Book Review: The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

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 The Black Prism 

(LightBringer #1)

By Brent Weeks 


Published Year: 2010

Page Count: 660 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle PW 

Genre : High Fantasy, Magic, Chromaturgy, Action, War, Adventure, 2025-read. 

Rating : 4.25/5


The last 200 pages just blew my mind. It felt like they were written by a different person from the author of the first part of the story. I was gripped as the details of the war between the Prism, his drafters, soldiers and the Lord Omnicrome are expounded. The author has introduced a new, fantastic world where people use/draft magic according to their abilities by drafting colors from light and surroundings. They can make any of the materials that can be made with any of the seven colors : sub-red(heat), red, orange, yellow, green, blue, superviolet. Some can draft only one color and they are at the bottom rung of the populace. Some can do multiple and they are bichrome or polychrome. Only one person in an age of seven years can draft all the colors and s(h)e is the Prism. The prism is at the top of the control ladder,answerable only to the White. 


So Gavin Guile is the current Prism, the lord of all seven satraphies. He has a bastard son, the fat and awkward, shy Kip. Prism, on one of his trips to Tyrea, comes across a group of renegades tormenting a kid and saves him. He learns that the kid is his bastard son. So he brings him to Crimeria where much action is always going on.


Gavin and his brother Dazen had gone to fight a war sixteen years ago and one of them won. The one who won - Gavin -  has an absolutely vile and dangerous secret that he cannot let even his most trusted friends know. Gavin with the help of Kip and other important drafters/soldiers go into a skirmish with the renegades and their king, Garadul - who want not to just take over one of the satraphies, but beat the Crimeria and introduce a new, false God. How are they tackled, are they really eliminated - one has to read the book to the end to really know.


 The story and writing  are very addictive. It felt a bit boring towards the middle and I took off some points from the overall rating for it. The character and world development are good. I felt skeptical that the author is trying to portray Gavin, the usurper, in a positive light but his character sort of just is developed in a positive light. Very eager for the second book in the series! 

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