Review – The Blinding Knife

Title: The Blinding Knife

Author: Brent Weeks

Publisher: Orbit

Publication Date: September 11, 2012

ISBN-13: 978-0316079914

Available at: Amazon – Kindle – Barnes and Noble

From Goodreads:

Gavin Guile is dying.

He’d thought he had five years left—now he has less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son, and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin has problems on every side. All magic in the world is running wild and threatens to destroy the Seven Satrapies.

Worst of all, the old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.

Review:

As the Color Prince marches onward, Gavin loses another color. He sends Kip to the Chromeria. As Gavin tries to ready the Seven Satrapies for war, Kip begins to train for life as a Blackguard.

Let me just start by saying this was a long book and it felt like a long book. It had a complicated plot that was hard to keep up with at times. In the end it was worth it though. There was a lot of scheming on both war fronts. The plotting on both sides was worth keeping track of. If you read the first book, then you were already familiar with the elaborate magic system in place. It was still another complicated web to keep in order.

There were a myriad cast of characters and it could have become confusing but Weeks manages to pull it off successfully. The story was written from a lot of different perspectives yet it still comes together seamlessly. The action picks up towards the end of the book which is a relief.

Kip was resilient and despite being overweight and out of shape, he perseveres through his Blackguard training. He’s insecure but manages not to show it. He also manages to get lucky which is key to his success.  He really won my heart in this book. The way he didn’t quit despite being on the bottom of his class showed how tough he was.

Kip did make a friend in Teia. I really liked Teia. She accepted her life as a slave yet she also fought for her freedom. How she managed this juxtaposition was puzzling but she still managed to convey this. Teia remained optimistic despite her harsh life. She had a lot of brains and she could fight. If anyone deserved to be a Blackguard it was Teia.

I’m not sure I liked Gavin in the beginning of this book. He was pig-headed and a bit too slick for me. He had a tendency to look at the big picture and ignore the people close to him. I guess it proved what a complicated character he was.

I think the reason the book was so long was because there was a lot of things that needed to culminate. It was worth it in the end yet at the same time there were points in the book that seemed to drag on.  Another thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was the abrupt end. There are cliffhangers and then there are cliffhangers. I felt like this one was one of those that deliberately left the reader hung out to dry.

This book is still a good read and worth the time to take. The characters and plot are engaging. The magical system is unique and intriguing. I’m still interested enough to keep on going with this series. I guess the cliffhanger worked!