Lightbringer 5: The Burning White (urspr publ 2019; utgåvan 2019)

Such an enjoyable series. I have been absorbed in the audiobooks of the Lightbringer series for over 7 months. And I have enjoyed it so much. The final book is a gobsmacking 39 hours long in audio but I had a fabulous time. It has a couple of issues which is why it’s not quite going to get 5 stars from me. But there were surprises and “brave” decisions and at least one, NO, please don’t kill that person from me. But I am going to have to put most of my review behind spoiler tags.
The issues – some things petered out and didn’t come to anything – the Liv storyline just didn’t go anywhere other than healing someone you wanted to live, the Old Man of the Desert storyline also faded away rather.
The stuff I am conflicted on - killing Kip and having “God” resurrect him – I was horrified at Kip’s death as he was easily my favourite character and I wanted him to come back BUT…. (the whole no-one is ever really dead in sci-fi and fantasy can sometimes be over used) , Andross ending up as the “official” Lightbringer when he was a complete bastard was just like what? And then him suddenly changing society by starting to outlaw slavery etc – where did that all come from? – there was absolutely no indication that he had any wish to do that before.
Stuff that is controversial but I liked a lot – Gavin/Daizen meeting Orholom aka God – I actually think this was an incredibly brave decision by Brent Weeks to do. Stephen King chickened out at the end of The Dark Tower in doing this. And it is brave cos it can just become laughable but I thought Weeks handled it well and it wasn’t laughable in context at all. Though the fantasy side appears when Orholom changes stuff. Turns out Lightbringer was a spiritual journey as well.
The stuff I loved – the characters, Kip in particular totally grew on me from the “poor me” kid to the leader who sacrifices himself for others and was the source of my NOOOO moment, Gavin/Daizen, someone you never quite knew what you were supposed to think of him, arrogant, a mass murderer, a slaver, prideful, yet also brave and often kind and guilt ridden, Tia the slave made into a weapon by those around her, Andross Guile – just a total and utter bastard yet always interesting, Karys – almost a woman frozen by circumstances but becomes a war leader.
The magic system – it sometimes confused me but it’s such a great concept
I don’t usually write such long reviews so I think it is an indication of how much I enjoyed this series. If you like high fantasy to get absorbed in, then I recommend this series. ( )

I was a little disappointed in this finale. A great read as always, but having reread the rest of the series beforehand some of the characters arcs felt inconsistent in this book. While there were some interesting reveals to the mythology, it was also a little too fan-pleasing and suffered from a hefty dose of deus ex Machina and way to much religious allegory. ( )