The Black Prism (Lightbringer 1) - Brent Weeks

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

I've had this one on my list for a while, ever since a friend read all 5 of them in like a month because he loved them so much. While I didn't read it as quickly as he did, I was engaged in this fantasy world more than I have been in any other for a while.

This one has a general mashup of fantasy tropes - royal ultra powerful magic wielder has a bastard son that is hidden, eventually the son learns who he is and learns to use his powers. The magic system is also kind of close to the one in Sanderson's Warbreaker, where light is harnessed for power, but it is used differently. Each person can wield a specific colour, unless they are super powerful and can wield more than one (kind of like Mistborn). Each colour represents different temperaments and can accomplish different things (almost like the Ajahs in Wheel of Time). Son goes to school to learn how to harness his power (insert one of a dozen fantasy books here).

While it sounds like its not treading any new ground, it had a couple great twists, and I liked the pace of the book. It doesn't insult your intelligence by over explaining, and there is an appendix if you really want to understand every new word you see. The characters are distinct and their motivations change, as you would hope they would in a good book.

The final 100 pages were this exciting battle that I actually found a bit hard to track, so I am curious if his big-scale action writing gets better as the series goes on. It had a great cliff-hanger ending, so I will for sure be coming back for more. I have a good feeling that the series will go in a more novel direction, and I'm sure by next book it will be a standout for me.