weinberg.A Darker Shade of Magic (Collector's Edition) — Interview between author and editor
* Almost all of Schwab's books have been a "reaction to something [she has] read—or something [she has not] been able to find.""True story: almost every one of my books has been a reaction to something I've read—or something I haven't been able to find. Exasperation, frustration, anger—they are powerful sources of magic." Shades of Magic was her reaction to landscape of fantasy,"SHADES OF MAGIC was a reaction to landscape of fantasy" meaning the contents of many fantasy books that are published."The current landscape = what's being published, what's being promoted, what's succeeding, etc. I read 3 books back-to-back where the female characters were literally either princesses or whores, always objects, and once, they didn't even merit names."
* She loves to play with the idea of doors, may they be "between life and death, mundane and supernatural, [or] insider and outsider." Shades of Magic is her exploration of doors between worlds."I'm always playing with the ideas of doors in my books. The doors between life and death, mundane and supernatural, insider and outsider, and in ADSOM, I got to play with the idea of doors between worlds. It's in some ways a much more classic incarnation of the motif, but for me, it was entirely new. I loved the idea of creating 3-4 very different worlds, tethered to one another by only one key element--the Thames river--and diverging in every other way. I'm not comfortable leaving our world entirely, so I used a realistic London as a jumping-off point, but from there I got to play.""Interview: Victoria Schwab on Why Fantasy Is More Important Than Ever" — The Portalist
* Schwab's favorite aspect of worldbuilding was to name the ships."When I was writing Shades of Magic, my favorite part of the worldbuilding was naming the ships."
* She has expressed interest to write more comics in the Shades of Magic world, though with a "shift [of] focus, either in time, or to another London.""V.E. Schwab Talks Bones, Knives, and The Steel Prince" — WWAC
* There will not be a prequel series detailing the time period when the borders between the four Londons were still open. If at all, Schwab might write a short story about that one day.No prequels — V. E. Schwab's comment on YouTube
* Various animes and Avatar: The Last Airbender heavily influenced Shades of Magic."30 min Q+A!" — V. E. Schwab on Instagram
==References==
pt-br:Tons de Magia (série)
Category:Series