This review was originally published in The Star (Shadowy World, Jan 22, 2010).
The Way Of The Shadows (Book 1, 688 pages)
Shadow’s Edge (Book 2, 656 pages)
Beyond The Shadows (Book 3, 720 pages)
Author: Brent Weeks
Publisher: Orbit
I’VE always had a weakness for assassins. Maybe it’s because of my enduring love for the movie Grosse Point Blank’s Martin Blank (played to great effect by John Cusack), the efficient professional killer with a sardonic wit. Since then I’ve been searching for another assassin to fall in love with – someone who’s good at his job yet has a good heart (at least very deep inside).
Brent Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy is the standard fantasy set in a Western, medieval-ish world, but it has the right ingredients for a good read. There are assassins, magic, evil empires and rebellions to keep you longing for the next page.
The first book, The Way Of The Shadows, is breezy and exciting.
Weeks does an excellent job in painting Ceneria – a cruel, mirthless country in a land called Midcyru. There, orphans sleep in the sewers to stay warm and a career in prostitution and thievery for these unfortunates is considered a step up from their dismal existence. There are enough colourful mentions of the filth that cake the slums of Ceneria and the depraved acts that go on there to make me smell the decay of that society.
To survive, Kylar chooses a nefarious career path: that of a professional killer. Or “wetboy”, as assassins with magical powers are called in this world. His master is the mysterious Durzo Blint, the greatest wetboy alive. But his life doesn’t get easier just because he now has a roof above his head and three meals a day; Durzo is a very tough teacher with an unpredictable temper and thinks nothing of putting his apprentice in a dangerous situation to “train” him.
It is exciting to follow Kylar develop from an orphan to a fake nobleman and part-time assassin; it is also gratifying to see how he develops his ability (despite being inadequate in the magic department) and matures.
But in the second book, Weeks stumbles. The fine, breakneck pace comes to a screeching halt when Kylar wants to “better” himself for a girl. We are given an insight on his beliefs of “normal things” such as family and love … and I discover, to my puzzlement, that Kylar is peculiarly innocent for a man in his profession.
Sure, jaded assassins are such a cliche and it’s admirable that Weeks tried another approach. It’s not wrong, but I didn’t buy the line Weeks was selling: it’s hard to believe that a man who was trained to kill at a young age, and who once killed a young boy accidentally and didn’t appear to be the worse from it, would still hang on to the idealistic notion that you should “save yourself” for one’s true love … very Barbara Cartland. Charming, but out of place in a world as gritty as Weeks’.
By the third book, Kylar has achieved enough skill to make almost every obstacle coming his way a breeze to get through. Somehow, Kylar being so powerful – to the point he seems like a superhero in a comic book – makes him less relatable and interesting.
Fortunately, Kylar and Logan have enough grey shades to make them more compelling and Weeks does avoid painting characters entirely in black or white … most of the time. However, the main bad guy – the Godking – is far too monstrous to be interesting.
Luckily there’s an impending civil war, an invasion to thwart and a magical battle to look forward to.
It may seem that I dislike the books, but in truth I enjoyed my trip to Midcyru, no matter how rocky the journey. Weeks, after all, is good at building an exciting, riveting plot, even if his world needs to be fleshed out better.
Tolkien he’s not. I am unsatisfied with his offhand world building in Shadow’s Edge and Beyond The Shadows, which seems to be limited to descriptions of architecture and dress styles. He did a much better job with Ceneria in The Way Of The Shadows.
In the end, Brent Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy certainly has its shining moments, and it’s definitely a fun and exciting read, but it really could have been better.
