Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.
But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.
This is damn near perfect. A well crafted hard magic system a unique world filled with likable and loathsome characters. This is a stellar jumping off point for a series. I was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed the main cast. Gavin is incredibly competent, powerful, and just a bit of a dick. Kip is charismatic in his way and was responsible for several laugh-out-loud moments. Karris' story broke my heart but also is one of my favorite characters overall. I mean you just can't beat Ironfist. The world's magic system revolves around color and light. Drafters can use color to, for lack of a better word, paint magic into physical space. Each of the colors has different abilities, and difficulties in their use. The system is incredibly flexible, and I love how powerful the drafters feel in the setting. Definitely diving deeper into the series soon!
A Beautiful Combination of Worldbuilding and Heroism
5 stars
The Black Prism is a great start to new Fantasy series. When an author takes the time to build a world organically, it shows. You start with the fundamentals and build a society around it, instead of starting at your conclusion and forcing everything to fit. Brent Weeks mastered the fundamentals with his light-based magic system, which is brilliant in both its application of the spectrum (with our modern scientific knowledge) and at how a medieval society could interact with such complexity. Additionally, the society and religion that is built around this magic is deep and realistic, and suffuses every element of the story.
Which leads me to the tale itself, told through the eyes of a number of narrators but primarily through Gavin Guile and Kip. The use of someone at the top of the ladder (both magically and society-wise) and another at the bottom results in a story …
The Black Prism is a great start to new Fantasy series. When an author takes the time to build a world organically, it shows. You start with the fundamentals and build a society around it, instead of starting at your conclusion and forcing everything to fit. Brent Weeks mastered the fundamentals with his light-based magic system, which is brilliant in both its application of the spectrum (with our modern scientific knowledge) and at how a medieval society could interact with such complexity. Additionally, the society and religion that is built around this magic is deep and realistic, and suffuses every element of the story.
Which leads me to the tale itself, told through the eyes of a number of narrators but primarily through Gavin Guile and Kip. The use of someone at the top of the ladder (both magically and society-wise) and another at the bottom results in a story that brings the entire Lightbringer world to life. Kip's internal dialogue is hilarious and often his conclusions are both wrong and self-deprecating... which feels right for a teenager. Meanwhile, the Prism is juggling plots within plots and balancing politics with worldwide consequences. Both are enjoyable viewpoints that contribute to an overall story so that you never want to skip ahead.
There are a few teething problems though. The first few chapters struggle to introduce the world, the characters, and build enough tension in the story to keep you reading. In retrospect, they feel dramatically different from the rest of the story so you'll have to suffer for a bit. Additionally, the overall plot feels a bit meandering at times, and I wasn't really sure where the story would go. It was the small wins that kept me reading early on, and by the time I stumbled across the plot, I was fully-bought in.
I really enjoyed The Black Prism. It's serious business, and while there is humour here and there, this is not a happy-ending type of book. I get the feeling that Brent Weeks is showing us the world so that he can tear it all down. And that's a ride that I'm happy to take part in.
i'vecread several disappointed reviews and still gave it a try (because the library is running low on any audiobooks in the genres that i can tolerate, let alone interestibg ones). surprisingly, i actually did like the story!
Is it better that the guilty should perish, or that the innocent should live?
This was my first exposure to Brent Weeks and I knew nothing of this book before I started. I liked the story but I can't explain why I wasn't able to give it a higher rating.
Right out of the gate I'm hit with a complicated and really interesting magic system that utilizes lights and colors to craft material, objects, weapons, bridges, etc. The properties of each color are unique and how to use the colors for good, or evil, is slowly explained. Life revolves around those who can bend color to their will. This is not your typical magic system and takes some time to understand it, and even to the end the reader learns more about the characteristics.
As I look for reasons why I didn't rate this book higher it's not because of …
Is it better that the guilty should perish, or that the innocent should live?
This was my first exposure to Brent Weeks and I knew nothing of this book before I started. I liked the story but I can't explain why I wasn't able to give it a higher rating.
Right out of the gate I'm hit with a complicated and really interesting magic system that utilizes lights and colors to craft material, objects, weapons, bridges, etc. The properties of each color are unique and how to use the colors for good, or evil, is slowly explained. Life revolves around those who can bend color to their will. This is not your typical magic system and takes some time to understand it, and even to the end the reader learns more about the characteristics.
As I look for reasons why I didn't rate this book higher it's not because of the story either. It starts off quickly, does a good job covering the different locales and their histories and there is enough happening that my interest is maintained.
When you don't know what to do, do what's right and do what's in front of you. But not necessarily what's right in front of you.
The only other fault would be characters. There were none that I disliked, and maybe that's why I struggle with an it was okay rating. The characters were good but not the highlight for me.
I liked the entire Guile family story, particularly Gavin and Dazen. Gavin on his own wasn't enough for me so the backstory with Dazen and the events of the False Prism War helped keep me going.
Kip's progression through the story was predictable and didn't do much out of the ordinary . He starts as your generic farm kid with no talents that learns a hidden potential with himself, but he kept the story light with his comedic relief and awkward teenage monologue.
I'm interested enough in the story to stick with it but for now it's on thin Luxin.
While I still have issues with the glossing-over of slavery, I'm overall pretty happy with this story. My initial concerns over the slow reveal of the magic system's intricacies are gone, and I'll agree that the author did it right; there's enough in place to make everything sensible, while still having lots of reveal in later books. I like the reversal of the Mass-Energy Equivalence equation as a magic system, and I look forward to seeing where this goes.
Meh. It was okay. Not a lot really happened, aside from a battle at the end. Listened to it on audiobook, though, and wow was the narrator bad. So bad.
Fantasía con ambientación oriental (o al menos eso logra conseguir la portada) y un sistema de magia original y bien montado ya son razón suficiente para mi para leer este libro, pero el autor logra unos personajes simpáticos y nada predecibles sobre una historia con los suficientes giros para que te enganche, pero todos con suficiente sentido como para que no chirríen en ningún momento. Solo me falta decir que cuando iba por la mitad, ya había pedido la segunda parte, y que las últimas 100 o 150 paginas me las he acabado leyendo del tirón.
A good read. I enjoyed the setting and the characters, but it kept reminding me of Warbreaker by Sanderson, which is a book I really enjoyed. Then I would be slightly disappointed when it went its own direction.
--- EDIT--- Just reread this book. It was even better the second time, particularly in light of the subsequent books.
This review is like none at all I just realized. So I will need to re-read this soon and write a real review for this to convince you to read this book.
The idea of two powerful brothers and one keeping the other a secret prisoner ... => just great I am looking forward to sequels.
One of the best magic systems all around. Magic is based on the spectrum of colors of light. Plus a great cast of characters, Gavin Guile has to be one of the coolest heroes in recent fantasy.
