The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Finished reading The Black Prism by Brent Weeks last night.

Its the first book in the Lightbringer series. Its in the high fantasy genre with a few interesting twists. The magic system is based on the light spectrum with each primary color representing a different flavour of magic that manipulates the raw energy of magic called luxin. The system is seems internally sound and not overly complicated. There is a fair bit of color-based wordplay but not to the point of being annoying (with one exception).

Kip looked, torn. Lord Omnichrome was disappearing up the hill, rejoining his entourage. He was the heart of this; Kip knew it. He should kill him. Orholam, his chance was passing through his fingertips. But to the south, Karris was charging to her death, and to the east, that snake Zymun was stealing the only thing Kip had to remember his mother by. Kill Lord Omnichrome and stop the war. Kill Zymun and take the knife. Or save Karris and have a chance at King Garadul.

All the major players are introduced and the table is set for the conflicts to follow. The Man in the Iron Mask aspect is a sharp twist to the standard underdog youth becoming a heroic figure. Some of the characters are a bit flat, but there are at least two more books to flesh them out (or kill them off). As always (read Weeks's Night Angel Trilogy) the action scenes are gory and well choreographed.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

P.S. Exercise your vocabulary building skills and look up "promachos". Brent Weeks is quite enamored with the term and Wikipedia doesn't do the word justice.