The Black Prism

WHAT
An army of rebels, including many powerful spellcasters, rise up against the ruling government that has oppressed them for many years after choosing the loosing side in a semi religious battle. The winning side of the war maintained the status quo under their leader, the most powerful spellcaster alive, known as the Prism. He alone can prevent this needless war and save the life of thousands. He must do so while raising a bastard child he just found out he has, and keeping a secret that could shatter the world, a secret that burns him from inside and keeps him away from the woman he loves.

TLDR
+ promising plot
+ decent magic system based on colors
+ likeable protagonist, good enough and well described supporting characters
+ good handling of a character with an immense amount of power
+ nice twist regarding the protagonist true identity
- plot slowed down significantly towards the end
- missing information, why he fought with his brother
- cliche/insufficient explanation on why he is the evil brother
- lack of intelligent decisions on the part of some characters
- bad twist, second one regarding the protagonist true identity

PLOT
Gavin Guile is the Prism, the equivalent of a ‘pope' of magic in this fictional world. Magic is called drafting, and it is based on colors. Each drafter can draft from a single source of color, although some can use two and a very few ones can use more. The amount of magic they can use is limited by their will, and the more magic they use, the faster they come to a breaking point where they go mad and must be put down least they endanger the population.

The Prism doesn't have these This is the first twist of the plot.limitations. Not only he can draft from any color, he can do so at a very higher intensity, as he can differentiate a thousand different shades of each color. He also can draft way more magic then any other drafter without endangering going mad. Instead he has a fixed lifespan. Usually seven years, when then for some reason he dies (likely killed in order to preventing him from going mad as well).

Sixteen years ago, he fought his evil brother, Dazen Guile, for the title of Prism. It is not revealed why both were eligible to the position that should have only one candidate each generation. Some people used that fact to question the whole religious system that proclaimed that could only have one Prism at a time. Alliances were made, sides were chosen, hundreds of thousands died. The loosing brother was killed and his followers suffered greatly until this day.

That suffering kindled the rebellion that Gavin is facing now, as one of the Seven Satrapies, semi autonomous countries ruled by the central government of the Chromeria, is leading a crusade against all the Chromeria and their religion stands for.

MORE PLOT (a little spoilerish)

Drafters have a ‘live hard die fast' destiny, as they are a part of the most prestigious and elite class in the kingdom, but their lives are bound to serve the people, and they usually don't live more then 10 years after becoming a full drafter. The Prism life is even shorter, 7 years. Some Prisms manage to break exceed that lifespan, doing so in multiples of seven. No one have lived more then 21 years, Gavin is in his 17th year as the Prism.

Everyone thinks he killed his brother, but in fact he has captured him and kept him in a secret prison for the latest 16 years. Not only that, he is in fact the brother everyone thinks is dead, the evil one. He occasionally visits his brother, they taunt each other and Gavin make sure to keep him confused and misinformed, lying to him about the time of day and the events of the world outside.

After learning he has a son, named Kip, Gavin travels to meet him, only to find out that his son's village have been destroyed and he is about about to be killed as well. He saved his life, reveals himself as his father and initiates him in formal drafting training after the boy have clearly demonstrated his magical abilities.

Accompanying him is Karris, his bodyguard and former lover, who becomes very upset when she finds out Gavin's son's age means that he cheated her while they were together 16 years ago. Were together, because Gavin broke of the engagement with her soon after the war. She has mixed feelings about Gavin, who before the war treated her miserably but years after, when they met again, seemed like a different man.

Karris mission though is one of espionage, and while Gavin returns to the Chromeria with his on, she proceeds to try to infiltrate the rebel army. She soon finds out she has been betrayed, and her arrival was expected.

The man who destroyed Kip's village is raising an army of mad spellcasters, the ones that should have been killed but escaped their fate. As a result, they became wilder and much stronger then most drafters.

Kip is a pudgy boy raised in obscurity in a small village where nothing exciting happens, unaware of his drafting abilities and hated by his mother just for existing. When his village is destroyed, he vows revenge against the man who killed his family and friends. Upon discovering his heritage, he is introduced to the Chromeria's school of casters and his fathers assigns him a tutor, Olivia Danavis.

Olivia is the third supporting character who is also given plenty of focus on the book. She is the daugther of one of one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen, who was defeated in the Prism Wars by Gavin Gile. She is in Chromeria studying to be a drafter, but because of her heritage, she leaves in misery and is ostracized by fellow students. After being as assigned tutor of the Prism's son, she receives a lot of unwanted attention for the wrong reasons.

ANALYSIS (a little spoilerish)
I appreciate the handling of Gavin's immense power in a palatable way. Even though he acts as he is the most powerful man alive, having no fear of anything and mostly doing what he pleases, he is still constrained by his duties as the Prism and some sense of morality.

He believes his powers were meant to help the people, and he is very sorry for all the suffering his actions caused 16 years ago.

- it is his duty to chase and kill the mad spellcasters who refused to surrender themselves to the freeing- he uses his power in new and inventive ways, such as creating a machine that allows him to fly, and erecting an immense wall of pure magic in order to defend a city from an attack

I expected an explanation to why both brothers were elected to be the Prism. The character of Gavin's brother is also never explored, why suddenly he changed his behavior at 13 is mentioned but it doesn't go farther then that. It has something to do with their father.

I really didn't like the cliche of the evil brother actually being the good one, and the evil part is the result of actions he had no control over, but nonetheless blamed himself for it. All the while, the good brother is a rapist and a genocider.

It fell somewhat forced the shades of gray where both brothers are assholes, Gavin (actually Dazen) being a womanizer and a slaver as well.

I hated that the story slowed down so much a little after the middle of the book. The ending was just a big action scene, absent of content. Kip's character became kind of annoying, always feeling sorry for himself and making stupid decisions (like getting himself and Olivia captured), all the displaying incredible feats of magic even though he had no previous training. It was kind of implied that he was a strong drafter because of being the son of the Prism.

What begins as an easy fantasy banality (young man in a small agrarian village has his life change before his eyes when soldiers kill everyone, his mother included) twists itself into a tale of choices, the gray area between good and evil, and the awkwardness of being a teen. The overpowering strengths of The Black Prism by Brent Weeks lies in the character development. There are only a handful of characters within this book that could be thought of as straightforward; and those that are are secondary, driving the plot onward and not giving us enough time to examine them properly. It is each character's struggles that are brilliantly portrayed. Kip, the orphaned boy from the agrarian village, thinks himself worthless, but turns out to be on the rise to become one of the most powerful magicians of the world and the religious figurehead's son to boot. Gavin, the religious figurehead himself, struggles with his past deeds and a secret that could have him killed—not to mention the fact that he will die within seven years. Liv struggles to find a cause to join, following her father's words, “Fealty to one.” Karris struggles to find the truth behind Gavin and his dead brother Daven, whom she loved. The characters are so enthusiastically thrown together and shaken that the reader finds themselves on a roller coaster of emotion, action, and confusion (a good sort of confusion) trying to figure out who is going to do what next.

Weeks's world-building was well done also. His world centers on seven satrapies, each with their own race that, at times, got me thinking that things were a bit too heavily racial in this world. But then I remembered that is how things are here in our world; so I decided to over look the hundred or so references to “kinky hair” and color of skin. The magic system, of course, is what the book centers around and I did like the way it was based off light and scientific principle. Also, the political and economic effects the magic had on the world as a whole was well thought out. However, there was just something about the magic system that did not connect with me personally. I can't put my finger on it, however, so that did not effect my rating.

Had I been basing my rating solely on characterization, plot, and world-building I might have awarded The Black Prism a full five stars. Perhaps. Unfortunately, there was a certain rushed feel to the book. Not in pacing, but in the publication itself. I began reading and spotted a few typos. It happens sometimes, of course, I thought to myself. But after spotting one practically every other chapter (there are 93 chapters!) I began to think that perhaps Weeks's previous trilogy was too successful for The Black Prism's good. Clearly this book was rushed into publication to make money fast, which it may have done, but it certainly has hurt my opinion of Weeks, the editors involved, and Orbit Books. This easily lost it a full star in my eyes.

The other star lost might have been two had I not been so intrigued and consumed by the characters. Melodrama at times got so over the top that it was ridiculous. At points it got the point where it felt like a character couldn't comb their hair for fear that they might decapitate themselves with the comb. Things are not terribly subtle in this book. And speaking of decapitations.... I understand that war is bloody, tragic thing. I get that people die in battle and, yes, maybe a few of them might lose a limb or possibly their head. But in the final battle there were so many decapitations it made me want to skip to the last page and see how it ended. I considered going back and counting how many died such explicitly gruesome deaths, but, alas, then I would have to read it again. I mean, you don't have to know much physics to understand that a musket ball is not going to decapitate a horse! At what point did our society become so enthralled by gore and violence that it was entertaining for so many people (and horses) to have their heads loped, shot, exploded, and crushed off?

So I have to say, bravo Weeks for your development of this story. I'll have to overlook a few things to read the next book in the trilogy...

I'm not feeling this book so far at 35% in. the magic system is really fun and all, but i'm not super engaged by the story, and i also kinda predicted that big reveal about Gavin and Dazen having swapped identities in Ch 34, so it wasn't super surprising for me. i'm DNFing for now at Ch 36. i won't rule out picking it back up again, but i have too many books to read this month to press on.