What’s it all about?:
In a world ruled by six ancient Houses of Magic, a girl and a boy begin an epic and dangerous journey of discovery . . . Lilith Shadow, princess of darkness, is struggling with her growing powers. Castle Gloom is filling with ghosts, zombies roam the country and people throughout Gehenna are disappearing. Then Lily is attacked in her own castle by a mysterious sorcerer known as Dreamweaver and his army of jewel-spiders whose bites send victims to sleep. Thorn, and his giant bat Hades, must save Lily from the realm of sleep and help her overcome the evil Dreamweaver in order for her to reclaim her kingdom.
What did I think?:
Welcome to my post on the blog tour for Dream Magic, the second book in the Shadow Magic series by British author, Joshua Khan, a series that Rick Riordan has quoted on the covers: “I defy you not to love this story.” Well, with an endorsement like that, what else could I do but read it? I read the first book, Shadow Magic recently, check out my post HERE and definitely recommend reading the series in order to get the back story of the characters and an introduction to a beautiful fantasy world that I just loved.
So, as mentioned in the synopsis, this world involves a number of different lands, ruled by six Houses of Magic. In the first story, it focuses on the House of Shadows and the thirteen year old ruler, Lilith Shadow who takes up the mantle of ruler after her parents and brother were murdered. She makes friends with Thorn, a peasant boy who is currently a squire at Castle Gloom and along with his giant bat, Hades, helps her deal with an attempt on her own life shortly after ancient enemies, the Solars from Lumina come to Gehenna after she becomes engaged to their heir, Gabriel. Here’s where we are now. Lily is no longer engaged to Gabriel and is somewhat weakened after the surprising events at the end of the last story but is gradually growing stronger with the help of her father, now a ghost but managing to appear to her in the library of Castle Gloom and helping her amass the skills she needs to defend her land and her people.
For there is a new threat in Gehenna. The trolls have started marching, determined to create a war as their people have started disappearing and they blame the House of Shadows. However, villagers from all over the lands, inside and outside Gehenna are going missing, including Lily’s protector and faithful executioner, Tyburn. When Lily and Thorn investigate, they uncover a strange plague of jewel spiders that put everyone they bite into a seemingly endless sleep. After many frightening incidents, they discover that a powerful sorcerer is controlling these jewel spiders for his own dastardly reasons. What is his connection with the House of Shadows and why is he so hell-bent on revenge? Can Lily and Thorn solve the puzzle of what’s going on before they lose any more of her people or become embroiled in a bloody war with the trolls?
Once again, Joshua Khan knocks it out of the park with an amazing fantastical world that was so exciting to read about and was a genuine roller-coaster of a reading experience. He has a huge, seemingly endless imagination for creating new worlds and it was another magical story that I thoroughly enjoyed. We learn a lot more about the characters back stories, especially Thorn and his family in this book which I appreciated and even a tid-bit into the stoic Tyburn’s past which only made me hunger for more! Of course, it was wonderful to see the return of Hades the giant bat who has to be one of my favorite non-human characters and I hope to see lots more of him in future books in the series. Finally, I also love that the author doesn’t shy away from using potentially scary creatures, like zombies and massive spiders, which is exactly what I wanted from authors I chose to read when I was younger. I would suggest that because of this it might not be suitable for much younger children but if you have a particularly precocious reading child – go for it, it’s certainly a wonderful series to read!
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Joshua Khan was born in Britain. From very early on he filled himself with the stories of heroes, kings and queens until there was hardly any room for anything else. He can tell you where King Arthur was born* but not what he himself had for breakfast. So, with a head stuffed with tales of legendary knights, wizards and great and terrible monsters it was inevitable Joshua would want to create some of his own. Hence SHADOW MAGIC. Josh lives in London with his family, but he’d rather live in a castle. It wouldn’t have to be very big, just as long as it had battlements.
*Tintagel, in case you were wondering.
Website: http://www.joshuakhan.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/writerjoshkhan
Thank you to everyone who invited me to be a part of this blog tour, I’ve had a great time doing it. Dream Magic, the second book in the Shadow Magic series was released on 6th April 2017 by Scholastic Books and is available from all good bookshops now!
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34740944-dream-magic
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dream-Magic-Shadow-Joshua-Khan/dp/1407172093
Want to know more? Why not check out all the other stops on the blog tour from my fellow bloggers?