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Title: The Blood Mirror
Series: Lightbringer #4
Author: Brent Weeks
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 704
Format: Kindle digital edition
| Synopsis: |
The Chromeria is under attack by the White King, the former Color Prince. Andross Guile and Kara, the Iron White, unite in the face of satrapies falling away. Kip is married and besides leading attacks on the White King and learning to be a leader, he is dealing with some serious marital issues.
Gavin/Dazin [I’ve given up by now trying to figure it all out, he’s Gavin to me] is captured by Andross and kept in the same prison he kept his brother in. Lots of things about magic, and theology, are revealed.
Teia, now playing a triple role as Blackguard, the Iron White’s assassin AND as a double agent in the Broken Eye group, comes ever closer to her breaking point.
And so much other stuff that a synopsis is pointless. Just read these books.
| My Thoughts: |
Much like the previous books, I had a hard time getting into this one. I didn’t feel like I WANTED to read this book. That lasted for until about the 10% mark and then a switch flipped and wham, I was racing along again. This exact same thing has happened in all 3 other books, so something about how Week’s writes is the culprit. When I do my re-read of his Night Angel trilogy next year I’ll see if happens with that as well.
I was all over the place while reading this. So the good first.
This is epic fantasy with some hardcore action. Battles, invisible assassins, magic prisons, people growing up, people realizing that they’re not done growing up, tying this into a Christian world view. If you aren’t looking for that though, I don’t know if one would see it. Weeks uses a Bible verse or two. He also ties Orholam, and mythical fallen creatures, to God and the devil in our world. I thought it was quite cleverly done and not all shoving preachiness down the readers’ throats. Kip and Tisis growing together as a married couple. It was wicked nice to see them CHOOSE to love instead of letting their feelings set the tone. Feelings do follow, but they make that choice and it impressed me. You don’t see that much nowadays, with all the teen/YA angst romance crap.
Unfortunately, that leads me into the less than good.
Tisis had some sort of condition that prevented her from having sex. Weeks actually addresses the condition in an afterward, but I didn’t want to read about it. I’m a pretty private person about some things and intimate matters definitely falls into that area. So to read about those issues just made me very uncomfortable. It really added to the relationship but I didn’t like it.
The other thing was the continued profanity. It has bugged me since Book 1 and it will until the end.
The final problem is that now I have to wait who knows how long until the next book. Thankfully, I’ve got a boatload of good books to keep me distracted. Weeks tells the kind of stories I like to read and I trust he’ll keep putting out good stuff for years to come.
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
I am a fan of Weeks’ Night Angel, but this series and I have had our ups and downs. I figure with two more books left I should continue though, just need to find the time to read this huge tome! 🙂
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They are massive, that is for sure! The hardcovers look particularly nice sitting on my book shelf 😀
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After 704 pages and you gave it four stars, it must be pretty good. I’ll have to read some of this genre sometime …. after I finish my Classics Club list!
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I hesitate to recommend this series to anyone not a hardcore SFF fan because it is so big and sprawling, but considering what you read in your Classics list, that probably doesn’t apply to you 🙂
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Here is another author that has been sitting on my “next” list for some time now, and I wonder when I will ever find the time to at least sample some of his writing. The fact that his books are “big and sprawling”, to quote your definition, makes things even harder… But who knows? Maybe, some day… 🙂
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Reading reviews can be dangerous, can’t it? 🙂
Thankfully, we don’t have to read all the books, there are enough of us to spread the love around…
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Most of the times, when reading reviews, the only danger I face comes from the number of books I end up adding to my “wanted” list… 😀
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Well, that can be dangerous to the wallet 😉
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Well, I’ve always thought of the money spent on books as an investment rather than an expense… 😀
(it helps!)
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I used to think of it as an investment too, until I moved to my condo, on the third floor and had to lug all of them up
😀
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Gosh this series sounds freaking awesome. Just added the first one to my TBR. Excellent review mate 🙂
– Lashaan
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Well, I hope you enjoy it as much as I am 🙂
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Sounds like a fun series! I’ve not heard of it before, but it sounds like it’ll be up my street!
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If you want to try some of Brent Weeks’ stuff without committing to this series, he has a finished trilogy called the Night Angel trilogy. You can see if you like his style and writing that way if you so prefer…
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Ah awesome- thanks so much for the recommendation!!!
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I still think the first one was the best, that ending siege *kisses fingers*.
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To be honest, I liked the Broken Eye the best, just because of the running battle in the tower at the end of the book 🙂
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That was pretty damn cool. Didn’t seem as clustery as the climax of book 2. On another subject, I’ve noticed you generally have a fantasy book on your list. For next year, would you be open to reading a reviewing a book I’m getting published?
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Funny you should mention that. I just put up my review policy the other day. I’d seen them on other people’s sites but never figured I’d need one of my own. At least you know you are NOT what inspired this policy, somebody else gets that honor:
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/my-review-policy/
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So the basic gist is if you have to ask, the the answer is a no?
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Correct. Treat me as a friend, as a reader first and at some point I might make a point of reading a book by you.
Gregor Xane did this most excellently on booklikes. He kept his own blog about his work and stuff, but when on other peoples’ posts, he was engaging as a fellow reader and became someone you wanted to interact with. It took 2 years before I bought and reviewed one of his books 🙂
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Eh, you probably wouldn’t like it anyway. It’s not all that good. 😦
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Then stick around and talk about other books with me. I’m always up for that!
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Read many of these? https://fantasyandanime.wordpress.com/fantasy-and-anime-recommendations/top-50-fantasy-books/
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I went over there, but I couldn’t comment. am I missing something?
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I’m trying to figure out how to enable comments on pages.
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let me know once you do and I’ll comment away…
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Fixed it!
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