Night of Knives was my favorite volume of the three, because it involves one of my favorite tropes: a set of “trials” or a competition that is incredibly dangerous: high risk, high reward, as Maxim sees it. We quickly get to see his character develop into something more stable and understanding, but Night of Knives is where Maxim truly begins to shine and we start to see the King within. The Steel Prince did an excellent job of setting the stage by showing us where Maxim began: as an arrogant, slightly oblivious princeling who needed to learn not only how to rule, but also how to empathize with his people. That said, I tore through this trilogy of graphic novels in one very quick sitting!

My only complaint was that I thought the art style was a little dark and muddled during the big fight scenes, so it sometimes was difficult to follow along with exactly what was happening, but I think that could easily be a “me” issue more than a problem with the art itself. While none of the volumes explicitly spoil details from the original trilogy, I would personally recommend waiting until after finishing A Conjuring of Light before picking up this graphic novel series. This was incredibly fast-paced and fascinating! I love prequels and getting to go back into the past to learn more about a world I’ve already spent so much time falling in love with, and the series has a wonderful coupling of both old and new details and characters. I’ve been missing the Shades series and characters lately, so I thought it was high time that I read the graphic novel series following Maxim in his younger days.

I’m trying something new with this series review format, and I hope you all like it! There, he encounters an unruly band of soldiers, a lawless landscape, and the intoxicatingly deadly presence of the newly returned pirate queen, Arisa…

The youthful Maresh is sent to a violent and unmanageable port city on the Blood Coast of Verose, on strict orders from his father, King Nokil Maresh, to cut his military teeth in this lawless landscape. TITLES: Shades of Magic, Volumes 1-3: The Steel Prince, Night of Knives, and The Rebel Armyĭelve into the thrilling, epic tale of the young and arrogant prince Maxim Maresh, long before he became the king of Red London and adoptive father to Kell, the lead of A Darker Shade of Magic!

The shades of magic series