Book Review: The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks.
Genre: High Fantasy (pre-industrial)
Goodreads rating: ***** (5 stars).
Read: 06/01/2017 – 13/01/2017
Just in case some of you like walking in the danger zone and risk reading reviews that may or may not contain spoilers I won’t spoil the END of this book. That being said, if you haven’t read the first – The Black Prism there will be spoilers for that here. Now you’ve been warned twice and have no excuse.
Have you been wishing to explore new magical systems in your fantasy reads this year? Put the Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks on your TBR (to be read) list because you will not be disappointed.
The second installment of the Lightbringer series is here! This, like its predecessor (The Black Prism), is an adult fiction book in the high-fantasy genre. It follows its predecessors’ footsteps in packing a punch with its new magical world. This book explores the realms of its magic system even more than the last book (always a blessing when a magic system gets more fleshed out as a series goes on).
Synopsis: The blurb hits us hard with its first line being, ‘Gavin Guile is dying.’ There’s no if’s, but’s or maybes about it. We follow Gavin in his attempt to finish his life’s work in just under a year, the life’s work he had previously allowed himself five years to complete. It’s a mad scramble for him to protect everyone and still keep his secrets from being uncovered. Meanwhile Kip has to learn the true value in intelligence when he’s put into the competitive Black Guard training via Gavin and Ironfist.
The start of the book is like jumping from the pot to the pan. I mean, what could be more entertaining than our Gavin slowly losing his colors (and going color blind) but than having him and his fleet of refugees being attacked by a sea demon.
This sea demon is not the only first time character we see in this book. We are shown the ways of the old gods, not talked about in the previous book unless to call them blasphemous. We are also introduced ‘the bane’, a foreboding title, right? They’re as scary as they sound.
With the introduction of these new supernatural beings we begin a larger exploration of the world in The Blinding Knife (and a newfound use of that gorgeous map).
This is the first time we become somewhat intimate with the goings on of the Chromeria – that which trains and teaches young drafters from all over the seven satrapies. More-over, the Black Guard training. Kip is sent back to the Chromeria with Ironfist (note: without Gavin, his father and the only person who can actually protect him).
At the Chromeria, we are fortunate enough to witness this untameable mouth of Kip’s in wicked action. During one of his first lessons Kip is placed with a teacher who is either not fond of the Guile family or of Tyrea (his hometown and a nation reaping the losses of war). She slags both his mother and home country calling one an ‘illiterate slattern’, and referring to the other as a ‘gutter’. Kip keeps his mouth shut throughout. But once the actual teaching begins Kip realizes that training with Liv Danavis, Gavin Guile (the almighty Prism himself) and fighting with the Black Guards in the first battle of a new war teaches you a hell of lot. Noticing his teach snaps, “Are we boring you?” To which Kip can’t help but reply,
‘“No, my eyes glaze over like this all the time. Comes from having a mother who was always smoking haze.” […] “You called my mother illiterate, and that’s about as true as me calling you a decent human being.” Kip’s heart was welling up, blocking his throat, “My mother sold her soul to haze. She lied and cheated and stole, I think she even whores herself a few times, but she wasn’t illiterate. So, if you’re going to slander my mother to make me look pathetic, there’s plenty of true things you can say. But that it not one of them.” You bitch.’
This newfound sass is the only inherent change in Kip. In the Blackguard Barracks Kip is confronted by a bully looking for a little fun. That swap some back and forth talk, bully noise and the sound of Kip’s growing mouth. Kip tries to dissuade the bully with the power of word but comes to the conclusion that he can ’sidestep all that nonsense.’ Kip gets the bully into an arm lock and begins weighing his options.
‘There was no winning here. He was in a position of power, so he’d look the bad guy if he used it to his advantage. The normal course now was that he would give Elio an ultimatum, like Take it back! […] Elio would refuse, and Kip would be stuck. If Kip let him get up, Elio would come back tomorrow […] If Kip tortured Elio by grinding his arm, it wouldn’t do and permanent damage […] Kip would look like a cruel bastard to everyone in the barracks. Or worse, someone would interfere […] and Kip would look cruel and weak.’
In the end, Kip gives the bully, Elio an ultimatum and decides to go through with punishment if Elio refuses to submit saying, ‘” […] But I want you to remember something after you go to the infirmary: this is me being merciful.”’ Kip proceeds to break the bully’s arm without hesitation.
It’s a common theme through the rest of the book. The battle Kip fought for Garriston one of the most prominent ports in the once prosperous Tyrea, changed Kip. It hinders his ability to sleep yet gives him a better chance on getting into the Blackguard.
Gavin meanwhile, along with Karris White-Oak move the displaced Garriston refugees to Seers Island. During this he asks the lead seer to help him figure out how long he has left and where he can find the bane that’s wrecking having in the blue spectrum.
For reasons obviously pointing to spoilers I can’t really quote anything that happens with Gavin as his story takes up the second (and more important) half of the book. In saying that I can say if you read the first book and you think you know what kind of action and twists to expect – think again. This book in itself was a surprise and took a different, yet still entertaining, route to its predecessor. Focusing more on the long term, setting up Kip in his position within Chromeria and removing the veil of protection around Gavin’s secrets.
Brent Weeks shows us that a situation can go from bad to worse in a couple of pages. His book, the second installment of his five-book series, The Blinding Knife takes us deeper into the system of the Chromeria and deeper into Gavin and Kip as characters. This book is like a teaser to what we should expect from here on in. I loved it, and I have it in good mind that you will too.
