Yeah...this book is as good as The Black Prism. Again, I question how I didn't like reading this series the first time around. From the magic to the mysteries, this series has so many fantastic elements. I even liked the magic the gathering like card game duels between Andross and Kip! My largest flag here, however, is that, for whatever reason, slavery is kind of presented in a moderately positive light in this book? That is, slavery is societally deemed acceptable and some enslaved people are even portrayed as happy to be that way because their masters are "good."

Most prominently, Marissia, Gavin Guile's room slave, seems upset at Gavin's attempt to dismiss her.

I have also continued to struggle to know when something about the plot or magic system is intended to be mysterious or is just something I missed.

For example, I talked to friends who had read the series about whether or not the Chromeria officially recognized the existence of full spectrum polychromes. We all thought they did not, but then towards the end of The Blinding Knife, Kip encounters policies about this exact situation during Blackguard testing.

This lack of clarity between mystery and complexity is irritating.