The Black Prism

By: Brent Weeks

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 21 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

This fantastic new recording was released in September 2016 and comes from the acclaimed narrator of The Lightbringer series Simon Vance.

The start of a brand new trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Way of Shadows.

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

©2010 Brent Weeks (P)2016 Little Brown Book Group

Love the print book...audio not so much.

What did you like best about The Black Prism? What did you like least?

I truly enjoyed this book in print and was looking forward to a good listen. The narration is definitely not one of Audible's best efforts and I was relieved to see Simon Vance will be narrating the next two books.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Slow start with great characters

i wish the narroater would be half as hyped about the story as I am :)
but he still does a fair job and brent weeks delivers as in the night angel :)

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great story ruined by robotic narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes- if Simon Vance was reading it!

What other book might you compare The Black Prism to and why?

Brent Weeks reminds me of Branfon Sanderson

What didn’t you like about Cristofer Jean’s performance?

You may as well have the kindle robot read aloud. Worst ever voice. No inflection. Terrible timing. It was like listening to someone read it when they don't actually understand English. The syntax, timing, and colour was missing. Just awful.

Could you see The Black Prism being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Probably a bit complicated for the screen plot wise but I could see Charlie Hannum as Gavin/Dazen

Any additional comments?

Great story which I have read 3 times and will never listen to again from this narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good, different to night angle but more mature

If you liked night angle you will also like this. new magic system and world with interesting ideas..

wow

narrstor a bit awkward first 4-5chapters, then he gets into it and its excelent. such a good story!

Good enough for commuting.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I got this because I was a fan of the author's Shadow series. Wouldn't recommend to a non-fan.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

People need to just bloody talk to each other. Conflict is consistently manufactured by the characters being blithering idiots unable to use their damn words.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Narrator sometimes bleeds voices into each other, occasionally making it hard to tell when different people are speaking in the same scene. Particularly Corvan and Gavin.

Do you think The Black Prism needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Yes, because as is traditional in fantasy since the Wheel of Time got popular, absolutely nothing is resolved in this book.

Any additional comments?

Timelines glaringly fail to make sense, as is usual for Weeks. A good adventure story, but hampered by self-pitying characters who, for all their political acumen, don't seem to understand anything about the people near them, much less trust them.

Better than expected!

As this is the very first audiobook I’ve ever listened to, I don’t have much to compare it with. However, the performance by Simon Vance was great; I did not lose concentration easily, as he did not drone on and on. This was also thanks to fantastic storytelling and world building by Brent Weeks!

Start the series or not?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you want just the first book, don't bother.

If you want a short series with long books, written with advancing complexity and depth, you need this.
Having finished the series now, for every new book I started, I got halfway through and thought "Wow, this book is a huge step up from the last. The characters are deeper, more interesting, the plot thickens and twists in ways I didn't expect, and this book explores a whole new layer the last didn't do!"

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The story is written in an adult tone. For anyone wonder, this isn't a teen-fantasy book. The language, the complexity, the reality and the way the author(narrator) speaks to the reader(listener) is very adult. He does not try to cover up themes like sex or blood, but it is yet far from vulgar or grotesque.

Any additional comments?

The ending of the first book isn't very exciting, as it doesn't really try to pull you in as hard as many other books do, and the reason for the title of "Black Prism" is only truely revealed in a later book (won't say which).

great story..very fresh and interesting

loved it.. plot was awesome.. speed of the plot was great...and very fresh approach to fantasy...

Good story but very stilted delivery ruins it

Good story but very stilted delivery ruins it
The narration sounds as if it was designed for children and reminds me of the Simpsons😝

Great Entertaining Intelligent Story

Any additional comments?

seems like this audio book has been re-done, other comments regarding narrator may be pre re-do. Simon Vance performed expertly and brought the book to life i would disregard other comments as they seem outdated.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Great series! (new narrator)

I listened to books 1-4 back to back....and as I can't remember where each book ended, I'm going to have to review them as a oner!

Despite listening to 4 books one after each other, I didn't get bored for an instant. Never a sense of padding, or randomness in the plot. Indeed, in book 4 it takes a turn I didn't see coming. With hindsight, there was some foreshadowing, but it was either too subtle, or I was too engrossed to notice it. Love all the characters- even the not so nice ones become increasingly interesting as the series moves on. Just when you think you have it all figured out, a curved ball gets thrown.

Very well narrated too. Earlier reviews suggest a not-so-great narrator....the books must surely have been redone because I'm super-fussy when it comes to narration, and I couldn't fault this. Not quite Rupert Degas, but Simon Vance holds his own.

Really looking forward to the next book in the series......it promises to be a good one!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

A Great Book, Now With A Good Reader

When I first listened to The Black Prism it was a different reading and while I enjoyed the book it was in spite of the reading. Simon Vance has changed that and elevated this excellent renaissance-fantasy into my favourites list.
Guns, magic, lies, monsters, drama, romance - this book has it all. If, like so many, you missed out on Weeks' first series because of the start of The Way Of Shadows then rest assured that this is far more accessible and may even convince you to give the Night Angel books another go.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable book, not ground breaking

There are a number of reasons to enjoy this book, and to hate it.

What's to enjoy?
The magic system is pretty clever. I like it that people have varying levels of ability. Some can use only 1 colour, some 2, other more. Not all colours have to be joined together from the spectrum etc. I like that the colours have their own attributes - which can effect a persons personality.
I also like a couple of the characters. Karris comes off as a strong middle aged woman (i would guess here age would be around 40) - strong personality as well as strong of body. I grew to like Kip a little more. I like the fact that he is fairly hopeless and lacks self confidence.
The story was good, if a little unoriginal - bad leader attacks city, good leader defends city. You know where you are going to end up - its just how we are going to get there.

What's not to enjoy?
Some of the characters are annoying or flat. Gavin is super powerful - to the point of being a God. While i could accept that he is amazing at casting - it would have been nice if he was flawed in other ways. But alas, he is also an excellent politician, tactician, orator, good looking with a quick mind. Maybe he will change in following books.
The Bad guys were a little too bad. I am a king and want to bring down the world because i am pissed - yeah, twiddle that tash with maniacal laugh.
The magic system (yeah, I know its a positive). Some of the stuff that can be done is massive. With a little thought and organisation the world should really have been a utopia. Within a couple of days a wall (we do not know exactly how long it is) is constructed from magic with cool features such as adjustable roofs, touch sensitive windows and seal protectors. Wow, 4 days from start to finish.
Short chapters. While this was great at the end of the book (getting the battle from different perspectives in a few pages), it was annoying at the beginning - you are taken from one part of the work to another a little too fast.

I read a few reviews before I started that the narration was pretty poor. I wouldn't go that far. The narrator did vary his voice for different characters and seemed to deliver the light hearted moments well. It wasn't brilliant either - he seemed a little too fast and his natural pitch a little annoying.

All in all,I enjoyed the book, and will read the rest of the series. There just wasn't the spark there to make me feel it should deserve more than a 3.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good.

Fun book. Magic good. Builds well. Characters interesting. Not the best book ever but I hammered through it fast so it's definitely the audio equivalent of a page turner.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Wrong narrator - spoils the book

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I struggled to get through this book because I just couldn't take the narrator seriously. I found the book mildly interesting, but didn't have anything else to read so stuck through it. When I saw the sequel was read by someone else, I thought I would give it another go and I am so glad that I did! Suddenly the characters I knew from the Black Prism came to life and I found myself thoroughly engrossed and enjoying the story immensely.
If you don't get on with the narrator and feel the story and characters are bland, stick through it and try the second novel, read by Simon Vance - it really is a fantastic.

8 of 12 people found this review helpful

Bland narration

After 3 hours I found it hard to warm to the narrator. There were attempts at characterisation, but I found little in the way of intonation or drama.

9 of 14 people found this review helpful

Poor Performance

Brent Weeks tells an entertaining story in an original setting, unfortunately flawed by poor characterisation, plot holes and occasionally jagged prose. These problems are made all the more jarring by a wooden performance from Cristofer Jean. This poor reading makes what would otherwise be a simple but largely enjoyable book into one well below average.

6 of 10 people found this review helpful

Horrific narrator

Had to return after half an hour of listening as I could not deal with the narrators tedious voices of characters, especially his female ones. May have been bearable if not for that, but he still wasn't a great voice to listen to.
The book itself is quite good, and I am currently very happy with listening to the second book, Thank God they swapped narrators!

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Good story terrible narrated

Lots of interesting ideas in this book but narration made me cringe and really grated!

3 of 5 people found this review helpful