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Color Guard #1
Gods of Color
A seer is murdered. His cryptic prophecy, with a promise of unlimited power, falls into the hands of a vile sorcerer. The Color Guard, a naive group of young soldiers and magicians, is burdened with standing up against his insidious evil. Some will face their fears. Some will become heroes. All will be scarred. What Color are you?
- GenresFantasy
258 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2014
1 person is currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
C.H. Baum
8 books60 followersC.H. will read anything with a cover, but really enjoys fantasy, science fiction and horror. He lives in Las Vegas with his two children and his freakishly beautiful wife. His interests are cycling, knives, and carpentry. His disinterests are hummus, eggplant and sunburns.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 21, 2017
I know rating my own book is taboo, but I just copied an actual review over from Amazon.
Still tooting my own horn here.
Gods of Color: Book One
An excellent fantasy book
ByCatfishon June 21, 2017
Another awesome read for someone who is into book series like Game of Thrones or The Witcher.
If you like blood, gore, magic, and sex in a fantasy setting, this is a good book for you.
Waiting tirelessly for the author to release a sequel.
Still tooting my own horn here.
Gods of Color: Book One
An excellent fantasy book
ByCatfishon June 21, 2017
Another awesome read for someone who is into book series like Game of Thrones or The Witcher.
If you like blood, gore, magic, and sex in a fantasy setting, this is a good book for you.
Waiting tirelessly for the author to release a sequel.
April 23, 2018
GODS OF COLOR is a book about magic that comes in a variety of different colors. Everyone can master one type of magic with the exception of Purple Magic, which is basically the Dark Side from Star Wars and drives whoever tries to wield it insane. One of its wielders eliminates a country's seer to blind it to the dangers coming forth (you'd think he'd have seen that coming). A small band of heroes and a princess set out to warn said country and get involved in a fight against a demon, a corrupt king, and agents of their unknown foe.
I really enjoyed Gods of Color. It had a lot going for it with likable characters. reasonable world building, and quite w few individual adventures. I liked the heroes taking on "The Rot", their test to prove themselves as warriors (made much harder by the fact they drank lamp oil), and their confrontation with the foulness of their neighboring kingdom. The confrontation between the princess and Shada was especially strong with a real sense of how "nice guys" can even exist among princes.
There's a few flaws with the book like the fact everyone talks a bit too modern ("dumbass" is not a word I'd associate with Medieval fantasy) and the fact the heroes criticize the king for, essentially distributing welfare, when I can't think of any situation where that wouldn't be considered the embodiment of charity back then. Despite this, I very much enjoyed Gods of Color and am looking forward to the sequel.
7.5/10
I really enjoyed Gods of Color. It had a lot going for it with likable characters. reasonable world building, and quite w few individual adventures. I liked the heroes taking on "The Rot", their test to prove themselves as warriors (made much harder by the fact they drank lamp oil), and their confrontation with the foulness of their neighboring kingdom. The confrontation between the princess and Shada was especially strong with a real sense of how "nice guys" can even exist among princes.
There's a few flaws with the book like the fact everyone talks a bit too modern ("dumbass" is not a word I'd associate with Medieval fantasy) and the fact the heroes criticize the king for, essentially distributing welfare, when I can't think of any situation where that wouldn't be considered the embodiment of charity back then. Despite this, I very much enjoyed Gods of Color and am looking forward to the sequel.
7.5/10
April 13, 2018
Gods of Color is a fantastic read. It has a great mix of magic, blood and action. The magic system reminds me of The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. The prologue instantly grabs your attention and dose not let it falter for the rest of the book. Its a great fast paced action packed gory fantasy story that I will be waiting for the next installment of. If you get a chance pick this one up!
February 7, 2018
3.5, a nice debut that's on the darker side of things with a nicely built magic system. longer review to come.
----------------------------------------------------
This was part of Fantasy Book Critic’s grouping and has since been eliminated, their mini review – “C. H. Baum’s debut effort was a nice mix of dark and epic fantasy and to top it off there was an interesting magic system which reminded me a lot of the one in Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker. The book’s pace also helped in this read and it was a dark and strong effort. “
-----------------------------------------------------------
Plot:
A brief prologue in the book starts with the assassination of one of the only two Seer’s in the world. The Seer was listening to a prophecy of his own death at the time of his assassination, and in the prophecy, there was a prediction of war following his death.
From there we follow several groups of characters, the assassin named Klex and his band of murderers, his boss Paegus and his legion of sick weirdo’s, a group of mages and a group of soldiers.
After murdering the Seer, Klex sends the prophecy to Paegus which allows him to realize his full potential and twist the color Blue, which is a deeply disturbing kind of magic. Blue can let you melt people and turn them into rotting corpses, it’s never been done before and it’s a huge problem for those opposing Paegus. Klex then runs and hides in the Rot, an area infected by Purple magic, another dark and twisted form of magic that has its roots in torture.
The group of mages and soldiers are traveling together to The Rot to seek out and kill Klex. The mages travel by night since they use moonlight for their magic, and the soldiers travel by day. The wildlife and locals along the way pose a lot of problems for both groups.
The mages, soldiers, and Klex are on one continent that holds the Kingdom of Fast and Ham, while Paegus is on another continent called Magog. Paegus is essentially trying to take over the world, he ordered the assassination of the Seer to get things going to start a war over there so they can be easily divided and conquered.
Final Score: 7.75/10
------------------------------------------------------
Characters:
Peter: He’s a red in the Guard for Ham, and a very impressive swordsman – often getting punished for outdoing some of the upperclassmen. He’s vying after the princess, since the king is allowing suitors of all social status a chance at her hand – the king is going off of merit instead of class.
Luther: He was part of the group that sent the assassin after the Seer of Fast, located on a different continent. A very rare type of sorcerer, able to twist two colors instead of just one, second in command to Paegus, the man who ordered the assassination of the Seer. He’s a necrophiliac, and all around disturbing character.
Paegus: The mastermind behind the war plans, and a purple magic user. His eyes have become so sensitive to light due to magic use that he wears a black scarf over his eyes to protect them. He’s sick and twisted, killing his own lover as a sacrifice to turn him into a Blue magic user.
Logan: a student sorcerer who’s currently a Red, despite the fact he can see and use all the colors of the moon. That’s basically unheard of, and he’s trying to keep it under wraps, but the trails along the way to find Klex is forcing him to use his other colors and his secret is coming out.
Diana: is the kings daughter who’s also a proficient Red soldier (swordsmen), she’s in love with Peter but can’t admit it because she doubts her father will let her marry him. Trying to make something work between them could just end up hurting them both in the end. She’s a decent leader, and a good person making it easy to root for her and her team.
There are a host of side characters, Lila, Brent, Max, Bon, Grant, Moren, Lisa, Janis etc. These all have minor POV’s and to be honest I would have liked to have learned about them through dialogue or some other way rather than very short POV chapters. Having this many POV’s reduced the time you spend with each of them, which sort of reduced the amount of character development for each. It was interesting to see their thoughts and feelings, but I feel like that could have been done in other ways that would move the plot along as well as have character development.
Final Score: 6.5/10
-----------------------------------------------
World Building:
Right from the beginning there’s magic in the world, and it continues to be a strong presence throughout the rest of the book – that’s how I prefer my fantasy so I was loving that.
There’s also a strong magic system in it based on color, I’m a big fan of Lightbringer, and I loved the color aspect in Wheel of Time and Warbreaker, so, again this worked rather well for me.
The magic works by bending and twisting moonlight, and you’re ranked and categorized based on what color you can use, it was first implemented by the mages a long time ago, but has become common practice. The soldiers also rank themselves by color as well. Conscripts start out as brown, yellows are tracker, green are archers and red makes for good swordsmen etc.
Purple is a forbidden color, and it represents torture and the people who practice purple magic become twisted and deranged. It’s interesting to me how many of the color based magic systems leave out or forbid purple. No purple aja’s, no purple in lightbringer, and purple being forbidden in this world. Poor purple.
The Guards color rankings and the mages color rankings are totally different.
Orange magic can set things on fire.
Red magic can be used for teleportation.
Green magic can bend nature.
Yellow magic can be used to See.
Brown magic can be used to help construct buildings, it’s used as a mortar to hold things together and hold shields.
Bastus, God of Dark Enlightment, those who practice purple worship him. Deus is the ‘normal’ god of enlightenment which most people worship.
There’s a fair amount of wildlife and other monsters in this book, like golems and enormous snakes, and the undead.
All in all I think the world building and magic system was the strongest part of the book.
Final Score: 8/10
----------------------------------------
Pacing, Prose, and Tone:
The tone is rather dark, and I’ve come off of several dark books right before this, so I was nervous I wouldn’t be in the mood for it, but given the world building and magic system, I really enjoyed myself.
There were a few spelling and editing errors here and there, and a few overused phrases, but it didn’t take away too much from my enjoyment.
The pacing was much better in the second half of the book than the first half when all of the characters were being introduced. Once I got past 30% things really got going.
Writing Final Score: 7/10
Pacing Final Score: 7/10
-----------------------------------------------------
Originality:
I’ve seen a few magic systems based on color (but not that many), and it’s always been something I’ve enjoyed, lightbringer being one of my favorites. There was enough difference in how this magic system worked from other light based magic that it read fresh.
Final Score: 8/10
------------------------------------------------------------
Audience:
For people who enjoy multi pov
For people looking for a hard magic system
For people who enjoy Brent Weeks
For people who enjoy darker stories
For people who enjoy villain pov’s
For people who like a lot of violence and action
-----------------------------------------------------------
Wrap Up:
All in all I liked this book, it has it’s flaws, but it was an enjoyable read for me and a good effort as a debut – I see a lot of potential for future books and if there’s a sequel I’ll probably pick it up.
If you liked Warbreaker, and were wondering what it would be like to have a magic system like that if the story was darker, this may really appeal to you.
Final Score: 44.25/60 or 7.4/10
----------------------------------------------------
This was part of Fantasy Book Critic’s grouping and has since been eliminated, their mini review – “C. H. Baum’s debut effort was a nice mix of dark and epic fantasy and to top it off there was an interesting magic system which reminded me a lot of the one in Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker. The book’s pace also helped in this read and it was a dark and strong effort. “
-----------------------------------------------------------
Plot:
A brief prologue in the book starts with the assassination of one of the only two Seer’s in the world. The Seer was listening to a prophecy of his own death at the time of his assassination, and in the prophecy, there was a prediction of war following his death.
From there we follow several groups of characters, the assassin named Klex and his band of murderers, his boss Paegus and his legion of sick weirdo’s, a group of mages and a group of soldiers.
After murdering the Seer, Klex sends the prophecy to Paegus which allows him to realize his full potential and twist the color Blue, which is a deeply disturbing kind of magic. Blue can let you melt people and turn them into rotting corpses, it’s never been done before and it’s a huge problem for those opposing Paegus. Klex then runs and hides in the Rot, an area infected by Purple magic, another dark and twisted form of magic that has its roots in torture.
The group of mages and soldiers are traveling together to The Rot to seek out and kill Klex. The mages travel by night since they use moonlight for their magic, and the soldiers travel by day. The wildlife and locals along the way pose a lot of problems for both groups.
The mages, soldiers, and Klex are on one continent that holds the Kingdom of Fast and Ham, while Paegus is on another continent called Magog. Paegus is essentially trying to take over the world, he ordered the assassination of the Seer to get things going to start a war over there so they can be easily divided and conquered.
Final Score: 7.75/10
------------------------------------------------------
Characters:
Peter: He’s a red in the Guard for Ham, and a very impressive swordsman – often getting punished for outdoing some of the upperclassmen. He’s vying after the princess, since the king is allowing suitors of all social status a chance at her hand – the king is going off of merit instead of class.
Luther: He was part of the group that sent the assassin after the Seer of Fast, located on a different continent. A very rare type of sorcerer, able to twist two colors instead of just one, second in command to Paegus, the man who ordered the assassination of the Seer. He’s a necrophiliac, and all around disturbing character.
Paegus: The mastermind behind the war plans, and a purple magic user. His eyes have become so sensitive to light due to magic use that he wears a black scarf over his eyes to protect them. He’s sick and twisted, killing his own lover as a sacrifice to turn him into a Blue magic user.
Logan: a student sorcerer who’s currently a Red, despite the fact he can see and use all the colors of the moon. That’s basically unheard of, and he’s trying to keep it under wraps, but the trails along the way to find Klex is forcing him to use his other colors and his secret is coming out.
Diana: is the kings daughter who’s also a proficient Red soldier (swordsmen), she’s in love with Peter but can’t admit it because she doubts her father will let her marry him. Trying to make something work between them could just end up hurting them both in the end. She’s a decent leader, and a good person making it easy to root for her and her team.
There are a host of side characters, Lila, Brent, Max, Bon, Grant, Moren, Lisa, Janis etc. These all have minor POV’s and to be honest I would have liked to have learned about them through dialogue or some other way rather than very short POV chapters. Having this many POV’s reduced the time you spend with each of them, which sort of reduced the amount of character development for each. It was interesting to see their thoughts and feelings, but I feel like that could have been done in other ways that would move the plot along as well as have character development.
Final Score: 6.5/10
-----------------------------------------------
World Building:
Right from the beginning there’s magic in the world, and it continues to be a strong presence throughout the rest of the book – that’s how I prefer my fantasy so I was loving that.
There’s also a strong magic system in it based on color, I’m a big fan of Lightbringer, and I loved the color aspect in Wheel of Time and Warbreaker, so, again this worked rather well for me.
The magic works by bending and twisting moonlight, and you’re ranked and categorized based on what color you can use, it was first implemented by the mages a long time ago, but has become common practice. The soldiers also rank themselves by color as well. Conscripts start out as brown, yellows are tracker, green are archers and red makes for good swordsmen etc.
Purple is a forbidden color, and it represents torture and the people who practice purple magic become twisted and deranged. It’s interesting to me how many of the color based magic systems leave out or forbid purple. No purple aja’s, no purple in lightbringer, and purple being forbidden in this world. Poor purple.
The Guards color rankings and the mages color rankings are totally different.
Orange magic can set things on fire.
Red magic can be used for teleportation.
Green magic can bend nature.
Yellow magic can be used to See.
Brown magic can be used to help construct buildings, it’s used as a mortar to hold things together and hold shields.
Bastus, God of Dark Enlightment, those who practice purple worship him. Deus is the ‘normal’ god of enlightenment which most people worship.
There’s a fair amount of wildlife and other monsters in this book, like golems and enormous snakes, and the undead.
All in all I think the world building and magic system was the strongest part of the book.
Final Score: 8/10
----------------------------------------
Pacing, Prose, and Tone:
The tone is rather dark, and I’ve come off of several dark books right before this, so I was nervous I wouldn’t be in the mood for it, but given the world building and magic system, I really enjoyed myself.
There were a few spelling and editing errors here and there, and a few overused phrases, but it didn’t take away too much from my enjoyment.
The pacing was much better in the second half of the book than the first half when all of the characters were being introduced. Once I got past 30% things really got going.
Writing Final Score: 7/10
Pacing Final Score: 7/10
-----------------------------------------------------
Originality:
I’ve seen a few magic systems based on color (but not that many), and it’s always been something I’ve enjoyed, lightbringer being one of my favorites. There was enough difference in how this magic system worked from other light based magic that it read fresh.
Final Score: 8/10
------------------------------------------------------------
Audience:
For people who enjoy multi pov
For people looking for a hard magic system
For people who enjoy Brent Weeks
For people who enjoy darker stories
For people who enjoy villain pov’s
For people who like a lot of violence and action
-----------------------------------------------------------
Wrap Up:
All in all I liked this book, it has it’s flaws, but it was an enjoyable read for me and a good effort as a debut – I see a lot of potential for future books and if there’s a sequel I’ll probably pick it up.
If you liked Warbreaker, and were wondering what it would be like to have a magic system like that if the story was darker, this may really appeal to you.
Final Score: 44.25/60 or 7.4/10
February 7, 2018
This was part of Fantasy Book Critic’s grouping and has since been eliminated, their mini review – “C. H. Baum’s debut effort was a nice mix of dark and epic fantasy and to top it off there was an interesting magic system which reminded me a lot of the one in Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker. The book’s pace also helped in this read and it was a dark and strong effort. “
---------------
Plot:
A brief prologue in the book starts with the assassination of one of the only two Seer’s in the world. The Seer was listening to a prophecy of his own death at the time of his assassination, and in the prophecy, there was a prediction of war following his death.
From there we follow several groups of characters, the assassin named Klex and his band of murderers, his boss Paegus and his legion of sick weirdo’s, a group of mages and a group of soldiers.
After murdering the Seer, Klex sends the prophecy to Paegus which allows him to realize his full potential and twist the color Blue, which is a deeply disturbing kind of magic. Blue can let you melt people and turn them into rotting corpses, it’s never been done before and it’s a huge problem for those opposing Paegus. Klex then runs and hides in the Rot, an area infected by Purple magic, another dark and twisted form of magic that has its roots in torture.
The group of mages and soldiers are travelling together to The Rot to seek out and kill Klex. The mages travel by night since they use moonlight for their magic, and the soldiers travel by day. The wildlife and locals along the way pose a lot of problems for both groups.
The mages, soldiers, and Klex are on one continent that holds the Kingdom of Fast and Ham, while Paegus is on another continent called Magog. Paegus is essentially trying to take over the world, he ordered the assassination of the Seer to get things going to start a war over there so they can be easily divided and conquered.
Final Score: 7.75/10
----------------
Characters:
Peter: He’s a red in the Guard for Ham, and a very impressive swordsman – often getting punished for outdoing some of the upperclassmen. He’s vying after the princess, since the king is allowing suitors of all social status a chance at her hand – the king is going off of merit instead of class.
Luther: He was part of the group that sent the assassin after the Seer of Fast, located on a different continent. A very rare type of sorcerer, able to twist two colors instead of just one, second in command to Paegus, the man who ordered the assassination of the Seer. He’s a necrophiliac, and all around disturbing character.
Paegus: The mastermind behind the war plans, and a purple magic user. His eyes have become so sensitive to light due to magic use that he wears a black scarf over his eyes to protect them. He’s sick and twisted, killing his own lover as a sacrifice to turn him into a Blue magic user.
Logan: a student sorcerer who’s currently a Red, despite the fact he can see and use all the colors of the moon. That’s basically unheard of, and he’s trying to keep it under wraps, but the trials along the way to find Klex is forcing him to use his other colors and his secret is coming out.
Diana: is the kings daughter who’s also a proficient Red soldier (swordsmen), she’s in love with Peter but can’t admit it because she doubts her father will let her marry him. Trying to make something work between them could just end up hurting them both in the end. She’s a decent leader, and a good person making it easy to root for her and her team.
There are a host of side characters, Lila, Brent, Max, Bon, Grant, Moren, Lisa, Janis etc. These all have minor POV’s and to be honest I would have liked to have learned about them through dialogue or some other way rather than very short POV chapters. Having this many POV’s reduced the time you spend with each of them, which sort of reduced the amount of character development for each. It was interesting to see their thoughts and feelings, but I feel like that could have been done in other ways that would move the plot along as well as have character development.
Final Score: 6.5/10
-------------
World Building:
Right from the beginning there’s magic in the world, and it continues to be a strong presence throughout the rest of the book – that’s how I prefer my fantasy so I was loving that.
There’s also a strong magic system in it based on color, I’m a big fan of Lightbringer, and I loved the color aspect in Wheel of Time and Warbreaker, so, again this worked rather well for me.
The magic works by bending and twisting moonlight, and you’re ranked and categorized based on what color you can use, it was first implemented by the mages a long time ago, but has become common practice. The soldiers also rank themselves by color as well. Conscripts start out as brown, yellows are tracker, green are archers and red makes for good swordsmen etc.
Purple is a forbidden color, and it represents torture and the people who practice purple magic become twisted and deranged. It’s interesting to me how many of the color based magic systems leave out or forbid purple. No purple aja’s, no purple in lightbringer, and purple being forbidden in this world. Poor purple.
The Guards color rankings and the mages color rankings are totally different.
Orange magic can set things on fire.
Red magic can be used for teleportation.
Green magic can bend nature.
Yellow magic can be used to See.
Brown magic can be used to help construct buildings, it’s used as a mortar to hold things together and hold shields.
Bastus, God of Dark Enlightenment, those who practice purple worship him. Deus is the ‘normal’ god of enlightenment which most people worship.
There’s a fair amount of wildlife and other monsters in this book, like golems and enormous snakes, and the undead.
All in all I think the world building and magic system was the strongest part of the book.
Final Score: 8/10
-------------
Pacing, Prose, and Tone:
The tone is rather dark, and I’ve come off of several dark books right before this, so I was nervous I wouldn’t be in the mood for it, but given the world building and magic system, I really enjoyed myself.
There were a few spelling and editing errors here and there, and a few overused phrases, but it didn’t take away too much from my enjoyment.
The pacing was much better in the second half of the book than the first half when all of the characters were being introduced. Once I got past 30% things really got going.
Writing Final Score: 7/10
Pacing Final Score: 7/10
------------------
Originality:
I’ve seen a few magic systems based on color (but not that many), and it’s always been something I’ve enjoyed, lightbringer being one of my favorites. There was enough difference in how this magic system worked from other light based magic that it read fresh.
Final Score: 8/10
-----------------
Audience:
For people who enjoy multi pov
For people looking for a hard magic system
For people who enjoy Brent Weeks
For people who enjoy darker stories
For people who enjoy villain pov’s
For people who like a lot of violence and action
-----------
Wrap Up:
All in all I liked this book, it has its flaws, but it was an enjoyable read for me and a good effort as a debut – I see a lot of potential for future books and if there’s a sequel I’ll probably pick it up.
If you liked Warbreaker, and were wondering what it would be like to have a magic system like that if the story was darker, this may really appeal to you.
Final Score: 44.25/60 or 7.4/10
---------------
Plot:
A brief prologue in the book starts with the assassination of one of the only two Seer’s in the world. The Seer was listening to a prophecy of his own death at the time of his assassination, and in the prophecy, there was a prediction of war following his death.
From there we follow several groups of characters, the assassin named Klex and his band of murderers, his boss Paegus and his legion of sick weirdo’s, a group of mages and a group of soldiers.
After murdering the Seer, Klex sends the prophecy to Paegus which allows him to realize his full potential and twist the color Blue, which is a deeply disturbing kind of magic. Blue can let you melt people and turn them into rotting corpses, it’s never been done before and it’s a huge problem for those opposing Paegus. Klex then runs and hides in the Rot, an area infected by Purple magic, another dark and twisted form of magic that has its roots in torture.
The group of mages and soldiers are travelling together to The Rot to seek out and kill Klex. The mages travel by night since they use moonlight for their magic, and the soldiers travel by day. The wildlife and locals along the way pose a lot of problems for both groups.
The mages, soldiers, and Klex are on one continent that holds the Kingdom of Fast and Ham, while Paegus is on another continent called Magog. Paegus is essentially trying to take over the world, he ordered the assassination of the Seer to get things going to start a war over there so they can be easily divided and conquered.
Final Score: 7.75/10
----------------
Characters:
Peter: He’s a red in the Guard for Ham, and a very impressive swordsman – often getting punished for outdoing some of the upperclassmen. He’s vying after the princess, since the king is allowing suitors of all social status a chance at her hand – the king is going off of merit instead of class.
Luther: He was part of the group that sent the assassin after the Seer of Fast, located on a different continent. A very rare type of sorcerer, able to twist two colors instead of just one, second in command to Paegus, the man who ordered the assassination of the Seer. He’s a necrophiliac, and all around disturbing character.
Paegus: The mastermind behind the war plans, and a purple magic user. His eyes have become so sensitive to light due to magic use that he wears a black scarf over his eyes to protect them. He’s sick and twisted, killing his own lover as a sacrifice to turn him into a Blue magic user.
Logan: a student sorcerer who’s currently a Red, despite the fact he can see and use all the colors of the moon. That’s basically unheard of, and he’s trying to keep it under wraps, but the trials along the way to find Klex is forcing him to use his other colors and his secret is coming out.
Diana: is the kings daughter who’s also a proficient Red soldier (swordsmen), she’s in love with Peter but can’t admit it because she doubts her father will let her marry him. Trying to make something work between them could just end up hurting them both in the end. She’s a decent leader, and a good person making it easy to root for her and her team.
There are a host of side characters, Lila, Brent, Max, Bon, Grant, Moren, Lisa, Janis etc. These all have minor POV’s and to be honest I would have liked to have learned about them through dialogue or some other way rather than very short POV chapters. Having this many POV’s reduced the time you spend with each of them, which sort of reduced the amount of character development for each. It was interesting to see their thoughts and feelings, but I feel like that could have been done in other ways that would move the plot along as well as have character development.
Final Score: 6.5/10
-------------
World Building:
Right from the beginning there’s magic in the world, and it continues to be a strong presence throughout the rest of the book – that’s how I prefer my fantasy so I was loving that.
There’s also a strong magic system in it based on color, I’m a big fan of Lightbringer, and I loved the color aspect in Wheel of Time and Warbreaker, so, again this worked rather well for me.
The magic works by bending and twisting moonlight, and you’re ranked and categorized based on what color you can use, it was first implemented by the mages a long time ago, but has become common practice. The soldiers also rank themselves by color as well. Conscripts start out as brown, yellows are tracker, green are archers and red makes for good swordsmen etc.
Purple is a forbidden color, and it represents torture and the people who practice purple magic become twisted and deranged. It’s interesting to me how many of the color based magic systems leave out or forbid purple. No purple aja’s, no purple in lightbringer, and purple being forbidden in this world. Poor purple.
The Guards color rankings and the mages color rankings are totally different.
Orange magic can set things on fire.
Red magic can be used for teleportation.
Green magic can bend nature.
Yellow magic can be used to See.
Brown magic can be used to help construct buildings, it’s used as a mortar to hold things together and hold shields.
Bastus, God of Dark Enlightenment, those who practice purple worship him. Deus is the ‘normal’ god of enlightenment which most people worship.
There’s a fair amount of wildlife and other monsters in this book, like golems and enormous snakes, and the undead.
All in all I think the world building and magic system was the strongest part of the book.
Final Score: 8/10
-------------
Pacing, Prose, and Tone:
The tone is rather dark, and I’ve come off of several dark books right before this, so I was nervous I wouldn’t be in the mood for it, but given the world building and magic system, I really enjoyed myself.
There were a few spelling and editing errors here and there, and a few overused phrases, but it didn’t take away too much from my enjoyment.
The pacing was much better in the second half of the book than the first half when all of the characters were being introduced. Once I got past 30% things really got going.
Writing Final Score: 7/10
Pacing Final Score: 7/10
------------------
Originality:
I’ve seen a few magic systems based on color (but not that many), and it’s always been something I’ve enjoyed, lightbringer being one of my favorites. There was enough difference in how this magic system worked from other light based magic that it read fresh.
Final Score: 8/10
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Audience:
For people who enjoy multi pov
For people looking for a hard magic system
For people who enjoy Brent Weeks
For people who enjoy darker stories
For people who enjoy villain pov’s
For people who like a lot of violence and action
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Wrap Up:
All in all I liked this book, it has its flaws, but it was an enjoyable read for me and a good effort as a debut – I see a lot of potential for future books and if there’s a sequel I’ll probably pick it up.
If you liked Warbreaker, and were wondering what it would be like to have a magic system like that if the story was darker, this may really appeal to you.
Final Score: 44.25/60 or 7.4/10
August 1, 2017
With the trend right now toward Prose Grimdark, led by writers like Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence and George RR Martin, this is a nice change of pace. It is a much more in your face, meat and potatoes kind of Grimdark, more like a knife to the kidneys than a speech and a battle death.
In a world of warriors and magic, Tensions are running high. In the land of Fast, a City-State, Klex, an assassin working for the evil mage Paegus, assassinates Fast's Yellow Seer just after he prophesies that Blue Magic, the most powerful of the 7 colors of magic, will return, and only a select, vaguely defined group can defeat the rising evil. He escapes and rides to get the message back to his master and claim his evil reward.
In the City-State of Ham, The Cities' own Yellow Seer gets the same prophesy, and the king dispatches a team of mages and warriors from his Color Guard to track down Klex and stop him from getting Paegus the message, possibly starting an Armageddon level event! The Warrior team is led by Diana, the Crown Princess of Ham and a Red warrior of renown. The party also includes Peter and Bon, both red warriors (elite warriors), as well as a variety of other warriors of the various color groups (colors denoting specialty, like orange for demolition, green for archers, brown for defensive engineering). The mage group includes Logan and Max, red mages (teleporters) as well a variety of other color mages (orange for fire, green for nature, brown for shields). The warriors track during the day, the mages at night, since the mages channel moonlight for their magic.
This starts an epic, dark adventure, as the Color Guard of Ham tries to head of Klex and stop Paegus's evil plans before they come to fruition. Along the way they will lose members of their party to death and other duty, pick up unexpected allies, and be tested in ways they never expected. In fact, another prophesy foretells that specific members of the party wont survive, and they will have to deal with the repercussions of that as well. Some of the mission will end in success, and some will seem to end in failure. With gods in the mix influencing events, nothing is ever truly what it seems. Some of the team, such as Diana, Peter and Logan, will suffer losses that are much more of a burden than they should have to handle.
In the City of Fast, the situation is a complete mess, as the king is a wastrel and has no interest in ruling justly, just in enriching himself. The city is rife for civil war, and has nothing to offer Ham in support against Paegus. In fact, there are conspiracies within conspiracies in Fast, and you can't tell who is trustworthy. The skills of the Color Guard team are put to the ultimate test in Fast and the Island city of Limala, with the fate of the world resting on what they accomplish.
This book was such a nice change of pace from the overly complicated dark fantasy and Grimdark that is the current trend now. It has a really solid plot, without a bunch of side branches and distractions. The world is well designed and described, and you get a real sense for the look and feel of the world. You can almost feel the nasty swamp of the Rot, the scent of rotting vegetation, of disease and decay. That's just an example. Great setting that one was, and there are so many more.
The magic was creative, each mage focusing on the color they can sense and perfecting its use, although there are a rare few like Logan who can sense and use all the colors, although his red mastery is best. I always like magic that allows for teleporting, so this one was fun, especially since Logan is a lead protagonist. The two evil magic, purple and blue, are suitably awful for a Grimdark story. The magic is a true strength of the story.
With all the good, there was only one minor issues. There were a few of repetitive phrases used in successive paragraphs that just seemed superfluous. Again, this is a minor issue, but may be something the author might want to address if he decides to make this into an audio book.
Other than that, no complaints, and this issue will not reduce your reading enjoyment at all. All in all, a very good effort on a debut novel, and I cant wait to see where the author takes this story in the next book.
In a world of warriors and magic, Tensions are running high. In the land of Fast, a City-State, Klex, an assassin working for the evil mage Paegus, assassinates Fast's Yellow Seer just after he prophesies that Blue Magic, the most powerful of the 7 colors of magic, will return, and only a select, vaguely defined group can defeat the rising evil. He escapes and rides to get the message back to his master and claim his evil reward.
In the City-State of Ham, The Cities' own Yellow Seer gets the same prophesy, and the king dispatches a team of mages and warriors from his Color Guard to track down Klex and stop him from getting Paegus the message, possibly starting an Armageddon level event! The Warrior team is led by Diana, the Crown Princess of Ham and a Red warrior of renown. The party also includes Peter and Bon, both red warriors (elite warriors), as well as a variety of other warriors of the various color groups (colors denoting specialty, like orange for demolition, green for archers, brown for defensive engineering). The mage group includes Logan and Max, red mages (teleporters) as well a variety of other color mages (orange for fire, green for nature, brown for shields). The warriors track during the day, the mages at night, since the mages channel moonlight for their magic.
This starts an epic, dark adventure, as the Color Guard of Ham tries to head of Klex and stop Paegus's evil plans before they come to fruition. Along the way they will lose members of their party to death and other duty, pick up unexpected allies, and be tested in ways they never expected. In fact, another prophesy foretells that specific members of the party wont survive, and they will have to deal with the repercussions of that as well. Some of the mission will end in success, and some will seem to end in failure. With gods in the mix influencing events, nothing is ever truly what it seems. Some of the team, such as Diana, Peter and Logan, will suffer losses that are much more of a burden than they should have to handle.
In the City of Fast, the situation is a complete mess, as the king is a wastrel and has no interest in ruling justly, just in enriching himself. The city is rife for civil war, and has nothing to offer Ham in support against Paegus. In fact, there are conspiracies within conspiracies in Fast, and you can't tell who is trustworthy. The skills of the Color Guard team are put to the ultimate test in Fast and the Island city of Limala, with the fate of the world resting on what they accomplish.
This book was such a nice change of pace from the overly complicated dark fantasy and Grimdark that is the current trend now. It has a really solid plot, without a bunch of side branches and distractions. The world is well designed and described, and you get a real sense for the look and feel of the world. You can almost feel the nasty swamp of the Rot, the scent of rotting vegetation, of disease and decay. That's just an example. Great setting that one was, and there are so many more.
The magic was creative, each mage focusing on the color they can sense and perfecting its use, although there are a rare few like Logan who can sense and use all the colors, although his red mastery is best. I always like magic that allows for teleporting, so this one was fun, especially since Logan is a lead protagonist. The two evil magic, purple and blue, are suitably awful for a Grimdark story. The magic is a true strength of the story.
With all the good, there was only one minor issues. There were a few of repetitive phrases used in successive paragraphs that just seemed superfluous. Again, this is a minor issue, but may be something the author might want to address if he decides to make this into an audio book.
Other than that, no complaints, and this issue will not reduce your reading enjoyment at all. All in all, a very good effort on a debut novel, and I cant wait to see where the author takes this story in the next book.
June 18, 2015
This book is gory and the genre is not what I typically read but I really enjoyed it. It's an easy read and I was able to complete it in two days. The prologue is very well done and makes you completely interested in the story. The book has a Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter feel. The author has extensive knowledge about war tactics and maneuvers. Chapter 21 was my favorite chapter and reminded me of the Art of War. I especially love that the book has a cliffhanger ending. Great strategy!
December 8, 2017
C. H. Baum’s debut effort was a nice mix of dark and epic fantasy and to top it off there was an interesting magic system which reminded me a lot of the one in Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker. The book’s pace also helped in this read and it was a dark and strong effort.
Want to read
August 23, 2017brought it a fortnight ago will get around to reading it soon.
July 7, 2025
Gods of Color is a great book for any lover of fantasy to read. I loved the unique take on the world the author has created. I know this book came out some time ago and the author has stated this is #1, I am eagerly awaiting the next installment. I hope it happens
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews