The Black Prism

The Black Prism

Lightbringer #1

Brent Weeks

Fantasy

4 Stars

609 Pages

A world in which magic is manifested through colors. Different colors have different effects, and most magic workers can handle 1, maybe 2, colors. Only the Prism, ruler of a bunch of small kingdoms, can use all 7 colors. This was cool because it follows a fat boy who turns out to be the Prism’s bastard from 15 years before the book. There is supposed to be only 1 Prism in a generation, but there were 2 back then, and a war to determine the True Prism. This series is dealing with the after effects of that war. Lots of politic’ing and intrigue and fighting. In some ways it reminded of The Mistborn Trilogy, in which it is posited that the good guy is the badguy, or vice versa or all jumbled up. Very interesting plot points. Thankfully Weeks’ use of foul language is somewhat curbed, making this a more enjoyable read than his Night Angel books.

Fantastic read.

A good bit more complex than the Night Angel books, so while my initial reaction was “huh?”, I realize it allows for a much greater storyline later on.

Also, a fat clutzy kid as one of the main protagonists? That made it real for me. How often is the hero a buff, super handsome, super everything kind of person with Big biceps, big boobs, big brains, etc, etc. All the time. Nice to see a bit of “reality” creep into our fantasy 😀