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Sep 16, 2018RebelBelle13 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
It took me several months to conquer this beast. I would read about 50 pages, then put it down, read a different novel, then go back to this one. The one word that describes Weeks' novel is EPIC. The world is huge, the magic system well thought out, and his characters exceedingly well developed. Everyone had clear goals and reasons for their behavior. As the story progressed, we really understood how light drafting worked and the hierarchy of the Chromeria as well as the seven satrapies. There's a lot here, which is probably why the book was almost 800 pages long. Here's the things I liked. I really enjoyed the magic system with the light drafting- creating luxin of the different colors of the prism, and how each color was responsible for different strengths and character traits. Of course, those who could draft more than one color were better than those who could only draft one. The Prism can draft them all. The detail that Weeks put into the creation of different things out of luxin was very well done. I could easily imagine Gavin drafting a boat or Kip drafting spikes. Gavin himself was by far my favorite character. He had such depth- he was constantly at war with himself and wondering if he was doing the right things- but deep down, he was a good person. I did NOT like Kip. He was so self-deprecating that it got to the point where I skimmed over his sections. He's clumsy and fat and his mother never told him she loved him. WE GET IT. We don't need to be reminded of these things every single time we read from his perspective. Also, the story felt bloated in parts. I ran out of steam about halfway through and it took some doing to pick the book back up. Overall, Weeks is a master of words and the story was very well done. I will most likely read the next, after I've had time to come down from this one.