Author Gush: Brent Weeks And The Lightbringer

So I just finished rereading The Burning White (book five of The Lightbringer series) and WOW.

Just wow.

Dear God in heaven I cannot recommend this man’s books enough.

Look, some series are slow burns. They take awhile to get going, slowly layering in people and places you care about before giving you that crack of the whip to let you know that things are getting real. Brent (can I call him Brent? Mr. Weeks? I dunno). THIS MAN. He does something else and entirely for the better.

Conventional wisdom in writing a book is that you need to hook your reader in within the first page, nay the first paragraph, nay the first sentence! Hell, I’ve even heard some people argue if the first word isn’t catchy the entire piece is doomed. But these books don’t so much hook you with interest as with an addiction. You need that next chapter like the good little book junkie you are. You need to know what that character saw as they opened that scroll. You don’t need sleep. Sleep is for the weak! You need answers. And you need to keep reading.

I freaking love the amount of character development that goes on for all the characters, the emotional highs and lows. Enemies evolve, friendships are tested. And that’s not to speak of the magic system! Other authors have done similar “light based” magic to varying degrees of success, but the system as presented here is simply glorious (dare I call it a “shining” example? Huh? Huh?). The advantages and shortcomings of both characters and associated powers are made plain and you’re just WHAM- off into the story like a leaf in a hurricane.

I will admit that a friend recommended the Lightbringer series (one of my Alpha/beta testers to be exact way back when my life wasn’t consumed with work on my own project) and I made the joyful mistake of reading The Night Angel trilogy before moving to pick up this series.

Why joyful? Because that series kicks undisputed ass.

Why a mistake? Because I was made aware of this series just as the last book was announced. I knew, I just knew dear reader, that I would read through all of them inside of a week.

I was still riding high from The Night Angel. I was a junkie. I needed my fix. If I got to that second to last book and couldn’t get the juice? Ohhhhh man I would be hounding Brent Weeks for updates on a….weekly basis.

Huh.

Anyway he doesn’t deserve that. No, he deserves praise, adulations, thanks, and no small amount of whiskey.

So: should you read The Lightbringer series? Yes. But only in private where you can cackle gleefully to yourself at another gibe by Kip the Lip

(or in public so I can identify you as One Who is Worthy)