The Black Prism: Book 1 of Lightbringer

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It's hard to write a review when you have just been blown away. I'm still very emotional from book one because I loved it that much. The prisoner: Definitely the highlight of the book, I'll say no more other than make sure that you are not eating or drinking while reading these sections.

The world-building and the magic system are intriguing and were some of my favorite parts of the book. Chromaturgy is the art of harnessing light and creating a substance from it, called Luxin. Luxin can take on many different shades from the visible spectrum and to either end of it (what we would call infrared and ultraviolet), and each color has its own unique properties. I was mesmerised from start to finish. Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, non-stop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writers’ work’Terry BrooksImagine an episode of Grey's Anatomy where Meredith and Christina are chatting about boys, then an axe murderer runs into the hospital, kills and mutilates 50 people, is then killed brutally by Meredith with a scalpel and 5 minutes later while his entrails are still over her coat, she says to Christina: "This McDreamy guy is hot, isn't he?"

The wights. (Can't give away too much about them, either, but the magic principle behind them is awesome; as is how they come to be and what it could mean.) In total we're following 7 characters, 2 of them being the main protagonists, 2 with a decent amount of "screen-time" and 3 with only a few chapters. I DUNNNOOOOOO. First, I really enjoyed Brent Weeks' other series A LOT, so I was excited about this coming out, and seeing the blurb about the magic system, I was sooo psyched. Becoming a color wight is the beginning of a descent into madness for the drafter. Happening gradually over time, the color wight will go under the influence of their drafting color's psychological influences; blue drafters will become hard and logical, greens will become wild, and reds will become creatures of rage. Color wights often commit their bodies to their luxin as well, coating or even replacing their body parts with sealed luxin. Color wights are considered insane and monsters, outcasts from society and are almost always hunted down. Those who worship Orholam also believe that becoming a color wight also damages your soul, though if this is something inherent in the act, defiance of the Pact, or because of the actions color wights take, is unclear. Green Luxin is springy and flexible. The uses are as varied as the drafter is creative: from furniture to projectiles to shields to the throwing arms of war engines. Greens are wild and free. They don't so much disrespect authority as not even recognize it.Anyway I did like the overall story, I'm not sure it truly deserve my 4 stars so I'll reduce it to 3 but I really wanted to love this...I will be continuing the series but I’m disappointed.

There are other plot points like the Prism being forced by circumstances to kill most of the woman he loves family (I don't recall any of them being named Tybalt...but I won't swear to it)... Gavin's bastard son, Kip, coming from an affair during his betrothal to Karris. There were many things obvious about him as well, but I still liked that he was a little atypical in many situations and yet, simultaneously, the typical teenager. I can only repeat myself: I like my characters realistic. The first of the two main characters is Kip. Kip is an over-weight 15 year old who lives in a small town called Rekton in Tyrea. Tyrea is one of 7 satrapies that make up a huge nation. I also really appreciated that the main hero of this book is an unlikely hero that is described as being unattractive and fat. I didn't realize until I read this that it's grown stale on me to have the heroes be the best looking, the strongest, and the fastest. It's refreshing to hear about a regular person being thrust into this, who has serious insecurities. The plot is very well done, and I find myself very interested to find out more about what these characters are going through. Without spoiling anything, one plot thread specifically revolved around someone imprisoned, and I absolutely love where that story is taking the reader.I can actually see how Weeks is a very successful fantasy writer as the majority of fantasy fans are males between the ages of 12-22. His books must really speak to them. But he harbours quite the secret. Truth be told, I figured it out very early on in the book. But that didn't diminish the payoff when it was actually revealed to the reader.

The book starts out well jumping into the story and laying a bit ground work we will need for the "plot devices" and the magical system. Moving on to plot and characters...well as I said you'll recognize some plot points from other (some well known) works. The characters are fairly well drawn and while maybe not as deep as some would like I find them to my taste and that they fit well into the book, it's world and it's situations. My one gripe might be with Kip, one of our main characters. Without giving details I'll simply say that he's a 15 year old youth of a peasant village who has had to fend for himself at least somewhat for years. Yet still for a long time he acts a bit spoiled and strikes me as acting more like a 12 or even 10 year old than a 15 year old. In a society of the type we find here a 15 year old would be a young man (at least).

AUTHOR OF THE LIGHTBRINGER SERIES AND THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY

Tyreans are treated with little respect outside of Tyrea and have no true color on the spectrum. Garriston, the country's only port, is under a rotating occupation from the other Satrapies. King Garadul plans to continue the march of his largely conscripted army to Garriston and seize it, and from there, break the Chromeria's rule over the world. Weeks has a style of immediacy and detail that pulls the reader relentlessly into the story. He doesn’t allow you to look away’Robin Hobb Unfortunately, the other parts weren't without flaws for me. My main complaint with the book is the actual writing style. When it's good it is very staright forward, but when it's bad, then it seems really clumsy. The setting of this story is a land called The Seven Satrapies. A satrapy is basically a province that is governed by a person known as a satrap. The Chromeria is the ruling body of the Seven Satrapies, and also where all of the drafters, magical users, are trained.