Review: The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Hey all, Dani here.

We are nearing the end of January, and let me tell you all, this has been a pretty darn great month. I’ve read a lot of books and have been able to succeed in quite a bit of blogging. And thanks to all of you it has been the most successful month Mousai Books has had in terms of views and visitors, so seriously, thank you for checking out my posts and Damian’s posts. We truly appreciate all of you.

Anyway today I bring you a review for one of my big tomes for the year. I didn’t set my overall reading goal on Goodreads very high, because I wanted to try and tackle some of the bigger books in my library. I made a list of a bunch of books, pretty much all with 500+ pages. Today’s book review clocked in at 626 pages, so I’m sure I’ll have a decent amount to talk about.

So, let’s just jump into the review.

Summary

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. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

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.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

Okay, let’s start off with the magic system, which is one of the really interesting parts to this series starter. It is all based on the light spectrum, where for those able to harness the magic of light do so based on the colors they are able to draft. There are monochromes able to draft one color, bichromes are able to draft two colors, and then there are polychromes, able to draft anything more than two. But then there is one person who is basically divined to be the Prism, someone who is more powerful than all other drafters, able to split white light into all the colors of the spectrum, and able to draft any color.

Gavin Guile is the Prism. But sixteen years before the start of the novel there was a war, often called the False Prism’s War, a war that Gavin fought against his brother Dazen, who also was powerful enough to be named to the position of Prism.

This story starts off a little bit slow, as the characters are introduced, and the structure of the world and the magic is laid out for the reader. I enjoyed most of what I was reading, even if it was taking me a little bit to wade through it all. Then there was a point, about halfway in, where a couple secrets are revealed to the reader…and that made the story infinitely more interesting to me.

These secrets increased the political intrigue, the character interactions, and the dangerous positions some of the characters were in. How will certain characters react upon discovering these secrets? I’m still waiting for some, but for others there was some payoff in this one.

Oh, and those secrets do not include the one mentioned in the summary, about Kip, Gavin’s bastard son. Yes, there are people who want to eliminate Kip to make Gavin suffer for deeds back in the war, or deeds done since. But honestly it seems that everyone pretty much just shrugs their shoulders, and okay, of course the Prism has a bastard son. It had a little weight to the plot, but not an overwhelming amount.

This is a multi-perspective epic fantasy novel, and we are introduced to so many characters, all with different personalities and motivations, and more than a few with some secrets. There was a great deal of political intrigue in this book, as well as some intriguing battles and other little fight scenes.

I’m really interested to see where it will go from here. I want to see Kip’s progress with drafting. I definitely want to follow Karris some more because she is an awesome and tough warrior woman.

I must say that the last couple of pages of this book have me wanting to pick up the next one really soon and dive into it, but I also know that I have a number of other large books I want to read. Also, since I have this series in paperback, I have a while to wait for book five, which will be released in hardcover later this year. So if I plan this out I can read book two and possibly start book three this year, and then finish three and read four and then five next year.

Where to Buy

You can pick up this intriguing tome from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore.