Brent Weeks’ The Black Prism is a fantasy novel with a lot of big ideas and bad execution. The writing is shallow, the world-building hard to grasp, and the characters hard to fathom.
Character motivations are murky at best, ranging from emotionless revenge to “power” in the broadest sense. This makes it hard to get invested in their struggles, particularly Kip, the fifteen-year-old boy who is our gateway POV into this magical world.
Kip is very submissive and very fat. Seriously, the amount of times I had to read the uncomfortable descriptions of his pudgy flesh was way. Too. Many. Being overweight is not a personality. His other notable trait is commenting on the attractiveness of every single woman he encounters. Ugh. In concept, Kip is standard material for a fantasy protagonist — grew up poor with a hopeless future, then discovers an impressive lineage and the potential to wield significant magic powers. It plays out as you would expect, but a big problem is that Kip doesn’t have any agency throughout the story. He makes few choices for himself, and even when he does, it’s more like the plot dictates it. He doesn’t develop much if at all, which doesn’t help my main issue with Kip — he is so annoying.
The author puts a lot of effort into explaining the complicated (and in my opinion… kinda lame) magic system, which uses colours as its foundation. In concept, it’s interesting, but within the story it’s somehow both under-explained and over-explained or perhaps just poorly explained. Not everyone in this world can see colour — those who can are called Drafters, and whatever colour they see can be harnessed and molded into weapons… or liquid… or building materials. The way it is under-described makes it hard to visualize. I don't really understand it at all and I've probably explained it incorrectly. An emphasis on the magic system is something I don’t usually like — I know some readers love to read the ins and outs of how different magic works. I enjoy it only if it serves the story, which I don’t think it did here.
The story is messy, to put it lightly. There was a war some fifteen years before the events of the book start, about what I have no clue. The aftermath of that war left one particular city (town? Guild? I don’t actually know) in ruins, and now that city (???) is rising up to fight back, and so forth. It isn’t all that interesting. Why? Because the characters aren’t given any personal stakes tied to the situation. If they don’t care, why should I?
On a similar note, there is the opposite problem as well — the character cares immensely about [insert shocking plot twist here] but because no background info has been given, it makes no sense. Who is what is why? Why is that a problem? It’s like if Luke Skywalker was told Darth Vader was his father before we knew who Vader was.
That being said, there are gems within The Black Prism. On concept alone, the magic system is cool. Some of the quirks of the setting are intriguing. The pacing is fast, the writing easy to read. There’s one POV in particular — a guy in a dungeon, slowing plotting his escape — that remains interesting throughout.
But clearly, I didn’t enjoy The Black Prism. I don’t think I’m the intended audience. The last straw for me was when the main female character ended up in a low-cut, tight-fitting silk dress, which just happened to split right up her leg, in the middle of a battlefield. For no valid reason.
My final rating for The Black Prism is a packet of soggy biscuits out of 10.
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