Brent Weeks and the Lightbringer Series at JordanCon 2019
Every year I attend JordanCon, I like to immerse myself in a panel that I don’t know anything about. There’s no better place to start than with the one of the guests of honor. Brent Weeks has spent the better part of a decade working on the Lightbringer series. There are five books in the series: The Black Prism (2010), The Blinding Knife (2012), The Broken Eye (2014), The Blood Mirror (2016) and The Burning White (2019).
Literature nuts and bibliophiles lobbed jargon and conspiracies at each other for an hour as they discussed Weeks’ famous series. Although the author himself was in attendance at the con, he couldn’t make it to this specific panel, as he was overbooked for the weekend.
These books deal with a color-coded magic system with the technology of the 17th century. Told in third person, the series delineates the story of the prism, the most powerful person in the world, as he battles an uprising, a possible baby switch, political intrigue, and an imaginary — oh you’ll just have to read this one for yourself.
Spoilers aside, the fans in this panel spoke fervently and from an educated perspective about the first four novels (the fifth novel will be released this fall), going over every detail imaginable. It was a good thing Weeks couldn’t make the panel; he would have to play every author’s favorite game, ‘questions I can’t answer’.
The conversation was riveting and informative for me as an outsider seeking information. I wondered: would a series this detailed and dependent on color translate well in a movie or television series? So, I asked. The consensus was the same with everyone. The budget would have to be heavy in CGI. An animated version might not get many views, but this crowd would be happy to see it, and very eager to spend their money on this hypothetical question.
The greatest thing about this crowd, and the convention as a whole, are the fans. Everyone is respectful and kind to each other. The corrosive culture of fan boys has been kept at bay when it comes to Jordan Con. I count myself lucky to be amongst this side of the fandom world. I’ll be picking up the first book in the series this week. Let’s have a read along.
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