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Fan Art Tuesday: A Lightbringer Gem!

In the spirit of the season, today’s post is a little bit Fan Art and a little bit “Here’s an idea if you’re looking for a gift for the Brent Weeks fan who has everything.”

Small faceted yellow oval gemstone

 

Brothers Stephen and Tim Challener cut a gemstone to look like yellow luxin! It’s hard to capture how beautiful it is–and in the evening light, it looks like it’s glowing. Stunning!

They had this to say about these special gems:

“We call these stones ‘yellow luxin’ because they have an uncanny glow to them, like the magical gemstone in the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. He was kind enough to let us use the name, which is incredibly nice of him. In the Lightbringer series, perfect yellow luxin is an indestructible material made out of yellow light, which glows in the dark and can be used to fuel other magics. In our world, this is a rare type of synthetic garnet – a cerium-doped yttrium-aluminum garnet currently used in lasers, LEDs, & x-ray detectors. It is one of the most fluorescent crystals that can be manufactured – and most of the more fluorescent ones, like NaI:TI (we Googled it for you: sodium iodide doped with thalium), are extremely soft and don’t like water. This synthetic garnet will happily turn just about any light in the spectrum above yellow into yellow light. This gives it a very uncanny glow, particularly under indirect sunlight. Your eye tells you something weird is going on, because the stone is more yellow than it should be – it’s like it’s Photoshopped into real life.”

They have an appropriately successful (which is to say, flourishing) store on Etsy, with rough and faceted gemstone necklaces, rings, and earrings. There’s an impressive collection of beautiful and unique stones, many of which they mined themselves. They also have an Instagram page, which features their jewelry as well as some beautiful images of light captured by the gemstones. Gorgeous work, guys!

Yellow "luxin" gemstone from a second angle

Yellow "luxin" gemstone from a third angle

Fan Art Tuesday: Paul Reinwand

Hi friends!

We’ve been talking about Night Angel quite a bit lately, but now that the 10th Anniversary omnibus is out, it’s time to switch back to Lightbringer!

Check out this fantastic (and creepy!) depiction of The Color Prince by Paul Reinwand. We’ve been hanging onto this one for a while, and I’m pretty sure he drew it a while before we found it. But here he is, in all his burned glory:

A man's burned head with pieces of blue, red, yellow, and superviolet luxin infused in the scars

You can find more of Paul’s spectacular work online at his website, Instagram, and Twitter.

Real Life Fantasy: Physicists Are Drafters!

The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and a wave

Light, or visible electromagnetic radiation, is a fascinating and tricksy type of energy (not as tricksy as dark matter, but that’s another story and shall be told another time). It exists as photons (a type of particle) that resonates in a wide range of frequencies–which is why it is sometimes referred to as both a particle and a wave. While direction, wavelength, and polarity can very greatly (and in turn have a host of effects on life on Earth), its speed is constant, and the fastest in the known universe.

If you’ve read Lightbringer, some of this will at least sound familiar. Likewise, you’ll remember that the magic system in Lightbringer is light-based, wherein drafters can turn light into matter–specifically, a wondrous, spectacular substance called luxin.

But it’s all fantasy, right? Mined from the deep well of curiosity in Brent’s cerebrum?

Well, as it turns out….

Experiments Underway to Turn Light Into Matter

I always thought physicists were the most badass among scientists.

The theory that drives these experiments is the Breit-Wheeler process. It’s not new; Gregory Breit and John A. Wheeler devised the theory in 1934. It’s kind of a riff on what is arguably the most famous (and perhaps famously misunderstood by the general population) equation discovered by the big guy himself, Einstein: E=mc². From the article: “The theory of the Breit-Wheeler process says it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing two particles of light (photons) together to create an electron and a positron.”

So it’s not exactly sucking light in through your eyes and propelling solid matter out of your body. But a journey of 1,000 miles and all.

Further reading:

The first model for capturing and condensing light under realistic conditions

New particle might make quantum condensation at room temperature possible

 

The Brent Weeks Online Store is Open

Hi friends,

Y’all have been asking for Brent Weeks stuff lately, and we have great news: the Shopify store is back!

Take note–we will be open for one month only, Nov 1 – Nov 30. Stock is limited, so grab your t-shirts and books while you can. Get your holiday shopping done early! *wink*

There’s a link to the store HERE, and we will be adding a widget at the top of the home page here on the official website…

black-on-black Night Angel 10th Anniversary shirt
C’mon, you know you want one…

Barnes & Noble 3 for $30 Promo – Lightbringer

Hi friends!

I’m sure you’re all familiar with Barnes & Noble’s 3 for $30 promo, yes?

No?!

WELL then!

Here’s the deal: For a limited time, you can buy the first three Lightbringer books, in paperback, from www.barnesandnoble.com, bundled as 3 for $30. The promo is online only, and lasts until November 6, 2018. Head over to the B&N website and snag them while you can!

The Black Prism

The Blinding Knife

The Broken Eye

New Feature: Real Life Fantasy–Tetrachromats

Hi friends!

We’ve created a new feature on the wesbite that (for now) we’re calling Real Life Fantasy. In it, we will be sharing stories, news, and other documentary media that echoes some of the ideas, concepts, and imagery found in Brent’s books.

Our first post is about tetrachromacy: the ability to see TEN TIMES as many colors as most humans.

What It’s Like to See 100 Million Colors

Tetrachromacy, Fantasy IRL, Brent Weeks

This particular article has been making the rounds for a while now, and it shows up in our inboxes occasionally. Which is to say, it’s a perennial favorite. It demonstrates that reality can sometimes bleed into the fantastic; more importantly, it shows that our man Weeks did his homework when it came to writing about females being superior chromaturgs. You can’t fight biology, dudes.

Feel free to discuss in the comments (just remember, we’re all friends here). And if you see something IRL that bears a resemblance to something you’ve read in Brent’s books, pass it along to us!

THE BURNING WHITE cover reveal

Here it is–the stunning cover image for Lightbringer 5: The Burning White.

Brent Weeks, Lightbringer, Burning White

EDIT: Here’s a description of the visuals, written by CAPSLOCK.

The Hooded Man is standing on a rocky beach, facing away from us. He is facing an enormous, circular stone tower several yards away (we can only see the first two stories of it). He is brandishing a large sword in his right hand, wearing a red cape, and looking to his left. From our perspective, there’s a white glow coming from his left hand (which is obscured by the cape), and a bolt of orange light emanating from his right side (near his arm). He is surrounded by a warm glow of light in every color, with red, blue, violet, and orange being most prominent. The rest of the image is shades of gray. It looks to be nighttime. The phrase on this volume is “Every legend shines a light…”

How’s this for gutsy? I love it! With an appearance by our good friend The Hooded Man! (Hey, buddy, fancy seeing you here!)

An enormous thank you to Lauren Panepinto (design) and Gene Mollica (illustration)–Lauren has worked to create beautiful covers for all five Lightbringer novels. The Burning White will be released in late summer/early fall 2019. (Yes, that’s next year. Patience, grasshopper.) If you’d like to leave your fulsome praise for their work, please do comment below.

This is the first I’ve let CAPSLOCK see it. (It’s fun to keep her out of the loop sometimes.) I think her head just exploded. Oh, MAN! Who’s gonna clean that up. CAPSLOCK 2, where are you?!

Fan Art Tuesday: Cyndy @reiyeka

Here’s another fantastic illustration from Cyndy, @reiyeka over on Instagram. This time she’s depicted a drafter’s hand with seven types of luxin. She even captured some of the physical characteristics of each color. Pretty awesome stuff!

To see more of Cyndy’s work, check out her Tumblr and Instagram feeds.

Lightbringer, Brent_Weeks, fan_art, @reiyeka

The Black Prism is a Kindle Daily Deal Today

Hello everyone! Amazon is selling the first Lightbringer book, The Black Prism, for $2.99 as one of their Kindle Daily Deals today only (July 7). Now you can safely put your hardcover copy on the top shelf of your display case and continue to read The Black Prism one (or two, or ten) more times!

You might also buy a copy for your friend who 1) is a bookworm looking for a new title to read, or 2) whose birthday you almost forgot…. You’re welcome!