The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks – Review
I’ve just finished reading this series of books and thought I might write a brief review of it. I’m going to try to review all the books I read and movies I see from now on, with a view to sharing stories with you all.
The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks is a set of three (obviously) quite hefty books: The Way Of Shadows, Shadow’s Edge and Beyond The Shadows.
This is the first fantasy series that I’ve read in a long time and it was something I picked up completely on a whim. I was in a mall with my wife, waiting while she did some shopping. I wandered into a book shop and decided I might get something new to read and was attracted by the ninja-like figure on the front cover. The blurb talked about assassins and a quick thumb through convinced me to give the book a go.
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city’s most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir.
For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’s grown up in the slums, and learned the hard way to judge people quickly — and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.
But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics — and cultivate a flair for death.
I was a bit put off by the names, but I looked past that and bought the book. Classic bookstore browser activity.
The books are, initially, a classic high fantasy adventure. There’s the world, there’s the map in the front of each book so you can check where places are, there’s the usual intrigue of courtly politics, war, magic and desire. But there’s something different about these books. They’re fantasy for grown ups. There’s swearing, there’s gore, there’s rape and murder. It’s not gratuitous and it’s not always brilliantly written, but it does spin an excellent yarn. It’s quite dark and that appealed to me greatly.
While the story is told largely from the point of view of Azoth, there’s an astonishing array of characters and Weeks has managed to wrangle them all brilliantly. The scope of the plot, the scale of the events, is quite breathtaking and the story remains exciting and interesting throughout the nearly 2,100 pages.
Many of the events in the story that this book tells are brushed over in such a way that they seem almost insignificant. They are, however, absolutely pivotal things. There are three characters in particular that are doing remarkable things, truly heroic quests, but the story is never told in detail. Weeks handles this really well and it adds an incredible depth to the saga as a whole.
There were places where an editor’s knife could have trimmed those twenty one hundred pages down quite significantly and I was surprised at the number of typos and errors in the books. It’s becoming more common these days that mainstream published books are carrying more and more errors to publication – perhaps it’s the result of mass production or staff cuts. But I don’t let that bother me unless it’s really atrocious. A handful of small errors in each book is forgiveable and makes me feel better about the handful of small errors in my books.
Overall this was a gritty, solid story. It was entertaining, it was a page turner and it was filled with some really clever ideas and some extremely talented worldbuilding. I’ll be looking forward to anything else Brent Weeks produces in the future. Check out his website here.
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I saw this book when I was browsing in the mall yesterday, and I really wasn’t sure what to think about it. To me it looked like an assassin’s creed kinda thing which really caught my interest. I don’t read a lot of books, but I do read and write fanfiction so spelling and grammar really don’t bother me since everything I read is written by amateur writers. Anyways nice review, it really influenced my decision in on buying this book. Next time I go to the book store I’ll be sure to pick up a copy.
I am halfway through the trilogy now and I would agree with your analysis in a few subtle ways, although I am mostly in agreement with you. I feel that the world is robust, with enough detail to to flesh it out but without the superfluous page filler that accompanies much of the genre (and some others–cough–Tom Clancy–cough). I enjoy the more adult elements as well: where another series will pull the punches, he attacks some of the fight scenes with R.A. Salvatore like gusto and vivid imagery while keeping the realism and tragedy of battle in focus. I do think that large portions of the book are, in fact, brilliant. The linguistics he uses to convey otherwise mundane elements are intentionally well thought out and immaculately conceived. In short, it seems to be a revival of the western fantasy realm and a seamless read with realistic, multifaceted characters that pop when needed, let you down when you least expect it and rise above the trivial constantly. Can’t wait to wrap up the series over the next few days! If you have time to read posts of tools on the internet like myself, you have the time to read these books and be truly entertained.
~P~
Thanks for your comments guys.
I am currently reading “The Way of the Shadows” and I can’t seem to put it down.
I am trying my hand at fantasy writing and after my other half making me read the Twilight saga I really wanted something gritty and dark to draw me away from lovesick vampires and oversized dogs (please dont get me wrong, the twilight saga was very well written and kept me interested)which had me writing in a way that didnt fit my passions about fantasy realms and charactors.
This book has dragged me away from that style of writing by the scruff of my neck and I cannot wait to work my way through the following books.
Just finished the trilogy myself, and like you, I picked up the book on a whim. I was impressed myself, on a whole it was a very good story. However in the last book (Beyond the Shadows) I thought that when I hit the 3/4 mark, Mr. Weeks almost stopped trying, right up until the climax of the story.
All in all a very good read. I will also be looking out for his next works.
Apparently there’s going to be a sequel series to these ones, so that might be interesting.
@alan. Yes, there is going to be a sequel series! Currently, however, Brent Wekes is in the process of writing a new series/trilogy, “The Black Prism”. He said after he feels he has justified that story line fully, he will be returning to Midcyru(The Night Angel’s, world) to create, most likely, another trilogy based on different characters.
Weeks* ^
Cool – good to know!
I dont’t read as often as i should but these books were great i could barley put them down.