"Kosarin veut ouvrir une porte entre les mondes" — that line hit me at like hour three and I literally stopped mid-set at the gym, barbell in hand, just standing there like a fool because the CONCEPT of someone threading magic between parallel Londons again? In FRENCH? My brain short-circuited.
Okay so let me be real with y'all. This is V.E. Schwab's Threads of Power — the sequel series to Shades of Magic — but it's the French edition. And I need to talk about that because it changes EVERYTHING about the listening experience.
Three Narrators Walk Into Red London
So we've got Sandrine L'ara, Céline Melloul, and Jérôme Keen splitting narrator duties, and honestly? Bold choice for a 23-hour fantasy that's already dense with magic systems and political intrigue. The pacing is well-measured — nobody rushes through the worldbuilding dumps, which is critical because Schwab's multiple-London universe has layers on layers. Sandrine L'ara in particular got praise from French listeners as "formidable," and I get it — there's a warmth to her delivery that makes you lean in during the quieter character moments. Jérôme Keen handles a lot of the tension-heavy scenes and his voice has this gravel to it that works for the darker threads of the story.
But here's my honest take: because I'm listening in French (and my French is conversational, not native), I couldn't bump to my usual 2.0x. I had to sit at 1.5x like a PEASANT. And at 23 hours, that's a commitment. The multi-narrator setup helps break the monotony though — each voice shift signals a POV change, so even when the plot meanders (and it does meander in the middle third), your ear gets reset.
The Schwab Problem (Affectionate)
If you know Schwab's work, you know what you're getting: gorgeous worldbuilding, morally gray characters who make terrible decisions, and slow-burn tension that builds across books rather than resolving in one. This is Book 1 of a new trilogy set seven years after A Conjuring of Light, and it carries that "setup book" energy hard. New characters get introduced — Kosarin, who can open doors between worlds (which should be impossible), and a handful of returning favorites. The magic system around the threads of power feels like a natural evolution from the original series.
But — and this is me being honest — it's a LOT of table-setting. The first eight or nine hours are mostly positioning pieces on a chessboard. For a BookToker who DNFs at chapter 3 if nothing's happening? I had to push through on pure faith in Schwab. And she does pay it off. The back third picks up momentum like it's been shot out of a cannon, and by the final few hours I was genuinely stressed on the elliptical machine, gripping the handles too hard.
The spice is minimal here — this isn't romantasy in the Fourth Wing sense. The tension is emotional and political, not romantic. If you're coming for the slow-burn ship content, it's there, but it's a whisper, not a scream. Honestly the last time I felt this kind of restrained emotional tension without much romance payoff was in Sword Song — different world, same slow-burn frustration that somehow keeps you hooked anyway. The tension is chef's kiss when it hits, but it's the "will they survive" kind, not the "will they kiss" kind.
Listening in Translation Hits Different
Here's something I didn't expect: hearing Schwab's prose in French actually made certain passages land harder. French has this musicality that English doesn't always have, and the descriptions of magic — the way threads of power are described as weaving through reality — sound almost poetic in translation. The flip side? Some of the snappy dialogue loses its punch. Schwab writes great banter in English, and translation inevitably smooths some of those edges out.
The production is clean — no weird audio cuts, no volume inconsistencies between the three narrators, which honestly surprised me because multi-narrator productions can be messy. Someone did their job right in the editing booth.
Who Gets This on Their TBR (And Who Doesn't)
If you loved A Darker Shade of Magic and want to revisit that universe with new stakes, this is your next credit. If you're a French-language listener who's been starving for high fantasy with good narration, this is legitimately one of the better options out there. Skip it if you need fast pacing from minute one, or if you're looking for romance-heavy fantasy — this ain't it. And if your French isn't strong, maybe wait for the English version — 23 hours of a language you're half-processing is a workout for your brain, not just your ears.
The 2AM Verdict From My LED-Lit Cave
Schwab built something here that I respect more than I love — but I think that's the nature of first books in trilogies. She's setting up dominoes I KNOW are going to fall spectacularly. The narration trio carries this through its slower stretches, and that final act had me sitting in the gym parking lot refusing to turn off the car. I'll be back for Tome 2. Probably at 1.5x again. (My algorithm is screaming at me in French now and I'm not mad about it.)
