Look at your mistakes long enough to learn from them, then put them behind you.

On one hand, The Blood Mirror takes the storyline of the previous books and turns it up even more.

Kip’s and Tisis’ storyline I really enjoyed. Kip is really coming of age and turning into a leader. He’s a nice mix of Gavin and Andross and has a whole cast of wonderful supporting characters. One really strange feeling bit: there’s quite a lot of subplot dedicated to the fact that Kip and Tisis can't have sexual intercourse . It’s a real condition which can wreck havoc on people’s relationships, but it just feels very strange. More like Weeks learned about the condition and wanted to fit it in rather than it naturally fitting in the story. I’m not sure what to say other than that.

Gavin’s storyline… is crazy. It epitomizes the idea of an unreliable narrator, while at the same time giving us a lot more world building. And when he finally gets out of his cells... . Man. I’m really rooting for him, but I have no idea how that can ever turn into a happy ever after.

Speaking of which, Karris is a badass. She gets another serious upgrade and we get to see a whole new political side to her, while still fitting in her warrior training, even if she’s going to have some issues if she keeps pushing as she does.

Liv? I already disliked Liv in previous books. Nothing changes here.

Teia? She’s… I liked her a lot more. Now she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place and really not changing for the better. She’s got some serious issues to work through.

Holy crap though. The twists.

On top of that, the world has gotten quite a bit bigger. We learn just how there were two Prisms at the same time and what it means to be a Black Prism . We see more characters raised as gods, along with a whole cadre of extra dimensional beings with some interesting rules¹. We’re finally getting answers to all manner of questions… which makes it all the more frustrating that this is the last currently published book in the series. I want to know more!

Major huge twist 1: Original Gavin died at Sundered Rock. He was never locked in the prison Usurper Gavin built and Gavin-the-latter did not actually kill him when he escaped. I actually called this one (something just never felt right about that), but holy crap to see how that all played out...

Major huge twist 2: _Andross_ is actually Kip's dad. So Kip is actually yet another of the Guile siblings. Did _not_ see that one coming. Not sure what to think of that. Oy.

Overall, if you’ve made it this far, you’re going to read this book and hopefully enjoy it. If you haven’t read the series… why are you starting here? :) It’s a solid book and I really want to see the next one. That’s what I get for starting a series in progress…

This wasn’t shit creek. This wasn’t no paddle. This was shit ocean. This was I can’t even see land.

¹ They can appear in any time or place throughout history, but they can only be in each specific time or place once. So if they appear in a town square somewhere, they won’t be able to visit that same town square again. If they appear on New Years of the Year of the Fruitbat, they won’t be able to do so again. It’s a fascinating way to limit omnipotence and make super powerful beings think about how to user their power.