Book Review: Prisim (The Color Alchemist - Book 1)
Prisim (The Color Alchemist – Book 1) by Nina Walker
3 stars
Category: YA
Summary: This is a dystopian world where color can be manipulated by magic to do certain things depending on which color is used. All Jessa ever wanted to be was a loving daughter, devoted older sister, and a professional ballerina. But when she accidentally manipulates color during a performance, she is immediately apprehended and sent to work in the color guard because the king suspects she can manipulate red, which is extremely rare and has all sorts of applications against enemies. The rebellion, charges Prince Lucas to befriend Jessa and bring her onto their side. And so the tug of war over Jessa’s abilities begins, when all she wants to do is return home and continue being a ballerina.
Comments: I obtained the trilogy collection, but I won’t be going any further than this first book. The magic system in this book is a fascinating/original one with plenty of imagination put into deciding what each color could be used for. And the intrigue was fascinating, like what was going on with Lucas’s mother, what the government was lying to them about their world’s history, what the world was like beyond the city, etc. But the magic itself is rather muddied and generic since it’s basically just described as using ones will and intentions to draw the color off of the current object and guide it to where it’s needed. The book felt long and very little happened during it. The book was set almost exclusively within the palace. Her training session scenes were a joke. I mean, it was like they would discuss color for a bit then break for a meal or take the rest of the day off. Or she would manipulate one thing, and then take the rest of the day off. Is that how training went for other guards, do you think? Though I liked Lucas for the most part, being caught between a rock and a hard place, and I liked Sasha, what colored my opinion against the book the most was I took a dislike to Jessa the heroine. She was frivolous, selfish, self-centered, rather dumb, convinced things could go back to normal if she could get out of there (like they wouldn’t arrest her up if she got out), convinced that the whole idea of people having to either be in the guard or jail didn’t apply to her, convinced she ought to be able to talk to her family daily even though no one at the guard had any contact with their families. I kept reading in the hopes she would mature and understand basic concepts, but she kept whining throughout the book. For her age of 17, she came off really childish.
3 stars
Category: YA
Summary: This is a dystopian world where color can be manipulated by magic to do certain things depending on which color is used. All Jessa ever wanted to be was a loving daughter, devoted older sister, and a professional ballerina. But when she accidentally manipulates color during a performance, she is immediately apprehended and sent to work in the color guard because the king suspects she can manipulate red, which is extremely rare and has all sorts of applications against enemies. The rebellion, charges Prince Lucas to befriend Jessa and bring her onto their side. And so the tug of war over Jessa’s abilities begins, when all she wants to do is return home and continue being a ballerina.
Comments: I obtained the trilogy collection, but I won’t be going any further than this first book. The magic system in this book is a fascinating/original one with plenty of imagination put into deciding what each color could be used for. And the intrigue was fascinating, like what was going on with Lucas’s mother, what the government was lying to them about their world’s history, what the world was like beyond the city, etc. But the magic itself is rather muddied and generic since it’s basically just described as using ones will and intentions to draw the color off of the current object and guide it to where it’s needed. The book felt long and very little happened during it. The book was set almost exclusively within the palace. Her training session scenes were a joke. I mean, it was like they would discuss color for a bit then break for a meal or take the rest of the day off. Or she would manipulate one thing, and then take the rest of the day off. Is that how training went for other guards, do you think? Though I liked Lucas for the most part, being caught between a rock and a hard place, and I liked Sasha, what colored my opinion against the book the most was I took a dislike to Jessa the heroine. She was frivolous, selfish, self-centered, rather dumb, convinced things could go back to normal if she could get out of there (like they wouldn’t arrest her up if she got out), convinced that the whole idea of people having to either be in the guard or jail didn’t apply to her, convinced she ought to be able to talk to her family daily even though no one at the guard had any contact with their families. I kept reading in the hopes she would mature and understand basic concepts, but she kept whining throughout the book. For her age of 17, she came off really childish.
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