The Blood Mirror

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this one more than [b:The Broken Eye 12652457 The Broken Eye (Lightbringer, #3) Brent Weeks https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1376583941s/12652457.jpg 17766175], despite a slow start. Not quite as good as [b:The Blinding Knife 12499290 The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer, #2) Brent Weeks https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1338432693s/12499290.jpg 17484647] though. Still, I can't wait for the final book.Audiobook: Simon Vance is fantastic as always, though he can be quiet/hard to hear at times. He does a variety of voices that make the audio a must for me though, and I'm always more inclined to listen to any book he reads.Full ReviewI've often struggled with Brent Week's work. I like his ideas, but his execution at times can come across as juvenile to me. I've enjoyed a few of his books, and downright loathed a few others. The start of this book felt that way to me, and made it feel slow and had me concerned I wasn't going to like it.Thankfully things picked up pretty quickly and I was sucked back into it. One of my main issues with the first few books was Kip. He still has his moments, but thankfully his character has grown to a point where I enjoy his parts of the story apart from the initial bit. I think all four of the main POVs were interesting though, and there was never a feeling of disappointment when the POV would switch to someone else. Tia continues to be a favorite of mine, and Karis seems a lot more cunning than she has in previous books.We get a lot of great world building, both in terms of history and with regards to the excellent magic system that kept my interest despite my misgivings at time. The political intrigue is also quite well done. None of the antagonists feel like cartoon characters anymore and that makes for much better story telling in my opinion.As a side note the book came with a 15 minute recap of the first three books which I really appreciated. There were also some good refresher moments throughout that all helped to jog my memory and enjoy the book more.Overall I'd say this is probably the second best book of the series so far, and really set things up nicely for what will hopefully be the final book. I'm looking forward to seeing how things get wrapped up.