Seriously, let me tell you a story:
When I was just a wee little Jimbo, and probably too young to be reading it, one of my friend's mother's suggested that I read Jean M Auel's Earth's Children series. She wouldn't let me borrow her books, but I found out that my Aunt Janice had them, so I borrowed them from her. I was too young to have a job and therefore money to run out and buy them for myself.
At the time, the first four were out. I read them, my dad borrowed them from me and then returned them to his sister. We all loved the books. We talked about the books. It took FOREVER for the next one to come out. I don't remember exactly how many years it took, but I was twelve when I read the first four books, and married by the time I read the fifth one. Unfortunately, my father had passed before it was released, but I still got to call my Aunt Janice and talk about it with her.
It took another eternity for the last book to come out. I couldn't wait. I knew I was going to hear it from my then-wife for buying the book in hardcover, but I had waited for Shelters of Stone for two decades by then (no, I'm not exaggerating) and I wasn't waiting for the paperback release. At the time I had never read an e-book and I wouldn't swear to you that they existed. All I knew is that I was going home to read it and I had tears in my eyes because I had lost my Aunt Janice by that point and wouldn't have anyone to discuss
I took that thing home and I sat down and cracked the spine on the book. I was going to school and working full time, but I put my whole life on pause and read that thing. I regret every second of it. It was terrible. It felt like the conclusion to a scholarly paper. Auel simply regurgitated the first five volumes. It was like reading the Readers' Digest Condensed Book version of the series.
I hit that book with the hardest diss I could imagine. The exact words that came out of my mouth were, “I miss Dad and Aunt Janice, but at least they never had to read THIS.”
It was that bad. I'm a book lover. I've read all kinds of works. I have never, and I mean ever, in my entire life been so angry with an author. Yeah, it had a big surprise at the end, but I almost gave up on the last book in the series and missed it. It was that terrible.
Don't ask me why I felt like I had to spend five hundred words venting about something that has nothing to do with the book I'm reviewing, but if felt good.
Anyway...
The latest last book in the series I read was freaking amazeballs. Seriously, Brent Weeks needs to take a bow, because The Burning White is a worthy ending to an awesome series. I've reviewed a couple of the earlier books right here on this blog, and I loved those too, but this was magnificent. Weeks brought everything together the way it all needed to end, at least in my opinion.
Weeks has a gift for writing action and The Burning White is not exception. The battle scenes are amazing. He knows his stuff, not just in plain old fisticuffs, but also about muzzle-loading firearms. He has apparently studied chain weapons somewhere and he seems to know more than just a little bit about military strategy and tactics. (If you don't know the difference, read Von Clausewitz.) He's done some serious reading. In his acknowledgements, he apologizes for The Burning White taking so long, but I'm telling you that if it took this long (well, till last November) to come out because he was doing his research, it was worth it.
The character arcs in this book and across the series are crazy impressive. I saw characters change completely from what I (and they) thought they were. My entire perspective on two major characters changed over the course of this novel, and I never thought that would have been possible. I had those two set in stone in my mind and well...
I was wr...
wro...
w...
Yeah, maybe they hadn't been portrayed accurately previously. Totes not my fault. Seriously, how was I supposed to know? I was right, but they changed. Well, that's actually sort of right. At least one of them changed. The other one, not so much but I got to see a part of their personality I hadn't seen before. I was in awe of the way Weeks worked one particular person around to make them sympathetic. I never would have believed it could have happened. I still don't and I saw it happen.
As someone who has studied history and lamented the loss (albeit sometimes temporary) of ancient knowledge, I was really impressed with the way that Weeks worked some very similar things into The Burning White. You won't actually find any Rosetta Stones here, but still there are things about history discovered that definitely influence the action in the present. There's a lesson here for me as a novice author and it's one I won't forget.
Politics (of the fantasy world, not our world) are very present and believable in the Lightbringer universe in general and in The Burning White in particular. I love the horse trading and maneuvering. Political debate in Weeks's work is just as intense as the actual combat. It often decides even more and when it doesn't it's usually setting up a battle that will. Weeks and David Weber write politics that makes sense and entertains those of us who have a realistic view of why politicians act like they do.
There is so much backstory to the Lightbringer series that it's crazy. Not just the ancient history I was talking about, but backstory for the current cast of characters, many of which participated in The False Prism's War but there is nothing written about it except for the odd recollection here and there. Yet, it very obviously has an effect on just about every major character in the series on one level or another. I mean, I'm not trying to put pressure on the good Mr. Weeks to write the books, I'm just saying I'd buy them if he did. And so would a bunch of other people. And I'd imagine he's got bills to pay, and selling all of those books would probably help. But no pressure at all. Don't think about us, Mr. Weeks. Think about what writing that series of books could do for YOU.
The Lightbringer series has included a very elaborate system of magic and it is here in all it's glory. I love the way it works. Of the works that I've read, there have been precisely two authors who have based magic on light and color, at least in part. Weeks's version is captivating. His “drafters”, as he calls them, are capable of some truly amazing feats. Some drafters have one color, some have two. Others have multiple colors, up to and including being able to use all of them. The more colors, the rarer. In Weeks's World, magic has a price. Too much drafting leads to a shorter life expectancy. When a caster drafts, they draw the color in through their eyes. This creates “halos” inside their corneas. When the “halos” get too big to be contained in the cornea, they break and drive the caster insane. Their fellow drafters are often required to kill them to prevent them from a berserk rampage.
I love this system and being a TTRPG player, I thought about adding it to my campaign. But uh...
Yeah...
I'm not up to writing the rules for it. If someone out there has a working set of mechanics for drafting in an RPG, I'd love to read through them. As a matter of fact,if Weeks is working on an RPG (and he'd be crazy not to) I'd love a chance to play test for him. I've got a good crew of guys with a buttload of gaming experience who would line up for a chance to test a new product. I promise a review of the game afterward too! I'd love a chance to experience more of the Lightbringer universe.
Then again if you read any of the 9889797997909078978 epilogues of The Burning White you'll know that there is a ton of potential for a sequel. I mean, the current story lines are tied up but Weeks could go a ton of different directions with the Lightbringer universe. There exists not only the possibility of a sequel series with his current characters, but he has enough young characters that have the potential to have kids that we could be following their kids around when the next series hits. I'd buy those too, and it's not like he has to choose one or the other. Weeks could potentially do both.
Of course, if you're a fan of the Night Angel Trilogy (like your friendly neighborhood blogger) then you know he may very well decide to write something completely unrelated to any of the above. That's okay too, because he's established two fantasy universes already and is obviously capable of inventing another when he needs to.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Curving Cannonballs
The Burning White
Brent Weeks
Orbit Books, 2019
The Burning White is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no extra cost to you.
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