hey it's a novel review... haven't had time to do one of those in a while
um... this is going to be long so i'll start off like this.
TL;DR - if you like fantasy, interesting characters, really cool magic system and fantasy that isn't written in such a serious manner and has range from extremely funny to incredibly sad..... then you owe it to yourself to give Brent Weeks a try. He currently has two series out
Night Angel Trilogy - Finished
Light bringer series - 2 out of 4 books released.
Go give it a shot...
hm..... OK it's story time....
Despite my love of reading, i'm really really picky with what i read.... after The belgariad it took me a long time to find a series i loved as much.
My parents got me to read Harry potter... it was good but not as good as the belgariad....
My friend tried to get me to read some popular teen fiction despite the fact that i was no longer a teen at this point.... and it was great for a laugh but NOT a good read.
So one day i'm in a local bookstore, a rather large one and there was a table of fantasy novels and one caught my eye... Shadows Edge.
My first thought - Wow thats a really nice cover..... yeah yeah i know don't judge books by their cover but seriously we all do it....
my second thought. - Book 2 of the night angel trilogy? damn wonder where book 1 and possibly 3 are..... oh.... right beside them.... i guess i was just attracted to the red on the cover.
my third thought - 10 bucks each?........... yeah i'll give it a shot and if i don't like it.... i'll give it to someone else.
Wow it was such a breath of fresh air.... one of only a few things that i didn't guess the ending to or any of the plot twists. It made me laugh, it made me cry... hell outright sob.... and the second book specifically has the best Final line that i've ever seen in a book.... I literally let out a little scream that had the people around me making sure i was okay.
I instantly tried to get everyone i knew around me to read it because i wont talk about things with others incase i spoil something... so i make them read it and THEN i can talk....
and YES that's why i write these things.... i write them because when i have no one to talk to about this kind of stuff i go nuts and honestly half the time i just wanna gush about how much i loved something.
Anyways fast forward a year or two and he's announced Book 1 of a new series, he's even posted the first three chapters to be read http://www.orbitbooks.net/blackprism/
I'm flying out for a family members wedding and he's going to be doing a book tour about 2 or 3 hours from where she lived.... however it meant i would have missed the first 2 weeks of my second year of college so i had to pass. anyways I had to fly there and i HATE flying... the doctor even gave me meds to take the edge off and they did nothing.... however reading The way of the shadow helped keep my mind off the fact that we were really really high up... though finishing it in less then 4 hours probably meant i was really nervous... anyways this was the second time i had read it... and it was even better.... so much foreshadowing.. .so much sequel bait so much goodness that i mad missed due to not having the knowledge of the characters that i had after finishing the series. I learned a valuable lessonthats to that.... sometimes it's best to read again just tosee everything you missed.
So black prism comes out.... next day it's done and i love it.... i saw more of the plot twists coming because i now understood how Brent Weeks wrote plot twists.... but it didn't matter they were all still really well done and quite emotional.
And again a really good final line that made me want to read the next book right away............ but it didn't come out for 2 years.... in fact it only just came out over a week ago.
However i knew i couldn't go to the store and buy it due to crazy hours at work so i ordered it online and expected it to take a week which would give me enough time to re-read Black prism... it arrived two days later after i had done a 13 and 12 hour days so yeah.... i had to make a choice.... screw re-reading the first book and jump right into the second.... or torture myself further by re-reading book 1 and writing a huge review before diving into book 2
Well i picked torture... and i'm so glad i did... again i missed a lot of clues and foreshadowing.... and yes with this one i guessed the most major plot twist but still seeing how he hints at it was just so well done....
and now i'm done, thanks to reading before i pass out i managed to get it finished in about 8 hours of reading time.... spread out over a week and a half.
-Story Time End-
OK now onto the review
Black prism is about a young, chubby, clumbsy oaf named Kip who wants to think he's something special but knows he just going to live a meaningless life in a crappy town with his Permanently high mother who seems to hate him.
It's also about Gavin Guile, the most powerful man in the world and the only man who can split light into every colour and use it as magic...
hm i should back track... See the magic in this world is the most interesting magic system i have ever seen.... and not just cause i'm a colour nerd myself.... it's all based on light and colour.... most Drafters can be put into a few categories: monochrome - only able to draft one of the colours; Bichrome - about to draft two colour, almost alwasy colours that touch so blue-green or red-sub red are fairly common but you do get the occasional one who has an odd combo like Superviolet and Yellow or Red and green; Polychrome - very rare then can draft 3 or more colours; the last one is the Prism who can draft all 7, has a role as a religious figure but only tends to live in incriments of 7 years... the lonest lasting till about 21 years in office.
Each colour has a different thickness, property, hardness, use and smell.... it also makes you feel certain emotions (orange gives the feeling of unease while blue brings calmness) which is pure colour theory and i eat it all up.
anyways with that out of the way back to Gavin
SO he is the most powerful man in the world and he just got a troubling letter "you have a son, his name is Kip, i'm Dying and you should ocme meet him"
well thats a hell of a way to start off a book.
There are 3 other characters who I would consider important but one of them i don't dare talk about cause it was more interesting to read, it's in the three chapters i linked above so if your interested give it a shot.... the other two are interesting but not as interesting as the main three.
The good:
Well obviously i ADORE the colour magic system... maybe it's because i'm an artist and i did a series based on colour theory and how it makes people feel or maybe it's because it's a really cool system....
I love the characters... like i mentioned Kip isn't your typical main character but dammit you just love him.
the story has just the perfect amount of twists and turns before it starts getting convoluted... it knows just which feelings to tug on and which to rip out of your chest and then show you before they get stomped on. and it's a really good length.... around 600 pages.
The not so good:
Nothing can be perfect but there is one chapter.... where i felt half of it was completely unnecessary and had nothing to do with the plot UNLESS something happens in book two and then maybe i'll forgive it.... but seriously.... yes we know what happens and we don't need you to describe it in such nasty detail... maybe i just hate when authors write about that particular subject but i have seen it done well... go watch Berserk.
The bad?:
Nothing is really bad BUT it is written in a way that people who like their fantasy to be super serious may not like... i personally love it though cause it's just fun... so this is more of a warning... again read the first three chapters and you'll see what i mean when i say he has a unique style...
Do i recommend it?
I Think i've been pretty clear on that fact... it's one of my favorite books and he is one of my favorite authors so yeah.... go read it.... and go read night angel Trilogy cause it's brilliant as well...
also when you read it... read the acknowledgements.... i did when i first picked up Way of the shadow and yeah it made me burst out laughing.
well i did warn you that this would be long. alright i can finally go read blinding knife! i'm so excited i could--- whats was that.... i need to do some work at home so people don't yell at me for not havign any money? but..... but....... lightbringer 2 *sobs*
ok extra work first THEN blinding knife *nods*
No comments:
Post a Comment