The Blinding Knife is what a sequel should be. It takes the action and magic that made The Black Prism good and made it better while toning down a lot of the exposition and over-characterization that made it a bit of a drag at times.

On the plus side, the magic system has a lot more depth than it did in the first book while at the same time not spending quite as much time hitting us over the head with terms we don’t quite understand yet. Even if I don’t necessarily like some of the choices (like why you can’t draft green from white light by default), it’s still a well done system. Otherwise, the worldbuilding has gotten bigger. Magical trading cards. Seers. Old Gods.

Also a positive, I really am starting to like the majority of the characters. Kip is still annoying at times ( “His name is Kit Guile and—” “Kip,” Kip interjected. “Not a woody tub for toys, a tubby wooden boy.” ), but he’s really starting to grow up. Gavin really is trying to do the right thing and it’s nice to see his and Karris’ relationship move past the ‘well if you don’t know I’m not telling you stage’. And some of those twists with Gavin(s)… oy. ( Gavin. Dazen? Even I’m confused. )

Liv… I don’t really care about Liv. I get where Weeks is trying to go with her story line (or at least I think I do), but that doesn’t mean I don’t skip past most of her sections. Perhaps Week will pull it off in the end?

New characterwise, I really like Teia. I wasn’t sure where she was going to go at first, but she has a take on magic that people don’t really believe exists, which is often interesting. Plus she provides an interesting point of view into the aspects of slavery in this society.

If you’ve read The Black Prism, read this. If you haven’t, give The Black Prism a try.