The Blood Mirror - Brent Weeks

The Blood Mirror

By Brent Weeks

  • Release Date: 2016-10-25
  • Genre: Epic Fantasy
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 873 Ratings

Description

The nail-biting continuation to the Lightbringer series from New York Times bestseller Brent Weeks.

When does an empire fall?
The Seven Satrapies have collapsed into four-and those are falling before the White King's armies.
Gavin Guile, ex-emperor, ex-Prism, ex-galley slave, formerly the one man who might have averted war, is now lost, broken, and trapped in a prison crafted by his own hands to hold a great magical genius. But Gavin has no magic at all. Worse, in this prison, Gavin may not be alone.
Kip Guile will make a last, desperate attempt to stop the White King's growing horde. Karris White attempts to knit together an empire falling apart, helped only by her murderous and possibly treasonous father-in-law Andross Guile.
Meanwhile, Teia's new talents will find a darker use-and the cost might be too much to bear.
Together, they will fight to prevent a tainted empire from becoming something even worse.

Lightbringer
The Black Prism
The Blinding Knife
The Broken Eye

The Blood Mirror


For more from Brent Weeks, check out:

Night Angel
The Way of Shadows
Shadow's Edge
Beyond the Shadows
Night Angel: The Complete Trilogy (omnibus)
Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella (e-only)
The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel

Reviews

  • Kip

    4
    By Natesknee
    Good solid book!
  • Blood Mirror killed the series for me [SPOILERS]

    1
    By Garoth Ursuul
    To be honest, I remember rereading the first three books numerous times. This series offered a truly unique story, well paced narratives, with curve balls around every corner. It wasn’t the typical Eragon-level simplicity of obvious Good versus obvious Evil, Good winning all the way to the bank. There were complete & utter setbacks throughout, such as Garriston falling, the cards being found & then lost, Dazen losing his eye. Yet despite that the story continued, Kip always managed the victories where they counted, they moved forward. But you never _knew_ what was going to happen, so much was uncertain, in the air, so many curve balls past left you entranced trying to figure out what happened next, what secrets had been obscured from you. The Blood Mirror? Answers all your questions & more within the first few chapters of the book. Just gives it all the Hell away, & then starts pulling new concepts out of thin air with no basis in lore or buildup. Kip can draft Chi AND Paryl? Freaking WHAT?! We didn’t even know what Chi _was_ beyond a name, we have no idea how it works, what you need to be able to use it, why it kills drafters so quickly. And we know that you have to have very special, mutated eyes to draft Paryl, yet Kip can just _do_ it? WHAT? There was absolutely no buildup, & there’s a fine line between a masterfully executed curve ball & a horribly forced deus ex machina. One moment you’re agonizing through needlessly awkward marital troubles with Tissis, the next everything you know about drafting has been yanked out from under you. It all really started at the end of Broken Eye, with the crazy fallen angel appearance. I understand Weeks has to make a god analogy, he _always_ has to make a massive reference to Christianity in all of his works, but at least with the Night Angel trilogy there was subtlety. It was present of course, with a religious count & “Night ANGEL,” but the theme of the story itself was not obviously a theological metaphor. Religion was present, but religion wasn’t shoved down your throat. The angels in the Lightbringer series however, with Orholam & the crazy fallen-angel insect-thing, they came out of no where. There was no subtle buildup to a great reveal, a moral lesson that even a non-religious reader can appreciate for its depth, like with Night Angel. No, this came out of thin air. The cards, I sort of understood them. It was enough, but transporting Kip to another freaking dimension out of no where?! There was nothing to suggest such a thing could be remotely possible, & after that the analogy to angels & Satan became hamfisted & painfully obvious, leading to the travesty that was the Blood Mirror. The first three books were so complex, so masterfully paced & deep, I thought they would leave Night Angel completely in the dust. Night Angel was a great trilogy by Weeks, but even it did not have the truly awe-inspiring amounts of political intrigue & fleshed out lore. Oh sure, Night Angel had intrigue, but it was always conjured out of nothing. With Lightbringer, you come to understand _why_ the intrigue is the way it is, you understand the political landscape that gave birth to these events, you understand how the magic functions, how it makes the battles result in the way they do, & despite all that there’s still something just out of reach that has you constantly coming back for more. I thought Lightbringer would be the ultimate successor to the Night Angel trilogy, eclipsing all of Weeks’ previous work with a truly awesome slam dunk. The Blood Mirror threw all of that potential away. ———— Some examples: “I need an army” One’s just been waitin for you in the woods the whole time, never seen it before & they have no reason to serve you but they’ll loyally die for you anyway. “I need Karris to be a popular White” Three-headed-dog-demon ex machina comin’ right up. “I need Kip to draft all colors” Magic luxinstorm here you go.
  • Best book in the series!!!

    5
    By wildchild2644
    Totally gripping and full of suspense. Also answers a lot of questions and wraps up a few ties. Fast paced and action packed as expected from Mr.Weeks. Bring on the next book!
  • Solid entry

    5
    By Moedre
    This book was a little slower paced than previous installments. However, it provided so much character development and story building that you hardly notice. A unique lore and relatable characters. Great read, cannot wait for next installment!
  • Fantastic

    5
    By Djd fnwj
    The lightbringer series has been absolutely amazing to read totally worth it. I moved on to the light bringer series after reading the night angel trilogy 3 times and i am absolutely in love with all these books
  • Disappointed

    2
    By Ggrpitt
    Really, the low point in the series. This book advanced the plot very little while spending an extraordinary amount of time in a meandering discussion of the frustrating sex life of two of the protagonists. Not worth the wait. Weeks could have ended the series in the next volume. I can see two, maybe three more volumes in the future. This is NOT Game of Thrones, for sure.
  • Last page missing on the first two chapters

    5
    By DrJarman
    Just started back into this series and can't figure out how to send feedback. Reading on an iPhone 7plus and the last page in the book does not complete paragraph/chapter. I think this is more of a technical glitch that needs to be fixed. I did like the brief recap in the beginning as it has been a while since I binged the other 3 books. Revising my stars as rotating fixes the problem for me
  • Preme

    3
    By Kslate21
    Overall, the book was just ok. There were tons of grammatical errors that made reading the book very challenging. Fire your editor. The whole wife not being able to perform was overplayed and underserving of the time spent on it. Certain characters should only be considered secondary, and limited time should be given. Weeks needs to spend less time reading Martins work and focus on his own story. There's are some similarities between "ASoFI"and "The Light-bringer Series".
  • The Blood Mirror

    1
    By World Travelr
    Very disappointing sequel. Too many ridiculous plot twists that alters the story and invalidates the previous three books in the series. The characters are also inconsistent in unbelievable ways. I won't be reading any more books in this series because I no longer care what happens to any of the characters.
  • Incredible writing and story telling

    4
    By Brad7104
    I am not necessarily a reader who enjoys the fairy tale endings or story lines of most literature. I am also not a fan of all the heroes dying one by one with no effect on the story. (Game of Thrones reference) I have greatly enjoyed reading the last four in this series. The author takes you on a twisting and intertwined story lines that all tie together in startling and unforeseen ways. Very good book and look forward eagerly to the fifth addition to this series. So...... hurry up!