The Blinding Knife

I mentioned in my last review that while the series as a whole had promise, that particular book was a bit too much of a tease. I stand by that. It had potential, but wading through the foreshadowing and pre-growth characterization and general setup was frustrating. So, for this book to succeed, it must develop the plot, develop the characters, and just generally develop.

And it did, sorta?

As for the characterization, oh hell yes. He's not Vin from Mistborn or anything but the annoyance that was Kip from the first book has successfully Grown A Spine. Thank god. Actually, most of this book is just spend on characterization , namely Andross's, Liv's, and Gavin's. Which is good, but when the bulk of your plot happens at the last few show more chapters, it can be very frustrating. Please, don't let these stupid cliffhangers become the norm. So yet again, I'm invested enough to want to see what happens next, but not enough to be satisfied with just these books so far. That's how they get ya.

Also a side note: Am I the only one who is 100% on the villains side here? Recoring this thought for posterity in case i look like an idiot later.

THE RANKING THUS FAR:

tBK > tBP show less

I mentioned in my last review that while the series as a whole had promise, that particular book was a bit too much of a tease. I stand by that. It had potential, but wading through the foreshadowing and pre-growth characterization and general setup was frustrating. So, for this book to succeed, it must develop the plot, develop the characters, and just generally develop.

And it did, sorta?

As for the characterization, oh hell yes. He's not Vin from Mistborn or anything but the annoyance that was Kip from the first book has successfully Grown A Spine. Thank god. Actually, most of this book is just spend on characterization , namely Andross's, Liv's, and Gavin's. Which is good, but when the bulk of your plot happens at the last few show more chapters, it can be very frustrating. Please, don't let these stupid cliffhangers become the norm. So yet again, I'm invested enough to want to see what happens next, but not enough to be satisfied with just these books so far. That's how they get ya.

Also a side note: Am I the only one who is 100% on the villains side here? Recoring this thought for posterity in case i look like an idiot later.

THE RANKING THUS FAR:

tBK > tBP show less

The Blinding Knife is what a sequel should be. It takes the action and magic that made [b:The Black Prism|7165300|The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)|Brent Weeks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327921884s/7165300.jpg|7534979] good and made it better while toning down a lot of the exposition and over-characterization that made it a bit of a drag at times.

On the plus side, the magic system has a lot more depth than it did in the first book while at the same time not spending quite as much time hitting us over the head with terms we don't quite understand yet. Even if I don't necessarily like some of the choices (like why you can't draft green from white light by default), it's still a well done system. Otherwise, the worldbuilding has show more gotten bigger. Magical trading cards. Seers. Old Gods.

Also a positive, I really am starting to like the majority of the characters. Kip is still annoying at times (“His name is Kit Guile and—” “Kip,” Kip interjected. “Not a woody tub for toys, a tubby wooden boy.”), but he's really starting to grow up. Gavin really is trying to do the right thing and it's nice to see his and Karris' relationship move past the 'well if you don't know I'm not telling you stage'. And some of those twists with Gavin(s)... oy. (Gavin. Dazen? Even I’m confused.)

Liv... I don't really care about Liv. I get where Weeks is trying to go with her story line (or at least I think I do), but that doesn't mean I don't skip past most of her sections. Perhaps Week will pull it off in the end?

New characterwise, I really like Teia. I wasn't sure where she was going to go at first, but she has a take on magic that people don't really believe exists, which is often interesting. Plus she provides an interesting point of view into the aspects of slavery in this society.

If you've read [b:The Black Prism|7165300|The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)|Brent Weeks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327921884s/7165300.jpg|7534979], read this. If you haven't, give The Black Prism a try. show less

I'm going out on a limb here by saying that I'm a fanboy. The limb of my respect is very strong and thick, so even Kip can climb out far above the colorful land below and never need to worry about breaking the tree.

Kip was always the underdog, and who doesn't love the underdog? His story is by far the strongest in the books, and it doesn't take a genius to see he's being set up for so many more great things. One shouldn't refer to the title of the series. The fun is seeing exactly how he arrives to that end.

Gavin took a little getting used to, especially because he rightly considers himself to be an anti-hero, while strangely devoting his life to doing great and even good things. It's an odd sensation to be gently held by a razor's edge show more between divinity and demon-hood, and be completely unable to see the distinction in yourself. Fortunately, we've got the color prince as a foil for gavin and then we've got gavin's current course at the end of the novel. I do feel nostalgic about him and his lady love. I've got a very strong feeling that things will turn out all right for him in the end. Of course, if Mr. Weeks ever reads this review, he might decide to spite me. :) I hope not.

Liv, on the other hand, is useful for seeing the other side, although I still think hers is the weaker reasoning, despite her growing up as a quasi-slave, abused by the system. She had no bones to pick with with Gavin or Kip, and personal loyalty has often been known to trump ideology and charisma. A character like her is absolutely necessary for the story, but I have to wonder if Liv, herself, needed to be that character. I'm just musing about it. We are, after all, setting the stage for even more huge and god-like battles to come, so I will still side on Mr. Weeks decisions for her and I will certainly hope for a great deal of characterization for Liv to make what has come before much more worthwhile.

A Third and Fourth books will certainly paint all of the characters in different colors, because Mr. Weeks has already shown us that he is a painter that will give us many broad-strokes on his canvas, and isn't that particular about burying previous strokes under the new. Indeed, you can't do otherwise if you've chosen to have such a furiously quick pace in storytelling. I give respect, here.

I can't wait for the new books, of course. :) show less

Sometimes I wish I had the education to analyze exactly why books like this are so much better than awesome. I mean I know what I like, what I love and what just wows me. What I can't always explain is why certain books take over my life, make me forget to eat, and make it hard to sleep because I keep going over scenes in my head. It is actually easier to review a merely good book, or one that is great but not perfect. However when a book simply blows me away I don't even know how to start explaining why. It feels like trying to explain a rainbow to someone who has never seen one.

This is one of those books.

This story has so much going for it. Meticulous worldbuilding, a detailed and unique magic system, sympathetic characters, twists show more and turns to keep you guessing, moral dilemmas which make you wonder what choice you would make, political power plays behind the scenes, hidden agendas, divided loyalties and the list goes on. Brent Weeks quite frankly scares me alittle. I imagine he gets up every morning and over breakfast thinks of nothing but "what horrible, nasty, cruel, demented thing can I do to my characters today" and then he goes and does it. Then for lunch he figures out how to get them out of today's dilemma in the most surprising, backhanded, conniving, sneaky but heroic way possible, then he does that too. I don't even want to know what he thinks about during dinner....

Let me sum things up for you. Ever rode a roller-coaster? Well experiencing this story is exactly like that... only better. You don't get queasy and it lasts a whole lot longer.

Read Full Review @ Dragons, Heroes and Wizards show less

This is my favorite book of this series. Oh, how I loved it! I quite literally flew through the entire thing. Work, cleaning, even eating was put on hold to finish this book.

I liked Gavin in the first book. I loved Gavin in this one! He’s one of my favorite literary characters ever. Every time I started a chapter and realized it was a “Gavin” chapter I was thrilled! On the other hand, every time I realized it was a “Liv” chapter I felt annoyance deep in my soul.

I disliked Kip in the first book. I found him immature, whiny, annoying, etc. In this book, however, he starts to come of age. He develops friendships, gains a bit of confidence, and is maybe, kinda not as whiny? I’m not going to lie, I find the passages written show more with his friends to be on the corny side with a bit too many cliche’ come backs. However, they’re also still heartwarming.

The magic system really starts to get fleshed out in this book, the greatest character for this being Teia. I can’t say enough good things about her. She’s right behind Gavin on my favorite characters list.

Andross is the perfect villain. Genius, unpredictable, annoyingly right, and reprehensible. I loved to hate him.

All in all, this series started out strong with The Black Prism, but it really cemented itself as one of my favorite series with The Blinding Knife! show less

This will be the reason why I’ll keep on reading this series

The Lightbringer series’ second entry starts exactly where the first book ended, and while The Black Prism had good ending chapters the book as a whole was the example of how cool action scenes don’t guarantee a great book... but The Blinding Knife improves where it’s predecessor failed. The character work in this second book is there, we learn to care for Kip and Gavin and that makes a huge difference. Moreover the new characters are as well developed as those we got in the first book, which goes to show how much Brent Weeks’ skills as an author improved between books.

The plot starts a bit slow but immediately picks up. The short chapters maintain a sense of fast show more movement throughout the book. The world building on this one is excellent as we learn a lot more about the old gods, more about the lore around drafting and the different powers in this world.

The action keeps being top notch so that also works in its favor but this time around it is not the only thing it has going for it.

I’m excited to keep reading this series, which is way more than I could say for The Black Prism.

9.5/10 show less