Weeks - The Black Prism review

The Black Prism is the first book in Brent Weeks' new series Lightbringer. I decided to read it after enjoying Weeks' highly entertaining Night Angel trilogy. The Black Prism has the same action-packed, fast-paced formula as Night Angel. The writing isn't great, but it's pretty good overall.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this novel is the magic system and the culture built around it. Weeks did an excellent job of world building for this series. The world does not feel like a typical Medieval-ish world with some magic thrown in. It feels like he created the magic system and then build the society and world based on what magic would do in the world.

Anyway, the magic system is based on light and color. Those who can use magic are known as drafters. They use color as a focus to create a substance known luxin that they can manipulate. The color is based on reflective light, rather than pigment. So, a drafter needs to be able to see a color in order to draft. And most drafters can only draft a single color, so colored spectacles are common - wearing green lenses causes more green light to get to the drafter's eyes, meaning that drafter has a greater focus on green for drafting. The colors of luxin have their own properties as well - red being hot, blue being cool and glasslike, etc. Drafting can also affect the mood and personality of the drafter. For example, blue promotes cool, logical though and green brings in the wildness of nature.

Enough about that, except to say that Weeks does an excellent job placing the magic within the overall world and making a coherent society as influenced by the magic. He also brings in technology and how it interacts with the magic.

The story isn't quite as good as what the world-building deserves, but it is fun and entertaining. The tale centers around Gavin Guile who is the Prism of the Seven Satrapies. He's something of an emperor, but severely limited by a council and by the power of the individual satrapies. He fought a war many years before against his brother and came back from the war changed for the better. He knows his time is limited, as all drafters, but he has 7 noble purposes he's attempting to achieve. And then comes Kip, a boy from the Satrapy most ravaged by the previous war. His village has just been destroyed by Garadul, the satrap who had declared himself to be a king. And he's just learned that he can draft and that he's Gavin Guile's illegitimate son.

So, now the Prism needs to deal with a rebel satrap. However, the bigger story revolves around a man known as Lord Omnichrome, who like the Prism, can draft every color of the spectrum. He's behind Garadul's rebellion and is challenging the world's belief in their god and how drafters fit into the world later in their lives and how drafting affects the drafter and the world.

Overall, the world is fantastic and the scenario quite intriguing. The action in the book, as noted before, is very fast-paced and entertaining. Some of the character development is a bit annoying and there are some obvious plot holes. Still, I recommend it and think the next volume or two will be better.
/ [Viking]

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