The Blood Mirror

I think this has some spoilers. So I might as well mark it all as spoilerific. It's too hard to talk about this book in cryptic allusions.

First off: I like this series a lot and this is a worthy entry. It manages at the same time to continue the story and put everything on its head. Even as the characters evolve - and that they do - and even as I am surprised by some of the turns and twists, it all ends up making sense.

Some of my favorites have turned out to be even less than what they seemed (Gavin/Dazen) and characters I loved to hate (Andross) ... are suddenly become the ... kind-of good-guy asshole? It took four books to build up that one and I think it went well. Now I have to re-read everything from the beginning because there's no way there aren't hints of this in the previous books.

Something I personally like about the books is how some aspects feel very modern, or rather taken from our location in the space-time continuum. The humor of the Mighty comes to mind. And I love how that group especially manages to convey both light-heartedness and seriousness. This is not all dark and dreary. There is fun to be had and laughs all over the place despite that they are in a war and at least Kip thinks they are all going to die sooner rather than later.

My favorite character for now turns out to be Kip. Kip the loudmouth. Kip, the Breaker and possibly, the Lightbringer. Although I could have done without Tisis stating the obvious there at the end.

Teia is one of my favorite plot lines in this book. Between the Order and Karris she is trying so hard to stay good. But I see her going over the edge in the next book. The potential is there. They are training her - Karris as well - to be a killer, to take life. And in killing the Nuqaba while Ironfist is there she proves this to me at least.

There are a few things I didn't like as much. We see very little of Liv and what she is doing in the end I don't quite get, also the "message" she sends to Kip? It arrives but has no effect at all. And then there is Zymun who while being the acting Prism has very little impact on the book besides the reader knowing that Karris is going to do something stupid because she does not see what a bad person Zymun is. And then the young blackguard dies and it seems to resolve that situation without it ever becoming relevant? These are pieces of the book that may improve with age ... meaning when the next book is released it might become clear what these scenes were meant to be, for now they are a little confusing.

Looking forward very much to the next - final? - book in this series.

Oh the ever elusive half-star need.. 3.5 on this one due to a lot of lost depth.

A series I am fond for. Each book has moved further and further into the labyrinth of a culture and shadows. Of politics and magic. Each turn I rarely had an idea would come--it's just that well obscured.

In an over-arching sense I liked the movement of this book. It was obviously cut in half for which I don't know if I'd have had an epic tome or the very soft and fairly benign ending we had here vs the ultimate culmination/showdown that must occur all over the final installment.

We pick up as Kip and the Mighty have fled the Chromeria, Teia and Kerris are forging ahead, the shadow player of Guile, the old Man of the Desert, the crazy Murder Sharp-- all working their orbits, paths, and twists.

Your focus is rather held but there are many angles which pick at me. Time is fluid in the book. Sometimes you know a day or month has passed. Sometimes you don't know--you figure it out.

The new Prism is an oddball sociopath but only given a hat-tip of knowledge too. What is Zymun doing all these months? How is he or is he not doing his job? We know he likes to kill people...

Kip and his new wife; why the focus so much on lovemaking? I don't get this digression. It's fine on one level but a distraction on another. It could have been as succinct as Zymun but Weeks takes us really far into their issue and at the end even issues a statement of a real world problem manifest in the book. Why? I don't understand?

Newly made superviolet goddess Liv.. she tries to help.. but we don't understand the how, or the what. Then it circles back to her way late.. So little to know..

Maybe this series should have been 2 more books to allow more development and elaboration. Important elements seem to be left by the side while focusing too much on emotional mental development which in the end only has some basic human results.

Major plot points land in this book and seek a resolution but even then the last book is going to be packed to the brim or its going to be a weird disappointment.

Enjoy the world, wish we saw more of it and the depths of the magicks within. Onward!