The Lightbringer Trilogy

The Lightbringer Trilogy is an unfinished series of dark fantasy books by Brent Weeks, author of The Night Angel Trilogy. Consists so far of a single book, The Black Prism (2010). The second The Blinding Knife will be out in September (2012). He's also begun writing the third book, tentatively titled The Blood Mirror.

The Lightbringer Trilogy is set in a different world than the Night Angel Trilogy, this world known as ''The Seven Satrapies. The main character of the story is a young boy named Kip, an orphan from a backwater village in a war-torn country who is suddenly thrust in an increasingly dangerous series of events, upon learning that his father is actually the Prism, which is a widely famous and powerful religious leader, considered to be an Emperor of the entire world.

Like Brent Week's other series, this one introduces a cast of fascinating and unique characters and a world that, while not as dark or gritty as the Night Angel Trilogy, still paints a unique picture of a fantasy world.

Not to be confused with ''The Lightbringer Trilogy" by Oliver Johnson - an older, entirely different, fantasy trilogy that consists of "The Forging of the Shadows", "The Nations of the Night" and "The Last Star at Dawn".

These books contain examples of:

 * Abusive Parents: Kip's mother, of the emotional and neglectful kind.
 * Armor-Piercing Slap: Karris does this to Gavin  when she learns that he cheated on her while they where engaged and, as a result, has a bastard.
 * Becoming the Mask:
 * Body Horror: What happens to Drafters when his/her halo breaks.
 * Worst part: They voluntarily do it to themselves. As in "replacing eyelids with blue glass" and "implanting solidified heat into the palms of their hands."
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Color-Coded Wizardry: Called Luxin. Where the different colors not only determine what kind of magic the drafter has but his/her personality as well. To a degree anyway.
 * The Chessmaster: The White and Gavin  both have hints of this.
 * The Dark Side: Technically the multicolor'ed side. Basically what happens when Drafters overdose and
 * Different As Night and Day: Gavin  actually spends some time lamenting over the fact when he   His mother helps.
 * Distressed Damsel: Karris is implied to be this before she joined the Black Guard, and later
 * Subverted in that while several people are trying to save Karris it isn't until  that she's freed.
 * Easy Amnesia: Averted in that  really doesn't remember things that happened both during and before the war because
 * Energy Absorption: Obsidian, when in perfect darkness and through an entrance to the body, can seep away luxin from a drafter when touched to the drafter's skin.
 * Evil Twin: Dazen, to Gavin.
 * Subverted because Gavin.
 * Fantasy Gun Control: Mix and Match Trooper. Armies use cannons, pistols, rifles and at least one blunderbuss.
 * They've recently invented flintlocks and have used more primitive hand cannons in the past. Of course, some drafters just make magic bullets with extreme accuracy.
 * A God Am I: The Prism supposedly has unlimited ability to draft luxin of any color.
 * Also, the Color Prince, Lord Omnichrome.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Heel Face Turn: Subverted since  isn't actually going to the other side but his leader , is impersonating their leader.
 * Jerkass: How people saw Gavin  before the war "changed" him.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: claims to be this to.
 * Subverted because.
 * Which is where things get complicated seeing as
 * And it looks like it's about to get much worse in book 2.
 * Retired Badass:  At least at first.
 * Secret Keeper: Gavin's mother and Corvan Danavis are this about
 * Tailor-Made Prison: It's Dazen's  goal to escape one of these constructed by his brother. The prison is covered in blue luxin and the food he's given is dyed blue, which for a drafter promotes calmness and is meant to keep him sedated. There's a criss-crossing pattern of luxin in the floor that goes down several feet and blocks his drafting abilities if he tries to dig through. Dazen gets around this by slowly carving out a depression in the wall over sixteen years using his fingernails and then covering the depression with a mixture made of his hair, skin, body oils and sweat. Then he
 * Trilogy Creep: Averted. The official title of the series is The Lightbringer Series, because he didn't want to be called out for calling it a trilogy if he ended up going to a fourth book.
 * Wham! Line: