The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1)

by Brent Weeks

[ross91]

So... It's not easy talking about this book. It's been ages since I wanted to read it and, based on the synopsis and the goodread rating, I thought this would be an easy 5* for me. Alas, I was disappointed.
I really enjoyed the Night Angel trilogy, even if I am not madly in love with those books, and I strongly believe that in terms of writing style and magic system The Black Prism is an improvement. It's impossible not to see Weeks' creative effort in writing an interesting and multifaceted story.
What this book lacks is depth and clarity: the magic system is innovative and unique, but sometimes really difficult to understand and grasp in its entirety; big segments of the book are dedicated to its explanation and it seems that Weeks wants to throw at the reader all the basic notions as soon as possible, resulting in being confusing as hell. I kept comparing his work with Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy: both have difficult magic system, but in Mistborn everything is discovered gradually and hand in hand with the progression of the story, while here it's all a long confusing and boring exposition.
Another thing that is missing is the emotional depth: the story take place in a matter of days but, even so, the reader doesn't feel the pressure of the events and the characters seem detached at best: Kip, one of the main protagonists, sees a lot of violence and yet the next day everything is fine and he's ready for his new life. And this is just one of the numerous examples that I could have written. The characters easily accept everything that happens to them without any emotional breakdown whatsoever. That's why sometimes their choices and acts are not believable at all.
Gavin is the only exception: he has a round personality and everything he does is for an understandable reason. I found and his chapters the most entertaining and easy to read. Karris is interesting as well, but for now she is just promising and needs to be developed more in the sequel. Instead Kip and Liv were annoying as hell. God, what a whiny pair of teenagers!
Overall this book has a lot of potential and gets a lot of things right as well: the story, although not very epic, is still entertaining, there are numerous twists and turns that I couldn't predict (not all necessary, but still very effective) and everything is set up to be developed in the best way possible.
I hope the sequel will be an improvement!
In the end I gave this book 4 hopeful stars... Even though maybe it's more of a 3,5 (but I am strongly against .5 ratings... So 4* it is!)