Stephen Oakwood has emerged victorious against the schemes of his aristocratic family. Now he finally has the opportunity to do what he’s been wanting to do for a long time: track down his father.
But doing so won’t be easy. Stephen’s not so isolated any more, but the contacts he’s making in the magical world—everyone from the corporation he works for to the mother he’s just beginning to reconnect with—all have agendas of their own. And now a new group is emerging from the shadows, calling themselves the Winged.
Their leader, the mysterious Byron, promises that he can show Stephen how to find his father, but he wants something in return.
Following that trail will throw Stephen into greater danger than he’s ever faced before. To survive, he’ll need to use all of his tricks and sigils, and pick up some new ones. Only then will he be able to prevail against his enemies, and find out who’s really pulling the strings.
An Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka is the second book in the Inheritance of Magic series, and it’s a solid follow-up, just not quite as tight as the first.
The magic system remains one of the highlights. Jacka clearly enjoys building out how it all works, and this book spends a lot of time doing exactly that. If you’re here for worldbuilding, for learning the rules and the politics, and what’s lurking underneath the polished corporate front of official magical society, you’ll be well fed. Plot progression in the traditional sense? Less so. The blurb promises more momentum than the book actually delivers. But the exploration never feels like padding. Things happen, people get stabbed, situations go sideways. It just doesn’t add up to much forward movement by the end.
Stephen is still a protagonist worth following. His relationship with money feels genuinely grounded in a way that not every author manages, and the web of family dynamics and hidden agendas around him keeps things interesting even when you can’t quite get a read on anyone’s real motivations. That opacity works well. It suits his position as an outsider trying to piece things together, and the intrigue has a nice slow-burn quality to it.
Where the book loses a little shine is in two places. Stephen’s competence has crept up a notch too high. In book one the wins felt earned and sometimes lucky. Here he’s starting to feel like he can handle most things. The side character interactions have a similar issue, feeling more like information delivery than real relationships developing. Both are niggles rather than problems, but they take some of the freshness away.
A darker, grittier contemporary fantasy with a protagonist who feels younger than his years and a world that rewards patient readers. If you like your magic systems meaty, your politics layered, and your heroes refreshingly short on cash, this series is worth your time.
