THE FAVOSITY REVIEW HERALD

REVIEW OF PAINTED DREAMS: CITY OF INFINITE COLOR by ALSEN LEE

Painted Dreams: City of Infinite Color — An Editorial Review

In the luminous City of Infinite Color, the opening story of the Cities of Light series, the reader is invited into a world where color itself is alive — a tangible, mystical force that shapes destinies. This is not a world of wizards and warriors in the traditional sense, but of artisans, philosophers alchemists, and dreamers whose brushes, glassblowers’ rods, and pigments are instruments of both creation and power.

At the heart of the tale is Elara, a humble potter’s daughter whose gift for seeing color differently — deeper, truer — becomes the spark that rekindles her fading city. Around her swirl a cast of vivid personalities: Lyra, the young painter whose spirit mirrors the sky she longs to capture; Kael, the philosopher’s son torn between thought and action; and the wise masters and guilds who guard the city’s lost hues. Together, they uncover an ancient mystery buried in the city’s pigments — a secret that could restore light to a world slowly dimming under its own neglect.

What begins as a meditation on art and craft unfolds into a meditation on soul and society. The City of Infinite Color itself is a character — both beautiful and broken, its towers streaked with fading color and forgotten history. Through Elara’s rediscovery of the kiln, the clay, and the primal bond between fire and hue, the story becomes a parable about renewal: of art, of spirit, and of the courage to begin again.

Author Alsen Lee crafts this world with painterly precision. Every scene feels brushed in light — from the warm glow of the potter’s kiln to the cool shimmer of prismatic glass that bends the sun’s spectrum. Beneath the surface, deeper tones emerge: the burden of creation, the tension between innovation and tradition, and the fragile hope that beauty, once lost, can still be remade.

City of Infinite Color is an enchanting beginning to a larger mythos — a lyrical fantasy that celebrates art, friendship, and the timeless human need to bring color into darkness. It is, quite literally, a story of light rediscovered.  — The Favosity Review Herald