You read that right! We’re getting THREE chapters this time and, guess what? THEY’RE ALL ABOUT KIP!
Chapter 10
Alright, Kip made it to the Orange Grove and collapsed and we have him waking up, here. A little time has passed, but no one has come after him. From on top of the ruin of a statue, he watches the town burning and the lancers of the King’s army swoop in to kill anyone trying to leave the burning village. There’s no sign of his mother or Master Danavis, and he just watches them cut down people while he tries to put together a plan. He wanted to get into the town, but couldn’t find a way to get in without dying in the process. Has Sanson made it?
Before he can get too far with his plan, however, he hears voices of people looking for the “drafter,” so he’s got to get out of there. He creeps down to the river, because the people hunting him have dogs. He hopes the water will help them lose his scent. He loops around and doubles back, catching up with the soldiers who go off the other direction.
Then he finds a cave where heat and light are filtering through and goes to investigate.
Chapter 11
As he gets into the cave, he sees two people Sanson (YAY!) and his mother. Both are covered with blood and his mother’s head has been bashed in. If this is how she always treats him, I really don’t feel too bad for her, by the way. She explains that Sanson’s family refused to believe that the King was going to destroy the village until he’d started slaughtering people. Sanson couldn’t get anyone to listen, so he left them, found Kip’s mother, and got them out of the village before the perimeter was set. Obviously, not soon enough to keep severe damage from befalling Kip’s mother, though.
In the middle of all of her bad mouthing Kip, she gives him a dagger in a wooden box and begs him to promise to kill “him.” Kip does promise to avenge her and allows himself a moment of grief when she passes away. He believes the “him” she is talking about is the King, but I wonder if it’s not his father she wants dead? She used the word “Avenge” but, from her point of view, Gavin leaving her in Tyrea with his son while he went to the Chromeria to be the Prism could be a betrayal, too.
Kip knows he and Sanson have to get out of there and get to the Chromeria for training, so he doesn’t spend a lot of time in the cave once she’s dead. At least, he does. Sanson’s wounds are minor, so they’re ok there. Kip is still fine, not even a bruised shin. He has lost the purse that Master Danavis had given him before he left for the bridge, though.
Chapter 12
This chapter is all about their plan of escape. The boys decide to float down the river, past the village and get free that way. This would mean they have to cross by the lines and bridges, so they’ll have to pretend to be dead. This gets difficult a few times, as Kip gets flipped over once and has an urge to help Isa as they float past her and the bridge again. There’s a guard waiting for someone to do that, though, so they keep floating by, fighting the urge to cry.
I like this quote in particular here, “No decision was a decision.” As it is, Weeks, as it is.
They float near an island, where all of the animals have fled the fires and death of the village. There’s a drafter there, Red, apparently, and what appears to be his apprentice. They are watching the animals, and the drafter gives the apprentice a chance to try a draft that he’d just done, thrown a lasso of flame around the end of the drawbridge. The apprentice overdoes it and his rope becomes more of a whip.This startles the draft horse on the drawbridge and the horse and a few other animals fall off the bridge into the river. Kip and Sanson pulled up on the ledge to keep the other two from seeing them and seeing the draft horse in the water, a strong swimmer, unlike the other animals that had fallen in, and with the drafter yelling at the apprentice, Kip dashes off for the drawbridge.
AND THE CHAPTER ENDS!! The next chapter is about Gavin again!
So, now I’m yelling at the book. Is Kip going after the horse? Is Kip going to do something else insane? I’m hoping Sanson followed, at the very least!
Man, I got spoiled with three straight chapters, even if they were short.
So, Isa and Ram are dead, Sanson and Kip are not. Sanson bolts off and runs towards the village. Kip distracts the soliders from Sanson by running the other way. Of course they see him and give chase, at least, two mounted soldiers do. They are lower ranking than some others Kip has seen, he can tell by the armor and probably their age. That’s when this really gets interesting.
I have to admit I’ve been waiting for Kip to draft something for 7 chapters now. He’s the son of the Prism, for crying out loud. Apparently, Danavis has been trying to get him to draft something for a while, or, at the very least has been training his eyes to see the differences in the colors that HE’S drafted. Kip trips over a log and falls. (Put in a pin in the tears for a minute, I’ll be back to that.) In fear of his life, with these two idiots baring down on him with their sickle-like swords (I’m probably going to have to remember the name for that, aren’t I?), he drafts Green. Not a bad idea, since he seems to be surrounded by it. Now, this is the cool part, the GRASS elongates and shapes into spikes embedded in the ground, entrenching Kip behind them. Naturally, these two don’t have time to slow down and run their horses right into the spikes, impaling and killing them. The force bucks them off and onto the next rows of spikes, impaling and killing them, too! Sure, one gets a lucky yell about a “GREEN DRAFTER” out before he dies, but since no one else is around and Kip doesn’t stick around after the grass disappears , leaving corpses full of green dusted holes behind him as he bolts off towards the orange grove.
I mean… sure I was expecting him to draft something. I was even expecting a weapon, like a magical sword or a shield of of light! But… the GRASS? Hippies, unite! Greenpeace, here’s your out! Where are the ENTS?
And let’s just go back to Kip, who just tripped over the log for a moment. This is a sixteen year old kid, who just watched people he didn’t know die, ran all the way back to the village where he told someone else, who’s going to work on the townspeople, and handed him a bag of coins to get out of town and go save his friends… which he failed to do because they’re stubborn teenagers! He then watched a girl he had a crush on get shot down like a dog in the stream and Ram, who he looked up to… *sighs* Now, he’s praying he made enough noise to cover Sanson’s running off, and beating himself up for tripping over a branch he didn’t see and crazy pain in his shin. Even if there wasn’t something funky about that wound (??? MAYBE???) and he just got a bruise out of it (I’ve done that, Big Bada Bruise!), the kid has been through hell for the last few hours. Bad timing, sure, I get that. Don’t have time to give in, sure, sure. But for all the things he’s been through in his life, this mess was never a part of it! I’m proud of him for standing up and for him finding enough pride not to die like that (a Green can appreciate the sentiment!) and for finding the strength to do something he’s never done before (isn’t that usually how that works?) and get out of the situation! GO KIP!
Chapter 9
And now we’re bouncing back to Gavin again. He jumped off a building and ran down to the docks to meet Karris before she got on the boat or had a change to read the note the White had given her. (Yeah, hang on, I’ll get back to that in a second). Here’s a tidbit about this magic system that Gavin thinks about as he’s falling from the top of the Chromeria. This magic has a by-product: Luxin. Magic is summoned and when it burns, it creates luxin, which can then be used to make other things like armor or weapons.
Now, in the last chapter when Kip did his Green grass trick, the only mention of a by product was the green dust in the bloody holes on the corpses. So, then. Does it take a certain level of skill or maybe a level of blowing stuff up to make luxin in a solid shape? Is the dust left by the grass trick about to be collected and smelted into luxin?
Now back to Gavin and Karris. It’s obvious he still cares for her. There’s nothing (that I remember, at least) that says the Prism can’t marry. They were betrothed before. She obviously likes him and doesn’t hold the broken betrothal against him. So, what gives?
This time, he’s blaming his brother for the broken betrothal and says that one of his 7 great deeds before he’s dead is to tell Karris the truth about all of it. A truth that might ruin everything. The truth about what he did and why he did it.
OK, let me just have this for a second… what if everyone thought he killed his brother? And the fact that he didn’t is one of the things he’s hiding? I don’t understand why his brother is still alive, anyway, unless Gavin needs him to siphon magic off of, but beyond that. Is that what would ruin everything? It’s somewhat clear that Gavin is the only one who knows what’s down there. Someone has to know there’s something down there, because it’s gotten out a few times and people have died. So, did he have to break the betrothal with Karris to become the Prism and keep watch over his brother’s prison?
Bleh, more questions than answers, there.
The chapter ends with Gavin volunteering to take Karris to Tyrea on his way to Ru, which is a good distance away. I think there’s an ulterior motive here and he’s not actually after the Blue wight he says he’s after in Ru. He doesn’t want Karris to find out about his son before he does. He’s just using his flirting and Karris’ affection and disdain for sailing, to kill two birds with one stone.
I get the feeling I’m going to say this a lot, but,
WITH KIP!
He’s made it to the bridge (remember he was going there to warn his friends before the army got there and either killed them or took them as slaves). Naturally, his friends don’t believe him. Ram, the oldest, tries to get the others to leave he and Isa alone to say “goodbye” properly and Kip can’t seem to impress upon them how dead serious he is.
Interestingly, the bridge, called Green Bridge, is a leftover luxin bridge from that war 16 years ago. What ho, what is this? Allow me to paraphrase, but RIGHT THERE Weeks verifies my twisted machinations for that war so long ago. Tales say that GAVIN GUILE led his army through there on his way to crush his evil brother Dazen Guile (we know the name of the prisoner, now!). Excuse me while I pause and gloat inwardly! Yeah, yeah, he wasn’t exactly hiding that possibility but I NAILED IT! Mwahahahahahcoughcoughcough. OK, onward. Gavin drafted that bridge “By himsef. In seconds.” OK, ok, I’m impressed. Might’ve taken a pair of matched Aes Sedai at least a day to do that. I’m guessing it’s green because that’s what color he drafted when he made the bridge. Is there a particular reason why he used green and not another color?
He finally convinces them to move and it’s too late. Isa gets spooked and bolts off and someone orders her death. Blue bolts from an archer take her down and Zip is dumbfounded (cut him some slack, he’s young and that’s probably the first friend he’s ever seen die). He and the other two boys are hiding from the army.
The soldiers mention that this is their hometown, to which the solider giving orders, then ordered the town burned and “Kill them all.”
Umm… wow. Talk about merciless! Don’t get me wrong, I totally get the need to not allow sentiment affect the message he’s supposed to make by destroying this town. Morale is going to take a hit, though…
Chapter 7
Now back to Gavin with the home front…
I have to admit, I love the interaction between The White and Gavin. The relationship between them feels both respectful and filled with humor, but not completely relaxed. She kind of reminds me of Sophia from the Golden Girls.
Equal parts approachable and fear inducing!
You’re never going to get that out of your head now. You’re welcome.
Now, she doesn’t deny reading his mail. Doesn’t deny sending Kariss (Gavin’s BETROTHED?? I didn’t expect that one. OK.) to checking on Gavin’s son while investigating King Garudul and is giving Gavin the opportunity to bail himself out of trouble because Kariss hasn’t read the note the White gave her before she sent her off to Tyrea.
And a distraction thrown in: an “unusually strong blue wight” moving towards the Blood Forest (Blues are logical. I feel like I’m going to need that, later).
Then she reminds him he’s promised to teach a class of super-violets and he’s not terribly excited about it. So, he bails on it to catch Karris before she leaves.
I don’t know about you, but I’m dizzy!
The next chapter is bouncing back to Kip, so we’ll save him for another entry. I’m going to have to double these up every week to keep from going bananas in the middle, though!
We’re back to Kip here! He’s made it back to town to warn everyone about the impending doom of an attack from the army sent by the King (remember that? A few chapters back?). He goes straight to Master Danavis, which I find interesting. He doesn’t warn his mother. Or perhaps he’s going to Master Danavis because he’s the first line of defense? Hmmm…
OK, quick recap? Master Danavis is the only one with different colored eyes like Kip. He is one of the people in town taking care of Kip when he’s hungry (again, Mom is a real winner, here?). That’s all we know. Are we good? Cool.
WAITTT…
Danavis just put red spectacles on his face. First thought… different because he’s a color wight! This time, Weeks adds that his irises are half-filled with “stark ruby red that marked him a drafter.” He’s also a bit of a ginger with freckles. And he’s showing Kip a hands full of luxin asking if they’re the same color. Can he not see it or is he testing Kip?
His daughter went to the Chromeria to be trained, even Kip can tell he’s Chromeria trained. But he’s refused to apprentice Kip due to lack of work for the future.
We also now know that Tyrea lost the war sixteen years ago and that “everything got bad” after that. *raises her hand* I have questions!
Kip finally gets to tell Danavis about the army coming and he doesn’t question it. He starts asking questions! What’s more, he believes those, too! That says a lot about their relationship, I think. He then immediately sends Kip after his friends at Green Bridge. He says he’ll handle warn everyone in town, and Kip sets out for his friends after handing Kip a purse and telling him to get to the Chromeria, that Liv will help him. He even promises he’ll do his best to save everyone in town, including Kip’s mother.
And then he drops this… “”What’s a superchromat?” to which Danavis replies that it’s a “Pain in my ass.”
Dude. You’re killing me. Parting shots.
*I said I have questions, so…
1- Tyrea lost? If I’m right about what that war was about, was Tyrea backing Gavin’s brother as Prism?
2- If King Garadul is against the Prism, is he against all of them?
Chapter 5
And dancing back to Gavin, now. He’s headed to meet the White on the roof, still concerned about who has read that message about his having a son he didn’t know about. Quick side note, this is the second time he’s considered Karris and her reactions to things. Feels important, particularly since we don’t really know who she is and he spends a lot of time focused on her (“As always, he noticed Karris first.”) Thumbtack in that…
The White is studying Gavin and his ability to feel imbalances in the world’s magic. I do find it kind of funny that she prefers to study him naked when she’s annoyed with him. No reason, just funny. Yeah, I’m a Green, remember?
Now, when Gavin does his thing, he senses a large amount of sub-red in Tyrea. Sub-red, heat and fire, then references it usually meant some kind of war. Unless King Garadul is training battle drafters. It’s interesting how the system self-regulates, too. Also interesting that it didn’t always work and explains why the Prism is such an important part of the system.
And here he is addressing the problem with Gavin and his brother. Orholam (ie, the Creator? a god?) had sent two prisms in one generation when there had only been one before. He says it tore the world apart, but doesn’t say another word about it.
Then he balances the color magic by drafting the opposite colors to balance the ones that were being used excessively in Tyrea (Sub-violet to balance sub-red, red to balance blue, and orange to balance green). Now… let’s get geeky about this for a second. Enter a standard six color color-wheel (it always comes back to a wheel, doesn’t it?).
Now, for those who don’t remember basic art classes, complimentary colors are the ones that are opposite from each other on the color wheel. So, my brow is wrinkled up a bit here. Taking the sub-red and sub-violet out of the equation, because they wouldn’t be on this wheel, let’s look at blue and green. Green’s compliment is red, so why is he using orange to balance it? Blue’s complement is orange, but he uses red to balance it. It’s interesting that the balance is one step to the side of the compliment. Then I stare at the sub-red and sub-violet, where red and violet are right next to each other on the color wheel?
My brain hurts. *tosses the color wheel out the window* I’m going to need someone to draw me a color map of balances here. I mean, dude… there’s a map, why not some voodoo’d color wheel?
ANYWAY, back to the White, who hands Karris a note and puts her on a ship to Tyrea, presumably to figure out why all the sub-red, green and blue are being used. She doesn’t actually say, so I’m just drawing conclusions here.
Then, once Karris is gone, she lays into Gavin about a son. No, that’s all you get there, just her asking him about it. This proves she read the note. Or, that someone did and told her about it. Then, Weeks does it again… parting shot, close the chapter and move on to someone on the other end of the world.
If this keeps up, I’m sending a bill for my blood pressure meds! Cliffhangers and parting shots…
Welcome to the first installment of our read along of “The Black Prism” by Brent Weeks. Weeks is Author Guest of Honor at this year’s JordanCon and a fabulous writer. JordanCon Fantasy Track Director Tiff Franklin is your host for these blogs. Let’s get started!
At first, I was going to do this as a chapter by chapter read along. I had really good intentions. Then I started reading and I was halfway through Chapter 2 before I realized I had passed Chapter 1. Ooops.
But this tells me something else. This is not a book meant to be read chapter by chapter. I mean, you could, I guess. Probably even string the chapters relating to particular characters together in a re-read somewhere.
So, why these chapters lumped together? Well, Because each of these introduces us to a different character, shows us a bit about them as people, and answers the question of, “what do these people have in common to be strung together in the first three chapters like beads on a necklace?”
Here, let me show you what I mean…
Chapter 1- Kip
In this chapter you meet a fifteen year old boy, Kip. He’s hunting in a former battle ground for a mysterious substance that I am assuming he sells for money. There’s a hint about what he’s looking for pretty quickly in the chapter. “Most of the magic used in the battle had dissolved sooner or later in the years of sun exposure, but here and there, broken green luxin spears still glittered. Shards of solid yellow underfoot would cut through the toughest shoe leather.” Now, this is a field last used in battle 16 years ago and scavengers had made off with most of the good stuff already, but stuff gets churned up by erosion, so he is hunting for it. According to Kip, the best time to find it is just as the sun comes up.
Having established his purpose, now we get to the goods. There’s someone keeping a watch on the place all of a sudden and he comes upon two men near a campfire. One is dead, the other is bound with his head covered. He says he’s a green. I found the bit about his eyes really interesting, too. The color isn’t held around the iris, but it’s scattered all through the surface of his eyeball. As soon as Kip notices this, the guy starts talking about madness. We also see that Kip knows enough about what this means, he thinks about drafting (whatever that means) and calls him a color wight. Further reading brings up names and places that will probably be important later: King Garadul, Chromeria. We learned Rekton is the village Kip lives in. We also learn that Kip has blue eyes, which is apparently an oddity and tells the Wight that this kid is who his boss is after and that there’s a prophesy about him. We don’t have a clue what the prophesy says, but there it is, dropped into a conversation and left there to hang. He also tells him that there is an army there, sent from King Garadul to destroy Rekton for defying him. The wight drops later that Kip has something the king wants and that’s why Rekton was chosen for this display of might.
There is some more information dropped by the wight that we don’t have any clue about translating and some of it even confuses Kip. “Broken the halo,” for example. I do find it funny that “greens don’t do rules and hierarchy,” but that’s probably from my WoT background. We have rules, just not ones anyone else likes to follow… *coughs*
We learn the wight’s name: Gaspar, and that he’s “done for” when the sun comes up. This sounds like a death sentence, but I’m honestly not sure who’s delivering the sentence. At first, it felt a bit like a firing squad at dawn, but at the end of this chapter, when the sun DOES come up, Gaspar takes his lenses off and the green from his eyes leaks through his skin. Gaspar laughs about this and Kip runs, then a group of soldiers and a red drafter attack Gaspar, who runs INTO them.
So, I’ve got questions and a prediction after this one.
1- Who is Kip? He’s obviously important, because he’s different than everyone else except the one guy who isn’t from Rekton originally.
2- Why is Master Danavis in Rekton?
PREDICTION: This is Guile’s kid. According to the write up on the back, The Prism has a kid in a bad place and he has to choose between saving the kid and tearing his world apart. Kip only has a mother. Apparently a worthless mother, but a mother, nonetheless.
2- What is a Color Wight? Evidence suggests they are magic users and that what magic they control is dependent on the colors they can draft. For now, I’m equating this to channeling, since the elements in channeling are all assigned colors, too. It will be interesting to see how this compares to what Weeks is actually writing.
3- Why is Chromeria killing wights and why was Gaspar recruited by King Garadul? Gaspar mentions that for every city/village that wants to destroy the Prism, there’s another defending it. Why is Garadul against the Prism? Is this what the battle was about 16 years ago?
4- Is “Broken the Halo” a reference to the color leaving the pupil of the eye of the wight and infusing the rest of their body? Is this a death sentence? Gaspar says the madness isn’t upon him, yet, so if it is a death sentence, what actually kills them? Do people kill them before they go on a murderous rampage or lose control of their abilities? Are we talking like male channeler madness? Is this a gender controlled issue (I don’t think so, given the way Gaspar talks about it, but since he’s the only one we’ve seen who has this problem, it’s worth a talking point)?
Chapter 2- Gavin Guile
This is why I found myself halfway into this chapter before I realized I’d started it. My prediction was TRUE! Right there on page three after Karris delivers his unsealed message, is a woman telling Gavin that he’s got a son and that she’s dying and he needs to come meet him. BOOM! Go me! (Yeah, so what if it wasn’t difficult to figure out. And yeah, Weeks putting this in the first part of the very next chapter does probably mean it was never meant to be a secret from the reader. I still count it as a victory! 😛 )
So, let’s back up a minute, who is Gavin Guile? Well, he’s the Prism! So, that whole for/against the Prism thing… it’s about him. He drafts all of the colors, which makes sense, when you consider what a prism does to light. I also find it interesting that when Gavin does it, there’s emotion or sensation tied to the colors. Blue calms him, sub-red is hot. Karris played a joke on him and dropped his light blocking curtains, hitting him with a ton of light that he had to process all at once. The sunlight hit him and the colored light came from him. Again, like a prism.
Now, what he does to his breakfast is interesting, dropping blue dye into the wine and then staining the bread with the blue wine. He’d been doing it for almost sixteen years. Coincidence on the time? The Battle of Sundered Rock, where Kip was just hunting happened 16 years ago. What is the significance of that?
Gavin explains that most Prisms last 7, 14, or 21 years and that he’s been the Prism for 16 years already, so he has a good 5 years left. So, he’s been making blue bread since the battle of Sundered Rock, when he became Prism? And some people want to overthrow him while others want to protect him?
We finish this chapter up with a letter from the White, who has enough clout over him that he does what she requests of him. Not necessarily without complaint, just not with a vocal complaint. He carries guns into her presence and makes her Blackguards nervous.
Before he leaves the room, he drops a piece of bread down a tunnel behind a painting on his wall, then listens to hear it hit the three locks he has sealing it from the rest of the Chromeria. What in the world could be down that chute? And then this: “There had been mistakes over the years, but no one had to die this time.” So, whatever is down there has been down there for 16 years. It is trying to get out, thus the locks. The locks have failed a few times and people were killed restraining whatever is down there.
Ominous.
Chapter 3- The Prisoner
Alright, so… that chute Guile dropped blue bread down? He is feeding someone! There’s a person trapped at the bottom of that chute. It takes three locks to keep him down there. Well, three locks and a complete lack of color. There was no light to get color from aside from the blue light provided to the prison. Is this the same concept as modern prisons use to color their walls? Calming colors? Guile had said that blue calmed him, so, maybe?
This prisoner has been a Prism.
This prison sucks all of the color out of everything, blood, urine… everything becomes blue. It’s lined in Hellstone, which has no description, other than that the stone seeps the color out of whatever crosses it. The Prisoner isn’t sure how deep the Hellstone goes, but he’s been working on the stones under him, molding them with the oils in his skin and even urine, to work through it. He tries to break through it enough to keep some color in his urine to work with, but fails again and goes back to work on rubbing the oils and acidic urine into the stone.
But then he drops this bomb… Gavin is his brother. Gavin had trapped him in there and continues to keep him prisoner there.
So, if I’m connecting dots accurately…
There was a battle at Sundered Rock 16 years ago.
This prisoner was a Prism and Gavin has been making blue food to toss down to him every day for almost 16 years.
Kip is Gavin’s son, who lives near Sundered Rock. He’s 15 years old. So, Gavin was at Sundered Rock 16 years ago.
PREDICTION TIME!
The Battle at Sundered Rock was between Gavin and his brother. Gavin won and imprisoned his brother, to become the next Prism. He sleeps with a woman in Rekton and she gives birth to his son after he’s gone. He hasn’t heard from her since.
Questions:
1- Why is Master Danavis in Rekton? Was he put there to guard Kip?
2- What is King Garadul’s beef with Gavin? Did he back Gavin’s brother in that battle? Is Rekton remaining loyal to Gavin? Because of Kip?
3- Why is Gavin holding his brother captive and not just killing him? Maybe I’m just a history nerd, but a potential rival is not something you keep alive, even if he is your brother. Ask Elizabeth I what a pain it was letting her sister live!
4- What is the prophesy about Kip? Does Danavis know? How does it relate to Gavin being the Prism or his brother being in the chute?
SO MANY QUESTIONS BUBBLING AROUND IN MY HEAD!!!!
AHHHH!!!
Ah, well. On to the next chapters and hoping I can find the brakes before I run past the next hurdle! Wish me luck!
I’ve been sitting on starting this for MONTHS and the time has finally arrived! Move over Sean the SciFi nerd… MY TURN! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…coughcoughcough.
Anyway.
Let’s start this read along with meeting the book. Yeah, I know, my elementary school teacher is showing. Just humor me, some of this will probably come in handy, later. Plus, as Weeks says, “There’s a map!”
Here is the link to the Amazon listing for it (No, I don’t get any kickbacks, I’m sharing so you can see what I am looking at and if you want to buy it, there it is! Personally, I’d prefer you go hit up an indie book store and give someone local the money. I promise, Weeks won’t notice the difference!) When I buy books online, I have usually already been pointed to them by someone or something, but I still like a heads up about what I’m getting myself into from a not-personal source. The reviews are golden, both the good and the bad. Go on and give them a read through, I’ll wait.
See what I mean? Mostly amazing reviews! Woot!
Now, let’s read the summary, which looks like the write up on the back of the book, anyway.
In a world where magic is tightly controlled, the most powerful man in the world must choose between his kingdom and his son in the first book in the Lightbringer series, the blockbuster epic fantasy from NYT bestselling author Brent Weeks.
Guile is the Prism. 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.If you loved the action and adventure of the Night Angel trilogy, you will devour this incredible epic fantasy series by Brent Weeks. (copied directly from the Amazon listing, btw) Hmmm… aside from the “In a world…” bit that reminds me of this…
Or this…
Or, my personal favorite…
Given the content, I find the last one rather appropriate. Where’s Ed Harris? Is he Guile? Hmm… Now I’ve got a picture in my head. hahaha… oops.
Now, looking at the book, itself, I notice a few things right off. Weeks is right, there is, in fact, a map. It’s a million pages long, too, which means it needs a map. Good call. There’s a glossary and even a character listing! No pronunciations, so maybe not a Robert Jordan level of difficulty (I’m still only barely comfortable with saying Nynaeve correctly, people) ?
There are acknowledgements, but in the BACK of the book, which is interesting. Acknowledgements are where you get a sense of the author’s personality, so I like reading them to see how they talk about their “friends.” I find it funny that he blacked out his editor’s email address and phone number after saying she liked unsolicited manuscripts (clear cut client harassment and I love it). Then spends the last paragraph making fun of the fact that the book was so long and people are actively reading the acknowledgement pages as if it wasn’t long enough. He refers to the Night Angel trilogy as a Ninja book, which is hilarious and somewhat accurate? I think we’re going to get along just fine, Mr. Weeks.
Oh… and please, Lord, don’t forget the map!
So, are you as ready as I am to crack this one open and dig in?
