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A Gathering of Shadows

A Darker Shade of Magic, Book 2

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A Gathering of Shadows

By: V. E. Schwab
Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
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About this listen

From number one New York Times best-selling author V.E. Schwab comes the sequel to A Darker Shade of Magic - A Gathering of Shadows!

Kell is plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, he is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila.

As Red London prepares for the Element Games - an extravagant international competition of magic - a certain pirate ship draws closer. But another London is coming back to life, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning.

Black London has risen again - and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.

©2016 V. E. Schwab (P)2020 W. F. Howes Classics Crime Fiction Fantasy Mystery

Critic Reviews

"Addictive and immersive, A Gathering of Shadows cements this series as a must-read." (Entertainment Weekly)

All stars
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It is such a wonderful story, I couldn't stop listening. Thr characters are so engaging. The change of readers from book one to two was disappointing. They used different terminology, accents and got the character's name wrong intermittently. It would be good to have a consistent reader across the series.

A wonderful series.

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Yes, yes, yes. Ok so I love a good bit of banter and this book turned me into a giddy school girl! This book is more character heavy than the first, which I actually loved! There is romance but it’s not central. These narrators are awesome!!!
I found the first book a little hard with the one narrator and world building, just wasn’t a fan of that type of audio narration, BUT this duet narration is my jam, so good you really feel like they are the characters and the way they are written - chefs kiss!

Omg the bants!

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Disliked the narration in this book. Steven Crossley’s narration in the first book was part if the reason why I downloaded the second. I dont think i will bother with the rest of the series with these narrators

Great story

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Unfortunately the narrator / narrators have been changed since book 1.

Firstly, I find the inconsistency from book 1 to here makes it very difficult to maintain the same imagery, and creates a character that is, in fact, a different character. This grates on me, and challenges every moment I try to continue listening.

Secondly, the female lead in this, narrates in exactly the same style as her performance in the radiant series of books… she may as well be performing the same character. The American accent simply does not work, either.

Extremely difficult to continue listening. I think I’ll buy the book instead.

Incredibly frustrating change of narrator

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Thoroughly enjoyed this second book in the series. Looking forward to the third.

No disrespect to the narrators, but it was a very strange choice of the publisher, or whoever makes these decisions to (a) switch narrator between the first and second book and (b) use Americans who are not able to do any English accent other than an upperclass accent. (Lila is a working class ‘street rat’ and the narrator of the first book got it perfect) and (c) most annoying of all, keep changing between a male and female narrator so that the voices of the main characters keep changing depending on which narrator is reading that particular chapter. Whose stupid idea was that?

Despite all that I still have it 5 stars because I love the story and managed to overcome my irritation with the constantly changing narration. But these books really need to be voiced by an English reader.

Great story. Ends on a cliff hangar.

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