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Series:<\/b> The Lightbringer (Book 1)<\/span> The plot\u2019s pretty complex. There\u2019s five point of views and they\u2019re involved in all different facets of the plot from survival to politics to escaping from prison. Almost all of them weave together in the end and I\u2019m sure more extend into the next books. The plot held me to the end, though the book was long (650 pages if you didn\u2019t see up there). There\u2019s a major twist. The ending definitely left on a cliffhanger, though I\u2019m probably not going to continue the series.<\/span> There\u2019s a diverse range of characters of different genders, ethnicities, and ages. Gavin\u2019s point of view was the most interesting because of his (without spoiling) unique situation, but I grew to dislike him by the end because of what he did to others for selfish reasons. Karis was pretty cool, but I gravitated toward Liv and Kip the most. Kip has a good heart in the end and has a lot of inner strength. All of their abilities are fun and unique. There were a lot of other interesting characters, but there was a lot and I forget a lot of their names. ^ ^’<\/span> This is the first book I\u2019ve read where the magic system was so complex it was actually overwhelming for me. I commend Weeks for inventing such a complex system, but I didn\u2019t get the hang of it until halfway through the book because it just has so many different facets. You can use all kinds of different colors or sometimes one color or two colors or all the colors and your eyes are different colors. And they\u2019re called polychromes and monochromes and biochromes and prisms and then you can turn bad and become a wight. And all the colors do different things but you can only use the colors if you can see the colors in the scenery or wearing colored glasses and then hellstones aka obsidian and opposite colors can prevent drafting and *holds head *. So. Much. I mean it\u2019s really cool to have colors as power. It\u2019s just a lot to absorb.<\/span> <\/p>\n My favorite scene of the book was during the Threshing with Kip. During that he sees portrayals of the seven deadly sins and then the opposites of the sins are revealed. I thought that was unique. I actually thought the distortions that the color wights had were interesting, like the one that became completely made out of crystal. I also like that unique weapon were used such as an ataghan.<\/span> <\/p>\n There were a lot of Christian values displayed and morality, but much of this was in a mire of a very flawed world much like Westeros and Essos.<\/span> There\u2019s so much I\u2019m dividing it into sections.<\/span> Sexual Content –<\/b> A kid is born out of wedlock. A father pressures his son to make love with a girl. A slave strips for her master and baths with him and then fondles with his man parts. Woman claims another imagines a man tearing off her clothes. Completely naked men and women, one woman having her nipples described. People are stripped naked and talk about female body parts. Mention of rape and a drunk rape is obtusely described. Two people having standing sex in public.<\/span> 1.) A Character Dealing with Being Overweight –\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Kip is overweight and he’s made fun of for being so. He also feels a lot of shame for not having the stamina he would at a healthy weight. This is a struggle for him throughout the book and it was really relatable.\u00a0<\/span> How this can be applied to writing:<\/b> It’s easy to forget that people with learning disabilities existed before the 20th century and it’s trick to portray them while being disrespectful. This was a good example.<\/span> Basically, this was like Game of Thrones<\/i> with a God-like deity. In GoT there\u2019s a very nihilistic view of religion and the afterlife but in this story world, there is more hope. Just three Inukshuks for this one.<\/span> Brent Weeks<\/b> was born and raised in Montana. After getting his paper keys from Hillsdale College, Brent had brief stints walking the earth like Caine from Kung Fu, tending bar, and corrupting the youth. (Not at the same time.) He started writing on bar napkins, then on lesson plans, then full time. Eventually, someone paid him for it. Brent lives in Oregon with his wife, Kristi. He doesn\u2019t own cats or wear a ponytail.<\/span> Buy from Amazon! Guile is the Prism. 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. \u00a0 When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a …<\/p>\n
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\nGenre:<\/b> Adult Fantasy<\/span>
\nPublisher:<\/b>\u00a0Orbit; Reprint edition (July 23, 2013)<\/span>
\nPage Count:<\/b>\u00a0688 pages<\/span>
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\nI meant to have this review finished before Realm Makers but this was a super long book so better late than ever. Brent Weeks was the Keynote Speaker last month at RM in St. Louis. He had some really great things to say and has a fascinating writing journey. I really wanted to love his book more and I feel like I would have if it wasn\u2019t for the mature content level.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nThe Plot<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n\nThe Characters<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n\nThe Setting<\/h2>\n
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\nThen there\u2019s the whole world. There\u2019s all kinds of people from all kinds of regions and some people hate each other and some don\u2019t and all of this development is good. It just felt like a lot in one book. GoT has a complex world but you kinda ease into different facets per season, so it\u2019s less overwhelming. In The Black Prism it\u2019s all dumped on you and yes it\u2019s important to the plot but gosh it\u2019s still a lot. And I normally love a lot of worldbuilding but this was a lot to absorb. I read a 650-page crash course on this story world.<\/span><\/p>\nEpic Things<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span><\/p>\nThe Theme<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n\nContent Cautions<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span>Violence –<\/b> Two teenagers are killed with arrows. Soldiers, horses, and innocent villagers are impaled with spears. Lots of corpses. Animal cruelty, including animals being killed needlessly and their body parts flying everywhere. A man is split in half. A mass of headless bodies. A family including a baby die of asphyxiation. Character is shot in the chest. A brutal murder of a woman and her babies being decapitated is described. Horse entrails spilling out. Child abuse. Suicide. Ritualistic murder. Claws splitting a head into thirds. A head popping like a grape. A giant spider decapitating a man. Children are burned a lot. Plus there’s a battle scene with lots of gore and bones and blood and mutilation and severed body parts.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>And last but not least …<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Dozens of heads including that of children stacked into a pyramid and preserved with magic. Come on, seriously?<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Language –<\/b> There\u2019s a lot of language too. 51 uses of d***, 29 uses of h***, 22 uses of sh**, 21 uses of basd, 12 uses of a<\/em><\/strong>, eight uses of a**hole, three uses of son of btch and b<\/em>tch, two uses of arse, and one of jack*ss.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Characters tell another one to \u201cgrow a pair\u201d among many other crude sayings such as Orholom’s Balls.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n<\/span>What really bothered me was the fan service things which included Kip\u2019s face between shoved in a woman\u2019s cleavage and Liv\u2019s skirt hikes up and her underwear is pulled down.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Drug and Alcohol Abuse –<\/b> Kip\u2019s mom along with many others are hard drug abusers, something similar to marijuana called haze.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n\nWhat We Can Take Away For Our Writing<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span>How this can be applied to writing:<\/b>\u00a0In YA, girls often talk about their weight, but boys’ POVs don’t as much, at least from what I’ve read. I’ve read one other book that mentioned it, but it’s a struggle they deal with too. Also having a character who isn’t perfectly thin was refreshing. It isn’t healthy to be overweight, but some characters are.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>2.) Portraying Mental Illness Before It Was Diagnosed –<\/b> The character Bas is autistic and he’s considered a simpleton by most because that was what it was called before there was an understanding of what autism was. But the nature of the character revealed to me as a modern reader exactly what was going on.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n\nConclusion<\/h2>\n
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\nWebsite<\/a>\/\/Facebook<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a>\/\/Goodreads<\/a><\/span>
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