Night Angel Trilogy: The Way of Shadows • Shadow's Edge • Beyond the Shadows

THE WAY OF SHADOWS

Brent Weeks is one of those authors I'd been hearing about for a while. I'm sure everyone's got a similar list of writers they plan on eventually checking out when they get around to it. I'd heard about his Night Angel trilogy, three fantasy doorstoppers published back-to-back-to-back: some people loved it, some hated it, but the overall consensus was that, hey, it's not great literature, but it's an enjoyable story, and besides which it's a completed series that you don't have to wait for the next book to be published. Well, it happens that one day I had a coupon at the Science Fiction Book Club, so I went ahead and picked up the entire trilogy in one massive 1,400-page omnibus edition for under $8. It made its way show more onto my 2011 SF Reading Challenge list, and whaddaya know, it was one of the few challenge books that I actually got around to reading.

The Way of Shadows is the first book of the trilogy, and it's a bit of an odd duck in that, on the one hand, it's fairly standard Cliché Fantasy 101 fare. Written in a rather straightforward and plain style, it takes place in a quasi-medieval land divided into numerous countries ruled by various lords and kings. There's prophecy, lost magical relics, and invaders from the north. The protagonist is a young boy without any magical talent who grows up to become someone extraordinary. It's the kind of story David Eddings would write, the stuff you'd enjoy the crap out of as a young fantasy fan.

On the other hand, it's more or less rated "R" for violence, language, and sex.

And on the whole, it ain't half bad.

So the story starts out following Azoth, a child in the slums of Cenaria City whose dream is to gain the attention of, and become apprentice to, the legendary "wetboy" assassin Durzo Blint. (For those who've read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow, this section of the book totally reminded me of Bean growing up on the streets of Rotterdam; not a big surprise, then, that Weeks specifically mentions Card as an influence in the author interview at the back of the book.) Eventually, of course, Azoth does indeed become Durzo's apprentice, adopting the new persona of "Kylar Stern" and developing into an efficient assassin. But the difference between an assassin and a wetboy is that a wetboy employs the use of magic to do his job, and as I alluded to earlier, Azoth-now-Kylar has no magical Talent. In Fantasy Cliché land, this merely means that Kylar is a supertalented mage whose abilities don't readily manifest themselves...and of course that's what happens here as well.

What keeps the story from bogging down in predictability is, well, it's unpredictability.

Much of that comes from the way Weeks treats his characters. You've heard the expression "No one is safe" with regards to certain fantasy authors or series? Well, Brent Weeks invented that saying. (And before you ask, George R. R. Martin is another of those authors I haven't gotten around to reading yet.) Weeks does a good job staying true to his quasi-medieval world, because people die. If some rival lord decides to wipe out your family, he wipes out your family. If the monarchy gets overthrown in a bloody coup and character X (who you thought was a pretty important character up to this point) is right there when it happens, guess what, expecting him to miraculously live through it isn't terribly realistic. Which is not to say that Weeks indiscriminately kills anybody and everybody off, but shoot, if he thought that was what the story demanded, I totally believe he'd do it.

The book does have other issues. Prominent among them is Weeks' tendency to have side-plots that only crop up once every hundred pages or so; there are a couple of characters who only show up in the story this way, and every time they do I have to rack my brain for who they are and what they're doing. But for every element that lessens my enjoyment of the book, there's something that makes up for it: the Vir of the Vürdmeisters is visually very cool. Weeks' names can be pretty groan-worthy; Durzo Blint is one of the worst offenders here, but he develops into a fantastic character.

What it boils down to is that, despite the warts, Weeks writes a story that is compellingly readable. The chapters are short, and you always want to know what happens next. And often you'll be surprised. I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. A solid [3.5 out of 5 stars]. show less

OMG, I haven't been this hooked into a book (series) since the first time I read Terry Brooks when I was a freshman in high school! The depth of the characters is amazing. Through the first book, I didn't know whether to love or despise Durzo Blint. I loved the twist in his character's backstory. I never knew who I was supposed to love or who I was supposed to hate. I admitt hat I didn't really like Elene much. She seemed so...one-sided. But Uly is such a little spitfire, and Vi! Oh, I loved Vi! You don't really start to know her until Shadow's Edge, but once you do...she's really a remarkable character. She has more depth than a lot of female characters in literature (especially since women are most of the time the leads in their own show more romances.), and the conflict in her personality is what makes her fascinating. It's the same with Kylar. The conflict is what makes them interesting.
Logan is that typical good guy, perfect in every aspect...except depth. He doesn't really gain any until he holds Jenine in his arms as she bleeds to death. And throughout Shadow's Edge, he becomes a truly multi-faceted character through his suffering. He inspires loyalty in even the bitterest of criminals, but doesn't trade that for the ability to inspire loyalty in heroes and even in his enemies. He's the ideal foil for Kylar. show less

The book quickly spirals out of control, ending up with a Mary Sue main character, or I suppose in this case a Gary Stu. Either way, there are no significant challenges to the main character that cannot be gotten out of, and while there appear to be limits to the powers given, they are not realistic in nature at all and keep getting pushed upwards.
Tragedy awaited literally every character who wasn't the epitome of their stereotype, leading to misogynistic and homophobic overtones, despite seeming attempts to make the characters worth something. The side characters were also better developed than the main character.
I also felt like the first novel alone, in order to maintain its intricacy, should have been expanded upon. This series show more could have been utterly MASSIVE in scope but brilliantly planned and executed. Instead it was crammed into just over 1000 pages, so everything felt really hurried and rushed. The pacing was thrown off-sometimes weeks passed in a paragraph, or years, but the events of a few days took hundreds of pages.

The book did have its moments, but overall it was a disappointment. show less

This book captivated me from the first page, and kept me hooked for the whole trilogy.

Usually with a trilogy I'll read one part expecting so much from the others, that I am sorely disappointed. Not with this one. It was a page turner, with plenty to keep you saying to yourself "just one more chapter and then I'll sleep" don't fool yourself into thinking this will happen, you'll just want to keep going.

The characters are very well written, and it is easy to find yourself in their surroundings, and going through their trials and tribulations.

I'm not going to write any spoilers for this outstanding set of books, just tell you to read them for yourself.

Also reviewed on: show more target="_top">http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/review-the-night-angel-trilogy-b... show less

All females are either overly needy or hard-core fighting prostitutes, very anime-esque. The men are more well rounded, and they are the reason I kept reading, expect the main characters always to be overpowered and if they are not powerful enough expect them to win with love and friendship, always. It's a very silly series that's imposable to take seriously, and as soon as I realized this, I started to read it as I do when I sometimes casually watch Anime, after that, it was all right for a mind-numbing escape from reality.


TL;DR
If you're looking for an epic fantasy to sink your teeth into I would not recommend this book. If you're looking for a guilty pleasure anime that you are not planning on taking seriously, this might be worth a show more read. show less

These novels are graphic in parts. However, though the author is fairly new on the scene he amazed me with the skillful plot twists throughout the story. Having read many books (many not noted on this site) I often reach a point in the story where I kind of know where the story is going and how things are probably going to play out. Multiple times during these books there was a twist that threw everything I thought I knew on its head. Yet the twist advanced the story in a key way. It never felt forced or out of place. Things that you knew from before were suddenly seen in a whole new light. At this point I feel like I will buy and read anything this author puts out. Well done.

This review is more about the author than this particular series, so bare with me.

A common problem I have found with recent fantasy authors is that they create their characters linearly. That is to say, as you read the characters development, the author probably just created that new part of the character like 5 minutes ago. This often results in poor character development or even tedious lets-develop-my-character-in-such-a-way-that-the-story-makes-sense. Not so the case with Brent Weeks. Oh no.

You can tell that Weeks spent a lot of time developing his characters. To create a good story one must create the world and characters before the actual book, then place the finished characters in the world and let them react the way they show more naturally should. As sad as I am to say this, Tolkien got this very right. I don't like Tolkien, but I really like Weeks. His characters are rich and elaborate with the reader begging to find out more about them with every page. He reveals the different aspects of this characters in such a way as to force you to want to know more. And then he doesnt even fully reveal all the character's secrets.

Weeks, you are truly a master craftsman. I enjoy your books so much I force everyone I know to read them. Everyone.

Anyone who enjoys RA Salvatore's work, or that of David Gemmell, will love this author. I highly recommend him.

Oh, as a side note though, Weeks, how about a little bit less boy sex? ;) show less