The Broken Eye (Lightbringer 3) by Brent Weeks
| The Broken Eye (Lightbringer 3) by Brent Weeks | |
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| Category: Fantasy | |
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Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
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| Summary: Lots to enjoy still, but ultimately this book is something of a frustration. I just want Weeks to get on with it a bit now. It's still enjoyable reading, but I don't like the world or the characters enough to need quite this many words dedicated to them. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 816 | Date: August 2014 |
| Publisher: Orbit | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1841499093 | |
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War is coming to the Seven Satrapies - not that most of the people in power want to admit it. The Color Prince may not have succeeded in keeping hold of his super powerful Banes yet, but he's steadily moving through the Satrapies, burning and killing everything in his path all the same.
In the sheltered islands of the Jaspers, the Colors are moving against each other in a much more covert war for power. With the Prism, Gavin Guile, missing, presumed dead, there's no one to keep everyone in line - except Andross Guile, who's manipulating everyone towards his own end.
To make matters worse, a mysterious order of assassins is recruiting, and Teia is in their sights. With all these different factions moving against each other, Kip and his Blackguard friends will need all their wits about them to survive.
Meanwhile, Gavin has been captured by crazy pirate Gunner, made an oar slave. Without his Prismic abilities, how will he ever get back to his wife and the Chromeria?
It's been a long wait for this follow up to The Blinding Knife, and with everything that's happened in the first two books, I think even the most avid reader could be forgiven for struggling with this for the first few chapters.
But it's not just the overload of characters and the gradual recalling of 'oh yeah, that happened' as you re-immerse yourself in the world - this book starts off slower than its predecessors. I can't quite put my finger on what it is exactly, but it took me ages to get into this. Once I'd got past the first hundred pages or so, I started devouring it, as I had done the other two books. I guess with the characters left so disparate at the end of the last novel, it took a while for them to get back together and start moving the narrative forwards at a bit more of a pace.
The manipulation and politics remains one of the great strengths of this story. I can't help but admire Andross Guile, much as I find him reprehensible - his ability to manoeuvre the other characters into exactly the positions he wants them to be in makes you form a sort of grudging respect for him, even as you feel horrible for it.
Kip becomes a less annoying character as well - he's starting to accept that the world isn't going to give him the deal he wants, and so tries to use what he has to do what the world needs him to. He's shaping up to be quite heroic.
But ultimately, at 800 pages and with another book still to go, this book is something of a frustration. I just want Weeks to get on with it a bit now. It's still enjoyable reading, but I don't like the world or the characters enough to need quite this many words dedicated to them.
My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.
You'll find a review of the first book in the series here.
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