fantasy
Gavin is The Black Prism, the man who harnesses powers from the entire spectrum of colors and, therefore, has the most power in the land. But he has a fixed amount of time to remain in that position. He just found out he has a son, Kip, who is now getting the awakening of his life as he travels with Gavin beyond the small town he’s from. But Gavin has secrets, personal pressures, and has a tenuous hold on his own destiny just as a new self-proclaimed King is making a power play.
This was a fun fantasy set in a unique world, albeit similar in many ways to lots of other fantasy novels where people are at war, rulers are vying for power, and the average citizens have no idea about what is really going on. As expected, the most unlikely kid in the world ended up being exceptional. The people in charge weren’t what they seemed. A situation which was thought to be under control became destabilized and chaos ensued for the characters. And when mistakes were made and things fell apart, these situations felt too easy to remedy for my taste. Perhaps I’ve read too many fantasy novels and am a bit jaded. I’m sure I’d have enjoyed The Black Prism more if I hadn’t read similar stories so many times.
Despite the feeling of deja vu in the storyline, I did enjoy Brent Weeks’ characters very much and the sense of humor he bestowed upon some of them. The adventures were fun and I couldn’t help but root for Kip. And Gavin was an intriguing character with both dark aspects and light aspects to his personality. This made it difficult to despise him yet also difficult to admire him. He was fallible.
Unfortunately, the treatment of sex and women’s bodies was awkwardly juvenile. Nudity and sexual innuendo were thrown in at awkward times and felt uncomfortable in some regards. It wasn’t adding anything to the story other than, likely, appealing to teenage boys who are, apparently, the target audience. But it felt like more of an author shortcoming. Just icky. I’m all for sex in novels but the treatment in this one was not to my liking.
Having said all that, I’d be willing to give the sequel a chance, mostly to find out what happens next for Kip.
The audiobook was narrated by Simon Vance. He had a great vocal repertoire for a large number of characters. However, at the beginning he distracted me because he’s too old to be voicing Kip, a 15-year old, for a large hunk of the novel. As the novel progressed, however, he did give Kip a younger-sounding voice which allowed me to enjoy the audiobook. Still I think I would’ve preferred someone less aristocratic-sounding for this novel. I’ll give him an A-, even though I’m tempted to give him a B+ for this one, because he did display vocal diversity with a large cast of characters.
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