The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks

Outstanding.

The Blinding Knife–book two of the Lightbringer series–is everything book one wasn’t. All of the awesome. None of the awful.

I think I was a bit heavy handed in my review of the first book. Now that I’ve read the second, I keep having these, “OH, I see what you were doing with that!” moments.

Super-sized fantasy story? Yep. Complicated magic system that actually makes sense? Yep. Good guys to love? Yep. Bad guys to despise? Oh yes. Politics? Yep. Romance? Yep. Larger than life heroes? Oh ya. Regular guy heroes? Uh huh. Glorious battle sequences that force you to read through your lunch break and into work hours because there’s no way you’re going to stop reading for something as meaningless as your job? Ye…nope. None of that. Booorrring.

I love the role religion plays in this world and the story. Mirroring reality on many levels, there are the devout, the pretenders, and the apostates. Religion defines the culture and it’s norms, but what is holy for one are chains for another. Who is right? The devout, who follow blindly? The pretenders who lead and must rally believers to their cause, but who carry questions in their hearts? Or the apostates, whose message of casting off self-imposed chains sounds right, but could be nothing but empty promises calculated to elevate only themselves in the end.

Very, very cool stuff. Can’t wait to get into book three, The Broken Eye.

Speaking of book three, make sure you have it handy. Book two ends in an uncomfortable place.

Language. Sex. Violence. No lines crossed for me, but this isn’t for your kids.

Happy Reading!