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A review by aceinit
The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks
3.0
I've always had such contradictory feelings about the series. On one hand, some of my favorite caracters from fiction walk in these books. On the other hand, some of my least favorite characters from fiction walk in these books. It makes for a very frustrating combination.
With this newest installment, Weeks has me reevaluating a lot of things in the wake of the latest reveals about the Guile brothers, and I both love and hate how easily my emotions are manipulated by Gavin, who remains a dynamic character despite having very little to actually do.
Which is the first problem with most of this book. It is a big damn book, and yet so many important moments happen off the page. Too much time remains spent on Kip and Teia, two characters I am never going to be able to care about, and whose parts I usually had to trudge through to get back to the parts of the story that interest. me. I don't have it in me to care about either one of them. I just don't. I never have. I never will. And I've mostly made peace with that. But it still irks me that so much of the book was devoted to both Kip and Teia.
Yes, the chapters make for some good maturity and character development (they really do), but so much of their page time could have been trimmed and better spent elsewhere. It's a big world, it is enormously frustrating to have quite a few key moments and characters relegated to afterthought status. I would much rather read about Liv embracing her transformation, or see firsthand what happened to bring about the devastating situation in the final Karris chapter. Zymun, who is now the most important person in the satrapies, barely garners a passing mention.
The second issue is that this book is very much a set up for the final volume in the series. It's Middle Book Syndrome, except with the fourth volume in the series. As such, there are a lot of things happening, but ultimately things that are not particularly interesting or riveting to read about. And, in a lot of places, the book seems to focus on the wrong things. Or at least the wrong things to keep this particular reader entranced.
Still, as a writer, Weeks continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Each book in the series has been stronger than the last and terms of writing and characterization. And, so I found this particular installment almost as frustrating as the previous one, I look forward to seeing how the series wraps up in the next and final book.
With this newest installment, Weeks has me reevaluating a lot of things in the wake of the latest reveals about the Guile brothers, and I both love and hate how easily my emotions are manipulated by Gavin, who remains a dynamic character despite having very little to actually do.
Which is the first problem with most of this book. It is a big damn book, and yet so many important moments happen off the page. Too much time remains spent on Kip and Teia, two characters I am never going to be able to care about, and whose parts I usually had to trudge through to get back to the parts of the story that interest. me. I don't have it in me to care about either one of them. I just don't. I never have. I never will. And I've mostly made peace with that. But it still irks me that so much of the book was devoted to both Kip and Teia.
Yes, the chapters make for some good maturity and character development (they really do), but so much of their page time could have been trimmed and better spent elsewhere. It's a big world, it is enormously frustrating to have quite a few key moments and characters relegated to afterthought status. I would much rather read about Liv embracing her transformation, or see firsthand what happened to bring about the devastating situation in the final Karris chapter. Zymun, who is now the most important person in the satrapies, barely garners a passing mention.
The second issue is that this book is very much a set up for the final volume in the series. It's Middle Book Syndrome, except with the fourth volume in the series. As such, there are a lot of things happening, but ultimately things that are not particularly interesting or riveting to read about. And, in a lot of places, the book seems to focus on the wrong things. Or at least the wrong things to keep this particular reader entranced.
Still, as a writer, Weeks continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Each book in the series has been stronger than the last and terms of writing and characterization. And, so I found this particular installment almost as frustrating as the previous one, I look forward to seeing how the series wraps up in the next and final book.