Magic. Dragons. Kingdoms. Conspiracy. Assassins. Betrayal. Love. Climbing out of a hole. Cliffhangers
Each of these things are elements of fantasy, whether it be dark fantasy, science-fiction fantasy, magical fantasy, what have you. You've seen all of these things before, whether it be an evil sorceress turning into a dragon (Maleficent) or a man looking through memories of his ancestors (Desmond Miles) or two characters finally meeting after two years (Kirito and Asuna).
Only one trilogy, in my opinion, mixes all of these elements, and others not listed, perfectly into a cohesive, dangerous, gruesome, exciting tale: Brent Weeks's Night Angel trilogy.
It may not be on your radar of books to read, but believe me, it should be. I was not thinking much of it when I picked it up over the summer. Bought the entire trilogy, because it came in one (very) large book, thought, "Okay, cool, some assassins, some conspiracy, it should be interesting."
Now I bought the book over the summer, summer 2013 (Go Knights), and finished it in around October of that same year. Now, normally I can go through an entire book in about two weeks or so, so, it should have taken me a little over a month to finish it. Why did it take me so long?
The first book, The Way of Shadows, completely overwhelmed me. Not like it blew me away or made me realize I needed to turn my life around, but it literally overwhelmed me. I had improper pacing when reading this book, and it comes back to bite you. I was about halfway through and still didn't understand what the Sa'Kage was or what the Warrens were or what Rat had done to Jarl. Now, I realize I should have taken my time reading this book that was actually a beautifully crafted masterpiece about the fall of a high-structured kingdom. The way things go down are completely unexpected, and in the end, you hate the villain of the story more than you could ever imagine because of what he does to Kylar and Durzo.
The Way of Shadows, though, set the tone for the series. I'd never read anything like it before. I knew it wasn't going to be like the Ranger's Apprentice series or anything, but, I did not expect a Game of Thrones type of book. Except Game of Thrones has a lot less swearing (I think the nudity makes up for the swearing though...nah). This trilogy does not fake out the reader either. You're thrust straight into a daring situation in which the main character nearly dies, in an environment no human being deserves to be in. Brent Weeks also does not shroud this in the eyes of a child, Azoth is a very mature kid and as such sees it as a real Hell (but the real Hell is so much worse than that, in the world of the Night Angel trilogy, as Logan Gyre can certainly tell you).
As such, I won't lie to you. This trilogy is intense, and gruesome but it is a thrill ride the entire time. The first and second books leave you on big cliffhangers and the in-between keeps you reading. It also jumps around a lot, taking a third-person omniscient point of view. You can be in Kylar's mind, then back to Logan Gyre, then Solon, then V, then Dorian, then back to Logan, Solon for a few chapters, a lot on Kylar, and so on and so forth. It even give you a point of view from the Godking, the main villain of the series, which I found to be awesome because I love looking from the villain's point of view, it adds an extra element.
But that's another thing about this trilogy. Kylar is not the hero. He has a destiny and all of that, but, he shoves it aside, and unlike most stories where he eventually fulfills it, that little destiny is something he avoids consistently. Logan Gyre does not have a destiny, but when a new plot element is revealed and you think, "Maybe this is Logan," the story gives you a hundred and a half reasons to tell why it is not Logan Gyre. And do not even get me started on Durzo Blint, that character is something else entirely.
The trilogy is dark. It really is. Durzo and Kylar are set up as protagonists but do not act as that. How can you have a protagonist that finds life to be empty and meaningless? How can you have a protagonist that kills for his own personal gain? Those are the traits of an antagonist, and yet, we're always rooting for these guys. Relatively speaking, they are the good guys, that's how horrid the bad guys are. Logan Gyre is really the only "good" person in the trilogy, yet, in Shadow's Edge we see how that can change in ways that are not at all pretty.
I'm not here to discuss the themes of the book, at least not yet, but moreover what occurs and how the trilogy is one of the greatest pieces of fantasy I've ever read. Everything about it just seems to click together. I mean sure there are a few plot holes and sure most of the character introductions are boring so you don't care about them at all (hi Sister Ariel), but Weeks just works the story so well into making you eventually care about these characters. Sister Ariel is a huge plotline for Kylar with the whole Chantry thing and Vi and what not. You would not see any of this coming, though, from her introduction of just talking about lame Chantry politics that at first don't make any sense with the story.
If I had to have one major gripe, it would be that. We are flung into new characters randomly. In The Way of Shadows it is pretty bad, because you have Solon, Dorian, and Feir travelling along on a quest that will later impact the series in a great way, but, for now you're so confused. They talk in riddles and prophecies. Since I had the entire trilogy in my hands reading it, I knew in the back of my mind that eventually this would all pay off, but, usually things like this happen and then by the end of the book there is some clarity. Here there is none. You meet them, they do their thing for a few randomly dispersed chapters, and they leave. The same for the Chantry characters. I could care less for Sister Ariel when I first met her, because, I had no idea what the Chantry was when Shadow's Edge brought it up.
Yet for the characters we are meant to care about, the ones that have the most amount of time laid on them, we care deeply for them. Kylar, Logan, Durzo, Elene, V, Jarl, Momma K, all of them. Shadow's Edge, my favorite book of the series, really shined a light onto who all of these characters really are (except Durzo, for reasons I will not say). And it splits time between them in a very cohesive way that makes us want to see more of each character with every turn of the page. I found myself particularly engrossed in Logan's horrid situation, but Momma K's plotting of the Nocta Hemata with Jarl and Kylar's daring adventure was very interesting as well.
If for nothing else, read the trilogy for solely Shadow's Edge. Everything you would want out of it, you get. Well, maybe not everything. It's the Night Angel trilogy, people, bad things happen on almost every page. But as far as a good story goes, everything you want you will get out of it. Not to say that The Way of Shadows and Beyond the Shadows weren't amazing books, but I'm just saying that Shadow's Edge sets up and brings to light so many different things you would have never seen coming. In my opinion, all of the betrayal, all of the conspiracy, and some of the coolest action, happens in Shadow's Edge. A lot goes on in the story that keeps you guessing.
The way everything resolves in Beyond the Shadows is quite awesome as well. As everything in this trilogy is, the third book is tense. A lot rides on a few people's decisions. Characters become intertwined emotionally in very intriguing, often painful, ways.
Despite all of its fantastical elements, the story is also a great big political thriller. The underground organization of the Sa'Kage run things like a huge mob. There are kingdoms all across the land of Midcyru, and even the other country of Seth, that are vying for power. As such, huge conspiracies and political threads develop that take our characters for a spin. I was never really into political stories, and I did not understand how a story set in medieval-ish times could wrap itself around such politics. I figured "oh, a king would be misplaced and the rightful king would want it back" but I was dead wrong. The Sa'Kage steal the show when it comes to political schemes. It's almost like Sparta vs. Athens if Athens had badass assassins: the Spartans are the Godking's men from Khalidor and the Athenians are the Sa'Kage's wetboys. In the middle we have the Cenarians, who can't get anything done right, and the soldiers of Ceura, who are kind of a big deal in Shadow's Edge. See what I mean by interesting political fights?
There is not much left to say without giving anything away. So much happens that it is tough to tell the story without spoilers. If you know the series, you know I am leaving out a humongous female character in Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows because her very role is like a spoiler...no, it is. I'll just say that the ending of Shadow's Edge literally made me drop my book, and I read the last three words over and over and over again until I was essentially sick of them and the thought of it.
These books are good, man. Not for children or immature teenagers (lots of graphic stuff, both gruesome and sexual), but certainly for people looking for a great story to go on an emotional and thought provoking roller-coaster.
See you next time!
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