The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Author: Brent Weeks

Name of the book: The Black Prism

Editorial: Orbit

Number of pages: 735 ( 739 with Acknowledgments)

Publication date: First published in Great Britain in 2010. Then on paperback in 2011, and the latest edition in 2013.

My Grade: 10/10.

Summary:

The story begins sixteen years after the war; the Prism receives a note from a woman claiming to be "Lina," instructing him to meet his now 15-year-old son across the world in Tyrea. He had not known of his son's existence until this point. This child was conceived while Gavin was betrothed to Karris White Oak, a member of his Blackguard, the most elite military force in the world. The White sends Karris to Garriston, Tyrea's capital, to spy on its Satrap's army. She gives Karris a note concerning Gavin's unfaithfulness, to be read after leaving the Chromeria. Gavin is sent somewhere else to keep the two separated, but instead chooses to bring Karris to Garriston himself before she can read the note, using a mode of transportation no one else even believes possible: magically-aided flight across the ocean. This allows them to enter Tyrea in hours, rather than the month or so expected otherwise.

As they draw closer, Karris sees smoke, and directs them to the former town of Rekton, which has been burned to the ground by Tyrean soldiers. They are just in time to save a teenager from being executed, killing several of the Satrap's personal bodyguards in the process. Gavin is then confronted by the irate Satrap himself, who calls himself King Garadul and his Satrapi a true independent nation. The town was burned on his order, as an example, due to their refusal to pay levies.

Tyreans are treated with little respect outside of Tyrea and have no true color on the spectrum. Garriston, the country's only port, is under a rotating occupation from the other Satrapies. King Garadul plans to continue the march of his largely conscripted army to Garriston and seize it, and from there, break the Chromeria's rule over the world.

The child is revealed to be Gavin's son, Kip. Following some debate, heated words, death threats and magic missiles, Kip and the Prism are allowed to leave together. However, the king takes a box from Kip which he claims was stolen from him. The box contains a white dagger given to Kip by his dying mother, who made him promise to kill the man responsible.

Away from all this, Karris reads the note given to her by the White, and is angered by Gavin's betrayal, his lies about it when breaking their engagement, and the White's attempts to manipulate her into forgiving him. Because of this, she ultimately refuses Gavin's offer of assistance the rest of the way to Garriston, opting to explore Rekton while Gavin brings Kip back to the Chromeria. She meets Corvan Danavis, Kip's tutor and a former general of Dazen Guile's army. She is eventually captured by king Garadul, while Corvan continues to Garriston.

While Kip is entered into the Chromeria, shadowed by the Blackguard commander Ironfist, Gavin does a favor for Corvan's daughter Liv in exchange for her teaching Kip, as they are the only Tyreans in the Chromeria. He then enters a prison hidden deep in the Chromeria, containing his brother, whom he has secretly imprisoned in a cell in which nothing but blue luxin can be drafted. It is then revealed that the Prism is in fact Dazen, having stolen his older brother Gavin's identity. When Dazen became Gavin after the war, he chose to break off Gavin's previous betrothal to Karris despite his own feelings, truthfully denying any affairs. The prism interrogates his brother about both Kip and the dagger, which Gavin calls "your death coming." He then meets with his father, Andross Guile, to speak about Tyrea. When he mentions the box Garadul took from Kip, Andross immediately asks if it is "the white luxin," a supposedly mythical substance. His brother Gavin was aware of it as well, and Andross, not knowing Dazen isn't Gavin, assumes he knows what it is. Andross Guile orders his son to defeat Garadul's armies, but at all costs retrieve the dagger.

Kip, the Prism, Ironfist, and Liv leave for Tyrea to defend Garriston from Garadul's armies, sinking several pirates along the way. Corvan reaches Garriston at about this time, and agrees to lead the city's defense. Despite their real-world friendship, the Prism and Corvan must pretend to hate and distrust each other deeply. Liv questions her father about it, but he refuses to tell her the truth. She assumes the Prism is blackmailing him with her life, and silently vows to make him pay.

Liv and Kip run away to free Karris from Garadul's captivity. Ironfist leaves a few hours later, to see to their survival. Liv infiltrates successfully, while Kip is recognized and captured, though not before drafting sub-red for the first time. Karris, meanwhile, is taken to meet Lord Omnichrome, a color wight who heads Garadul's drafters. She recognizes him as her brother Koios, thought-killed by Dazen in overzealous self-defense before the war.

Ironfist helps Karris and Kip escape, and they both go after Garadul directly. Kip sees Lord Omnichrome give Zymun (a red drafter Kip knows from Rekton's burning) his mother's rosewood case, but Kip decides to help Karris. Playing on her disgust with the Prism and Chromeria, Omnichrome persuades Liv to join his cause in return for aiding Kip and Karris. Omnichrome intends for Garadul to die, so Corvan and Dazen try to save him. They are unsuccessful; Kip kills him in a rage before he can be stopped.

Kip, Karris and Corvan retreat to the docks, along with the Prism. Kip saves Ironfist's life before chasing the ship that's already left the dock. As Kip runs across the water, he sees someone stab the Prism from behind with the dagger, and tackles him off the ship. He retrieves the box and leaves the assassin for the sharks before escaping with the Prism's ship.

The Prism gives Kip the case, thinking the dagger lost. In it, Kip finds a note from his mother, telling him to kill "the man who raped me, Gavin Guile," and that she loves him. One of the clear diamond-like stones on the dagger's handle is now a sapphire-colored stone. At about this time, the real Gavin escapes from his blue luxin prison after nearly killing himself, only to find himself in an identical green luxin prison. The book ends as Dazen, who is Gavin to the world, discovers that he can no longer draft blue

Full opinion:

Okay, I am going to say it, I loved this book, from the beginning to the end, and it actually took me a while to read it as I was working and doing some stuff for my college degree, but I loved it so much!

Now the reasons:

1. Firsts thing first there is a map right at the beginning, and let’s make it clear it’s always a bonus when there are maps on the books, because it helps us locate where is the story happening and where do the protagonist move.

2. The main characters, Gavin and Kip, well Gavin that actually is Dazen pretending to be Gavin, but that’s another thing. These two characters made the whole story amazing, one with being this kind of liar but with a purpose and trying to do what it’s truly the right thing and all his interior debates that he has with himself, it shows that he is not as plain as it seemed at the beginning. And Kip, a teenager who is fat and kind of a looser, but that turns out he is the son of the most powerful person in that universe. And all his internal dialogs that he has every time that he says something that he shouldn’t have are priceless. They booth show us that you can’t truly judge a book by its cover as you never know how much development a character can actually have.

3. The prison that Dazen, pretending to be Gavin, creates for the true Gavin, it is so smart and it truly says how much thought it went into making sure he truly never escape from there, and how the right Gavin has this plan to try and break free and when he finally does and you wish him to get out and bring hell to Dazen whe find out that there is in fact not only one blue prison, there is one or each colors, and even though I felt kind of sorry for him one part of me though F—Yeah Dazen!

4. Some Secondary characters are brilliant, Ironfirst and Karris are my favorites, and also that tiny chapter in which Bas the simple gets to the Freeing and tells Gavin that he knows the truth, it just so well put together that it makes it perfect when Gavin uses it as an excuse to kill him. Also his mother Felia, who she knew everything from the beginning but the fear of losing another child made her not tell anything.

5. How everything is constructed, the society, the powers, how they work, how the government work, the cities, everything is so amazingly well put together that it just makes me want to believe that it would be real.

6. King Garandul is just perfect, he is the bad the one you think it’s behind all this new war that is yet to come, but right at the end of the book you see that he was merely a puppet and the true and smart enemy is Lord Omnichrome.

An amazing story for readers that love to be transported to different worlds, that love fantasy and also like to see some darkness in the stories, as it would not be possible to go to war without killing, fighting, and betrayal.

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