The Corrupting Influence of Power

The most ubiquitous theme in the novel is that too much power in the wrong hands, usually in the form of magic, can have disastrous consequences. Black London functions as a basic allegory for this message. The citizens of Black London went mad with magical power and caused the self-destruction of the entire city. The reader is informed of this very early on in the novel, as Kell explains to the Prince Regent in Grey London, “The people fed on the magic and the magic fed on them until it ate their bodies and their minds and then their souls” (23). This is why the black stone must be destroyed or sent back to where it belongs; it is a relic of the site of corrupted power, and it wields terrible power of its own over anyone who comes into contact with it...