The Broken Eye / Brent Weeks

The Broken Eye

(Lightbringer 3)

by Brent Weeks

fantasy

copyright 2014

read in April 2017

rated 4/10: bad but could be read

Disappointing. And unpleasant.

This series began as "young adult" fantasy. There is still a "young adult" main character but the story has gone vicious. Not to be recommended for... anyone, really.

Okay, it's exciting. Non-stop action. Most of which involves serious injury and death. And that is a problem.

Is there a message for the reader? Possibly. And the message is, Might is right. Violence is the best answer. The person who is willing to threaten, kill, torture and maim will be the winner. Oh, and women are weaker so they just have to learn to fight harder.

On top of that -- or should that be, below that -- if one person has good intentions, that person will be blackmailed into evil. Oh, and there's a feeling that all this violence and evil and torture and blackmail is fine... as long as it is all for the ultimate good. Ultimate good in the opinion of the violent, evil, torturing blackmailer, that is.

About a quarter of the way through, one person decides to confide in another. At last ! And a few people do seem to be working together. Finally. Blind faith in the leader -- and  a willingness to die, if ordered, with no understanding why -- is nice for the leader. Nice if you identify with the leader. Otherwise, rather stupid.

The whole world is nasty. There is, for example, slavery. A few of the characters do seem to realise that slavery is wrong. So what do they do about it? They just accept slavery because it's so convenient.

Citizens become slaves to repay family debts. As punishment for minor crimes. By being kidnapped off the streets of the main cities. As punishment for offending a powerful person. And once they are slaves, they are property. With absolutely no rights. Not even the right to life.

Just another part of the nastiness of this book.

Part of my disappointment is that there is no end in sight. That is, no end to "The Lightbringer Series". I started reading with the expectation that it is a trilogy... But no. Not only is this not the final book, it barely has an ending. Sure, no-one is at death's door. But the half dozen or more major characters are all in limbo. Maybe a small step on the way to a conclusion. All heading off (or trapped in) the unknown.

Come on! This is not a novel ! It's a soap opera :-(

I've just checked Wikipedia. Apparently the series will have five books. So say so ! Say up front, this is book three of five. And then offer a *conclusion* at the end of the book. Are you afraid that the book is not good enough to bring a reader back for more? Then write a better book.

Going back a bit, to a rather trivial point... In this book there is thunder and lightning. With, naturally, the lightning being seen before the thunder is heard.

In the previous book there was cannon fire. With the cannonball being seen before the bang is heard. Sorry, that's wrong. You could see the flash of the cannon firing, then hear the bang. And then -- after a relatively slow journey of the large and heavy cannonball -- you will see the cannonball hit nearby.

When sound and light start together, light travels far faster. But both sound and light travel a lot faster than the solid projectile. The cannonball is the last of the three to arrive.

I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the rather ridiculous form of magic in these books. After all, that's part of the fun of sword-and-sorcery fantasy :-) I find it harder to suspend my disbelief in basic physics.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Come on… a little hard work must have killed someone!" … per Ginger Meggs