There isn’t much sadder than a great book ending. The Black Prism leaves you feeling happy and excited, contented with the dramatic ending and the way the story has unfolded, but once this initial glow has faded you’re left with the very sad reality that the next in the series isn’t due out for quite some time. The only thing to do... re-read!

Yes, this book really is that good.

Brent Weeks proves himself a master world builder with The Black Prism. He gently places the reader into a completely unfamiliar world, yet only overtime does the strangeness become truly apparent. He adds an element of the familiar, so rather than the reader either having to have an in-depth knowledge of strange weapons or come to terms with unknown terminology, we have solders using muskets and short swords, all-be-it, modified to fit the colour based world, so it’s a comfortable world to find yourself in, not jarring.

The system of magic though, that is brilliant. Colour as a magical device, with each of the seven colours having its own ability, strengths, and the people who wield it, personality traits based around their dominant colour speciality.

Brent Weeks also doesn’t waste characters. By the end of the book you realise that there are a surprising number of ‘main’ characters, and only a smattering of secondary ones. But the way they’re introduced is masterly done. Initially you’re given two characters, Kip and Gavin, being introduced to the reader in separate chapters. So you have a full chapter of getting to know Kip, then a full chapter getting to know Gavin. From there you get introduced to other characters with their interaction with these two, and so on. But the characters are all incredibly well developed, so there is no confusion. And they’re all very, very, human. Even the less likable characters are easily visualised, and easily disliked.

There is a sea of characters I just love:
Kip, funny, brave, prone to forgetting to engaging brain before speaking; possibly a little formulaic in character development, but just so likable you’ll ignore that.
Karris: once a giddy, vain, girl, now a brave warrior in the blackguards – a war was fought over her, but we are only just starting to learn her secrets.
‘The White’: sort of leader of the Chromeria, she’s old, wily, and is juggling a lot of balls... but we don’t know the full extent yet.
Ironfist, leader of the Blackguards, is probably my favourite character, he has irony down pat, and a delicious black humour... as well as a certain smugness you just have to adore. The relationship between Ironfist and Gavin, whom he supposed to be guarding, is wonderful, with a comic dance of “one word from me and you’ll do what you want”. But he is loyal, honourable, comic, and most likely to use the phrase “I’ll be back”.

There is a wonderful blend of humour and gore throughout the story. There is war (both past and present) and there is no glossing over details, for example - what happens when Red ‘jelly’ is shot at the enemy and ignited, but it’s not a gratuitous violence, it’s just good, descriptive, storytelling. And in amongst it there is the underlying black humour I do adore.

There are plenty of plot twists and dramatic revelations; and they really sneak up on you. In many fantasy stories you can see the twist coming a mile off, not so here. One minute you’re happily having the scheming mechanisms of the Chromeria unravelled for you, next, your entire world view has been turned upside down.

The Black Prism is a BIG book. It’s a workout for the arms to read it, on both its physical size and the speed with which you’ll be turning pages. It’s in-depth, with a lot of plot, a lot of characters and a lot of new systems to understand. But there isn’t a wasted word to be found; there is no meandering down dead-end plots; there is no waffle. It is the embodiment of engrossing. I am a big fan of Brent Weeks’ ‘Night Angel’ trilogy ... the world building makes this an even better story. Wonderful characters, with wonderful plots, all played out on a wonderfully envisioned world.... what can I say, The Black Prism is just wonderful!