The Black Prism

In The Black Prism, magic is based on colors, where drafters can create a solid form from the different colors in light waves. Each color creates a different texture and has a different property. But the more you draft color, the closer you come to your death because the magic is slowly killing you.I have been looking forward to reading the Lightbringer series for quite a while, and that small bit about how the magic system worked was all I knew before starting. I didn’t know about the plot at all, but knowing about the color magic that slowly kills its user was enough to hook me into reading the book. While I’ve been excited to read this series, I’ve also felt a bit intimidated because each book is 600-700 pages and I knew it would be a commitment. I shouldn’t have been scared to start the series though because this book was so easy to read. I fell right into the story, even with the new and complex magic system, and I found myself engrossed in the plot and the characters and the magic. I usually can’t sit and read for hours on end but with this book I found it to be easy to do just that. I never wanted to put it down, but life’s duties kept calling.I actually started this book by reading through the whole glossary and appendix because, a few chapters in, I already had questions and I didn’t want to be confused. This helped me understand the magic system and the world right from the beginning, which I found to be super useful. This is one of those books that I constantly kept referencing the information at the back to keep everything straight in my mind, and I’m so glad the author included these reference materials.I’m also grateful for the map because I love to reference locations as they’re mentioned in the story. The only problem I had was that the map is upside down—South is at the top—and it took me five minutes of staring at it to realize this. I hope this has some important meaning we find out later because otherwise what’s the point of an upside-down map?The description of the Chromeria with colorful buildings that turn to always be facing the sun sounds so neat and I wish I could see a city like that in real life, or at least some fanart depiction of it. But as much as I love the Chromeria so far, I feel like it is actually not a very good place.This book had some pretty great characters. Gavin was a really neat protagonist. I enjoyed learning about him as the Prism and what those duties entail as far as keeping all the colors balanced in the world. He has a lot of secrets, and I loved discovering snippets of these throughout the story. For example, what are his seven purposes? I really want to know!I also rather enjoyed Kip and the mystery surrounding his parentage because it was clear from the beginning that Gavin wasn’t telling anyone the full story. We got bits and pieces along the way, and I love a good mystery aspect in a book. Although I will say that Kip was rather impulsive at times. He would blurt out offensive statements then immediately be like “crap why did I say that?” I just wasn’t sure why he was acting that way but I guess that’s just who he is.I still don’t know how I feel about Dazen. It’s interesting that we learned right from the beginning that he wasn’t dead as everyone suspected, and I’m curious to see how this will play out in future books. Because of very spoilery reasons, I actually feel sorry for him right now.Karris was okay. I mostly just felt like she was angry the whole time, but I guess part of that can be expected because of her history with Gavin. I kept waiting for her to learn the full truth because I wanted so badly to see her reaction. I think I will like her more as the series progresses.I really liked Liv from the first chapter. And knowing what her mission was and that the Prism didn’t know what or who she was in the beginning just added to the suspense and made me even more excited to keep reading about her. Plus I really like that she’s a superviolet drafter. For some reason, that’s the most interesting color to me, so I loved seeing what she could do with it. Also, she has me very intrigued with what she could do given her position at the end of the book. I’m very excited to see her character progression.Even though I know Lord Omnichrome is the villain and a terrible person, I can’t help but agree with some of his ideals. What he says about the Chromeria makes sense in a way. The good are not always fully good and the bad are not always fully bad. I’m very curious to see how his beliefs affect other characters and the rest of the story in other books.One minor problem I had was the writing style at times. Weeks’s writing was good for the most part but occasionally he would explain something and I wouldn’t understand what he was saying and I would be confused about that aspect of the world or magic system. I did have to reread a few paragraphs because of this issue, but for the most part, I thought the writing was good.One thing, though, that was kind of jarring about Weeks’s writing style was that thoughts in the first person were not italicized. It really threw me off for the first few chapters that I saw it, but it gradually became a normal part of the story and I stopped noticing it as much. I thought this was an interesting way to approach writing in third person, and even though I didn’t think I would like it, I did. It was kind of like third-person limited mixed with first-person.Something else I didn’t really like was how long the final battle scene was. It was almost two hundred pages long, and by the end, I was just exhausted of reading about the drafters fighting. I much preferred the non-combat scenes of the book. I’m positive there will be many more fight scenes in the later books, so I can only hope they do not last as long or they are written in a way that is more entertaining to me. I was fine with the first three-fourths, but during the very ending I was just wanting to be done with battle and I didn’t really care what happened anymore.This book was very compelling, not only because of the story itself, but also because each chapter ended on a cliffhanger but the next chapter would be a new character’s perspective. I had to keep reading to find out what happened next for each of the five character perspectives. It’s been awhile since I read a book like this, one where I was actually excited to know what would happen next in such a way.Overall, I thought The Black Prism was a fantastic book. It has a very unique and impressive magic system, a well-built world, a great cast of characters, some mysterious aspects, intense fight scenes, vivid imagery, and a compelling plot. The writing did take some getting used to in the beginning, but eventually I came to enjoy it. I would recommend to anyone who is looking for an enthralling fast-paced epic fantasy. I’m very much looking forward to where this series takes me on its journey.“Moments of beauty sustain us through hours of ugliness.”

I decided to re-read this book before I started the sequel, The Blinding Knife. While I'm really glad that I did read it again, I will say that it didn't hold up quite as well as I expected. I still really liked the book, but I don't think I liked it nearly as much as when I first read it. I think that my biggest problem is that the World Building really slows the book down, especially since it's such an extensive and original world. I really gobbled it up all of the info the first time I read it, but now with it repeating everything I already know, it can be a little tedious. My other big problem with the book is the pacing, as it just never slows down. I mean I think that the whole book only takes place during one week, or maybe two with it skipping some of it near the end for the wall building montage. I would have loved some time to just absorb the world, but right when you think you might get a moment for the characters to explore and grow, they're thrown another obstacle and they have to leave what they were doing at a moments notice. I also thought it was weird when the characters would every once in awhile comment about how so much has happened and it seems like it occurred forever ago when it was actually only a day or two. I guess part of the reason that the characters couldn't get a break, was because other characters were in trouble and the narrative, even though it jumped from character to character after every chapter break, tried to stay completely sequential. Furthermore, while I loved the depth of the characters, sometimes the choices they made felt forced, as a way to drive the plot forward without making a lot of sense. I mean of course people in real life make stupid choices for undefined reasons, but I kind of felt that Weeks relied on this a little too much in The Black Prism.Now that I'm done talking about some of the things I disliked during my re-read, I thought that I'd talk a bit about why I still really loved the book. My favorite thing has to be the magic system, as it's completely original and really well developed. I love how there are so many defined limitations to the magic, but it also has almost unlimited ways to develop and evolve. I love the multiple facets of each color, where they have a specific smell when the luxin (physical construct) is created, they each dissipate into the environment differently, how they all have different varied uses, and especially how each color instills a unique emotion when the person drafts. I also really appreciate that drafting has a very strong consequence, where there's limit to how much each person can draft in their life, and once that limit is reached the color in their eyes breaks the halo and extends past the Iris and into the whites of the eye. When this happens, they become erratic, dangers, crazy, and uncontrollable, completely lost in the emotions of their color. This results in a policy where they are immediately killed if they break the halo, and each year people that are too close to the breaking point are voluntarily ritually sacrificed by the Prism. There's also interesting aspects to the magic system and world building with people that have access to more colors (bi-chrome/poly-chrome) are a higher class than the other drafters, and there's some interesting ties with religion and superstition with how the Prism (one who can draft all of the colors) is chosen. Some of the other world building could be a little confusing, with all of the different cultures, as there isn't too clear of a similarity to our world. However, all you really need to know here, is each different country is part of the empire, but they really don't care too much for each other. Also, that people with blue eyes make more powerful drafters, and people with dark skin can slightly hide what color they're drafting as it doesn't show, making them more dangerous in battle. There's some interesting gender roles in this book, as in many ways they are slightly subservient to powerful men, but in general they are better drafters as most of them are superchromats, meaning they can see and draft the perfect shade of a color, while men just have to power through with more Will to form an equal luxin creation, this also results in men having a much shorter lifespan than women. So overall, the roles of women are closer to what they are currently in our world, than what they would have been like in a similar time period (black powder muskets flintlock pistols and cannons). Overall, it's the World Building is really extensive, and it provides an excellent playground for Weeks, it was a little annoying to go through it all a second time, but it's amazingly original and it has plenty of ways to grow as the story moves along.For the story of this book, it's at a little interesting time, where around 16 years ago there was a huge civil war where hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Really, this whole time period would have made an excellent book, but it is very interesting where different facts and tidbits are exposed various ways throughout the book, so the reader gets a good view of everything that occurred during that time period. There's a lot of the story that I don't want to go into, as there are some huge spoilers that I don't want to reveal, but I will say that all of the little to big plot twists are interesting and very well done. The basic plot of this book, is that as a consequence of the War, one of the countries Tyrea (or something like that) that sided with the losing side has really become the whipping boy for all of the other countries in the empire. Resulting from this, the current leader of that country is rebelling from the Chromeria empire, calling himself a king and started his own school to train his own Drafters away from the eyes of the Prism and the rest of the empire. At the start of the book, the King decides to make an example of one one of the towns that has refused to send levies, and this town just so happens to the home of one of the main characters, Kip. Then due to some coincidences, the Prism arrives in time to save Kip but not before just about everyone and everything he's ever known is destroyed (a common fantasy trope). Everything that follows is really the result of what happens in the beginning, as the Prism, Gavin Guile, tries to stop the rebellion before it turns into a full out war. It's a very enjoyable story, but at times it doesn't really seem to have a middle or an end. It's really more of a cliffhanger ending, setting up the sequel. I remember really wishing I could read the following book right away, but instead being forced to wait two years, thankfully with this re-read I was able to start the sequel right after I finished.The other best part of the book, has to be the characters, as they are very well developed unique characters whose actions and motivations lie in the varied shades of grey. There are multiple main characters, and each one has a very unique voice and point of view in the world. I generally liked all of them, but the jumping around every chapter between them could be annoying and they many times make very frustrating decisions. I know many people disliked Kip, but personally he was probably my favorite character, as I was also an intelligent but fat and awkward teenager, and I really related to his character. My close second character was Gavin, as he is very unique and has an incredible amount of layers to his character. He could be a little too powerful at times, but he does have limitations, and he probably has a great villain to face in the Color Prince for the upcoming books. The other characters are also very good, but I thought the choice Liv made near the end of the book was kind of goofy (it was slightly hinted at earlier in the book, but I hope that things change for her in the following books) and while Karris could be a little goofy at times (reads a little too much like a man attempting to write a believable woman character) the reveal later in the book was very powerful and provides a great look into her character and why she is who she is.In the end, while I didn't love the book as much as I did the first time, I still really loved the book, and the writing has a great flow, it's a real page turner. I would definitely recommend this book to fantasy fans, especially ones that enjoy unique extensive magic systems. I'm already reading the sequel, and enjoying it so far.

I stopped reading at the line 'two squat bricks of bread and a pale wine in a clear glass cup.' All bricks are squat, there's no such thing as a tall brick. And most people would just say a glass. A glass of white wine... a pale wine in a clear glass cup. I've lost sleep over that. I can't concentrate at work and it's ruining my marriage. A PALE WINE IN A CLEAR GLASS CUP. That's actually in a published book, written by a man and seen by an editor.

This was an odd one for me, after all the reviews for this I had seen; I was expecting to really enjoy it and so was excited to begin.I actually quite enjoyed the first 200 pages or so, there are some nice ideas here, although I had noticed that Weeks expected you to make some leaps with his world building and very much keeps you in the dark in this story of light.But nearing the end it just wasn’t working for me and I couldn’t work out why, so I decided to write a list of pros and cons.Pros• The premise for this story should work and I was eager to see it well executed• The magic system is a nice idea• There is some intrigue to the war that beset the story• Gavin seemed kinda cool• A couple of relationships were exciting to witness unfold (Gavin and his brother)• I liked KarrisCons• Kip is a fat annoying moron• You soon realise that Gavin is an arrogant know it all• I could only visualise the Luxin as an ugly coloured plastic• Weeks doesn’t tell you anything about the magic, just says “he was a blue” or “she is a red” meaning you must research this yourself, thanks YouTube• All the women are described as beautiful and wearing nice clothes, is no one ugly?• Basic writing, lacking in world building or details• Characters are wooden with no depth• Why do Prism’s rule in 7/14/21 year periods and then just die? Weeks decided this and then never explains why?!• Battlegrounds are not explained before a major battle meaning you have no real idea of what is going onThis clarified for me how poor this really is, I therefore will not be continuing this series and do not understand how it is rated so highly by others.

First the good - The World created and the system of magic used is an interesting one (light). There is scope for a really good story... butThe bad - The endless descriptions that go into so much detail you can't actually fathom what the hell the author is trying to get you to picture. I was skipping over these sections just to get to some action. The main character is so annoying that I found myself hoping he would be killed off at some point. Much of what happens is also predictable. An impossible situation will be dressed up and drawn out to it's obvious and inevitable conclusion time and time again (all somehow working out just right to keep the story going). The characters are badly written and I'm afraid I didn't care a jot for any of them. The awful one liners... Please. Lastly there are some huge holes in the back story. We never find out why or how a prism is chosen/created. We don;t know why Andross Guile seems to hate his own son. We don't know why the knife is so important. There's more but you'll find that out at your own peril should you decide to tackle this one.

This book/series has, quite possibly one of the more inventive magic systems I've come across. It comes close to bordering the 'you're making this way too complicated' realm of magic, but manages to stay on the right side of that line. A magic user (drafter) can cast magic, usually, in one colour (the colours of the rainbow predominantly). Some can cast in two or more. Each magic has its uses and every practitioner casts knowing that, every time they do so, they come one step closer to madness or death. You can tell the colour of a person's magic by the colour of their eyes. When they snap, their entire eyes bleed through into that colour, something called 'breaking the halo', which I find to be a really unique and vivid bit of imagery.It's a very good system of 'you can do cool stuff, but that stuff isn't free. The cost is a dramatically shorted life span' style of magic and I really like that dynamic. Makes you think a bit more when reading as, technically, any character could just snap at a moment's notice. Each different colour of magic has it's own personality traits that are shifted onto the caster (Blue's prefer order for instance), another nice little touch to show the depth of thought that has gone into the magic system.The overall plot is a very interesting one with enough layers hidden beneath the surface to keep a reader interested, and guessing, about various different plots (some of which start in this book and aren't heard from again, but you just know their bubbling away ready for later use).The book is told through several POVs and features relatively short chapters. There are (I think) ninety-six chapters spanning the six-hundred + pages and, for a book like this, I feel the short chapters work far better than having lengthy ones. Really helps to keep the interest high and the tempo up as far as story progression goes.It's by no means perfect. It falls short, quite heavily around the characters. My personal peeve being the character of Kip. It reads like the author has no clue how to write him, so writes him several different ways ... often in the same chapter. He flits between outright coward, perverted teen who will look at any cleavage going (and then chastise himself for being a pervert) and, totally at odds with his outright coward act, he'll suddenly fancy being an all-conquering hero (the annoying kind that has no training and can just do it). There also is scarcely a chapter that goes by where Kip hasn't whined about being fat at least five times. It got to the point where I felt I didn't need much more fuel to ignite my 'I'm annoyed with Kip' fire, but the author felt it was better to be stocked up and so shovelled more fuel onto it.The female characters also aren't particularly fantastic for the most part. A couple of them get a lot better when their characters are allowed to grow beyond what their roles demand of them (warrior, school girl with a crush etc ...), but they start off a bit meh. Any of the background school girls literally act like any of the school girls you'd see in a Japanese manga: cleavage pushed up and aimed at whatever 'hot guy' they can see. Their thoughts literally revolve around hot men too. It was the slight let down with the characters that kept this from being a five out of five for me but I'm very curious as to where it goes next and already have book two sat on my desk . A solid four and I certainly hope for more.

This is a great book, not because it’s the best writing, even in the genre, but it has a superb magical theory, a cast of engaging characters, some brilliant plot twists, and an intriguingly comic approach. The story drives along at a brisk pace, and leaves you wanting to know what happens next!It has its faults. For me, the greatest is that the characters’ voices aren’t differentiated enough. I’d forgive the endless ‘oh, he meant that’ moments if they were only Kip’s - he is after all a gauche fifteen year old - but everyone sounds the same.That and the repeated use of ‘on accident’ when I simply want to scream ‘it’s BY accident’ but maybe that’s an American thing.Overall though I love this book, and indeed series, and am looking forward to the last instalment soon.