Shades of magic – The steel prince by V. E. Schwab
Happy Wednesday Books Lovers,
how are your readings going with all these new releases? I’m trying to follow them all, at least the most important ones, but it’s not easy at all. Yet it was very easy to read this graphic novel, out yesterday in Italy, which has just over 100 pages and which I managed to complete in less than half an hour before going to sleep 🙂
One thing I tell you right away is that you can read this graphic novel without having read the books of Shades of magic by V. E. Schwab. The Steel Prince is concerned with the past of some characters from the original trilogy, but I myself never finished the original trilogy due to lack of time.
Despite the two or three references to the trilogy, present exclusively in the author’s introduction, the rest may seem a story in itself, and it’s a nice excuse to use to approach Schwab’s books. And speaking of Schwab’s books, the invisible life of Addie laRue is releasing this month for Mondadori, a new fantasy book released only a few months ago in the original language, and the Italian version will keep the original cover.
As always, I thank Oscar for all these beautiful releases. And having said that let’s talk a bit about the plot. I stop just another little second to introduce you to illustrations. Unlike other graphic novels, these are not very precise in the delineation of characters and landscapes, but this does not detract from the rest of the story, it was probably also wanted.
The story explores the life of Maxim, Crown Prince of London, a London created by the author and very different from the one we know. Maxim is sent away by his father, but it will not be easy for him to get by. Maxim was trained to fight, but following the army and fighting thieves on the street are two different things.
But he has a particular power, he is able to control steel, his strong point. This will often help him in fights. But just when he begins to understand what life is like away from London a person arrives in the city. The pirate queen, and that will change everything.
He will have to fight Isra herself, his new friend if that can be called, to have a chance to defeat Arisa, the pirate queen.
Despite its short length, the story of this volume is much more complicated than it might seem. To understand it thoroughly it must be read in first person, I just hope I have expressed its beauty and peculiarity with these few words of mine, and I recommend that you follow the calendar and also read the reviews of others.
Before concluding I want to say two more words about this characters, because they surprised me a lot. I was surprised by their uniqueness, their different personalities, and their tenacity in fighting for what is right. I didn’t remember Schwab’s writing like this, I really enjoyed reliving it.
