Title: The Black Prism

Author: Brent Weeks

Published: August 2010, Orbit Books

Blurb: Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

Trigger Warnings: Abusive parent, blood/bore, bullying, fat shaming, death, depression, loss of a loved one, child taken away after birth, prostitution, slavery, violence, war

Diversity Rep: Multi-cultural characters, multi-religious

Well fuck me, I forgot how amazingly talented Brent Weeks is as a writer.

This is my second time reading The Black Prism, as I wanted to do a reread of the series before I finally get to experience The Burning White for the first time. It’s a slow going process as I get used to my new job and other routine issues, but my slow reading of both The Black Prism and currently The Blinding Light says nothing about the quality of those reads.

Because seriously, I am just in awe of this series and these books, and to start off a series with something like The Black Prism is nothing short of incredible. The balancing of so many POVs and the revealing of information at just the right time! The amazing breadth and depth of the characters that we are presented with! How much I adore Kip and how he feels like so much like the young boy he is! How amazingly impressed I am by the mind of Gavin Guile! How much is revealed within this first book (seriously, my memory is shit and there are some reveals that happened in this book that I could have SWORN happened later in the series)! How much more I understand with this reread!

Honestly, I just think this book was brilliantly, brilliantly done. I missed this world, I missed this story and I love being enveloped back within this world. I can’t express how much I adore Kip and how much I admire him. How awed I am by Gavin Guile. The crush I have on Ironfist. How much I am inspired by and admire Karris (I have named every single video game character I’ve ever created after her, after all). How much I hate Andross Guile. How badly I want to be friends with Teia. How much I wish I could join the Blackguards.

This review doesn’t do this book justice and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write something that will. I basically just…honestly, I hope I can write a novel–a story, a series–as good as this one is. If I can manage that, then I think I’ll be doing okay.

Very okay, indeed.

Read on!