Customer Reviews

Shadow's Edge (Night Angel Trilogy, Book 2)

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks is the second book in the Night Angel Trilogy. The first novel is titled The Way of Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy) with the third being titled Beyond the Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy). After reading the first book in this trilogy, I was both excited and nervous to read this book. Excited because the first novel was one of the best books I have read in long time, I loved ever word of it. Nervous, because I as concerned that Mr. Weeks would not be able to catch lightening in a bottle twice. Could he possibly live up to the greatness that was book one? There is also the trend in some trilogies that that the second book is merely a bridge novel to further the story without much substance behind it. Here are my thoughts on this novel.

The plot of this novel picks up where the first novel ends. Kylar Stern has done enough killing and wants to walk away from the wetboy business. He goes to extraordinary steps to get away from everything and renounce his one time profession. What, if anything, could get him to once again pick up that life he tried so desperately to put behind him? This novel is also riddled with sub plots that make this book, and world, come to life. Some of the sub plots include, Logan Gyre was left in the ultimate prison cell with societies worst criminals at the end of book one. Does he survive the battle with losing his sanity, and battling the other people in the cell? The prophet Dorian can see the future. However, seeing the possibilities of the future leave him teetering on the edge of sanity. There is also the sub plot of the Godking and what his rule means to the country. There are several other sub plots, but in the interest of space and not wanting to spoil anything I will stop there. Suffice to say that, while book one was a sprint into the realm on an assassin and occurred at break neck speed, this book has a slightly less frantic pace. However, the slight slow down does nothing to affect the plot or book. The story is a masterwork of pacing, and it is obvious that Mr. Weeks put a great deal of thought into not only each book, but how the overall plot meshes together. I can not really put into words how good the storyline is in this book. It is a story that is easy to get caught up in and one that you want to read just one more page before you go to bed. Only to realize that it is four in the morning. To me a book that can capture a reader like that is a rare thing, and so far, Mr. Weeks is two for two on that.

The characters in this book are largely the ones from the first novel. Characters such as; Kylar, Logan, Vi, Momma K, Jarl, Elene, and Garoth. This, of course, is just a small sample of the characters in this novel. There are a lot of characters in this novel. However, unlike other novels with a lot of characters, I never once felt like a character was lost or pushed to the side. In fact, I think each character was written near flawlessly. There is a great deal of character development in this novel, actually more than what I thought would be present. The thing that surprised me were the number of characters that were developed to a significant extent. In most books, significant character development is usually reserved to one or two characters. In this book, there are no less than half a dozen characters that receive significant development. This makes the book feel much more rich and vibrant, and it is very easy to connect with this wide assortment of characters. At no time did the characters feel like they were being dragged through the plot, it actually felt like they were creating the plot and influencing events. This is something I can not say about several books I have read. I really enjoyed the characters and the vibrant nature in which they were written.

I have one very minor criticism about this novel:

There are several places throughout the novel where the copy editing was off. There are missing word that snap the reader out of the experience to figure out what word is missing. It's not a big deal, but when a book flows this smoothly, those things are easy to notice.

Some things I enjoyed about this novel:

1 - The depth of the plot and sub plots. It is rich, vibrant, and has enough twists that the reader is never allowed to get comfortable with what they think will happen. I enjoy being surprised while I am reading, and I was surprised several times in this novel.

2 - Just like the first novel, this novel doesn't hold any punches. Some authors become too attached to their characters and never kill any of them. That is not the case with this book, or series. If a characters death will benefit the story, Mr. Weeks is not afraid to kill them. It's refreshing and makes the books that much more interesting to read.

3 - For a new author, Mr. Weeks prose is very refined, fluid, and expressive. Mr. Weeks writing is very easy to read, but at the same time it is an adult novel. If you are looking for a feel good story with flowery language, this is most certainly not the book for you.

When all is said and done, I really enjoyed this novel. This book, and series, gives me renewed hope that the fantasy genre still has new and fresh ideas to offer to its readers. With the first two books in this trilogy, Mr. Weeks has announced himself to the fantasy genre as a name to watch. Usually when I read a series I try to take a break in between novels to read something different. That will not be the case with this series. I will be starting the third and final book immediately as I must know what happens. The degree to which Mr. Weeks has been able to get me connected with the characters is amazing; I can not even guess what will happen next. This is certainly a series that fantasy fans should read, it has something for everyone. I would even hazard a guess and say that people who usually don't read fantasy novels may enjoy this one as well. I know this series will be very high on my recommendation list for a long time to come. Do yourself a favor and check this one out.

The Shadow's Edge is the second book of the Night Angel Trilogy. The trilogy focuses on assassins in a fantasy realm. However, the assassins must rely mostly on martial arts, stealth, poisons, and weapons, rather than spells. This book has much more magic than the first book and some fantasy creatures are introduced. The second book takes place in Cenaria during a Khalidoran invasion. Throughout the book there's action, political intrigue, and character development. There's also a good bit of death. No character is safe. If I had to make a comparison, it's fairly close to George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

Plot
The story continues with Kylar Stern, Jarl, Logan, Elene, Vi, Hu, Momma K, and the most vile loathsome Godking ever written. This guy makes King Xerxes look like Willy Wonka. The plot deals with the invasion. The story is epic and defines the boundaries of the human spirit.

Characters
The characters in this book are excellent. The author, Brent Weeks, does a great job at making sure they read like real people with real emotions. The story is full of characters that you'll love and despise.

Writing Style
The writing style is pretty accessible to just about anyone. It's pretty simple. The action scenes are also well written and easy to visualize. The Chapters are about ten pages long, and you'll find yourself reading five to ten Chapters per sitting. In the 600 pages, there are a few nonsensical sentences. But these are easy to overlook because the story and characters are great.

Dialogue
The dialogue does a great job at portraying the relationships between the characters. Brent Weeks also writes what the characters are thinking as they are speaking. It becomes clear that some characters say things to further their own selfish goals or try to dominate others. Some of the dialogue feels like modern day slang, and seemed out of place, but this is easy to overlook.

Maturity
This book is for adults who like a dark element to fantasy. There is violence, gore, sex, cannibalism, murder, and rape. It's Rated R to X and seems more horrific than fantastic.

If you want to read a brutal epic adventure, and don't mind anachronistic dialogue, this is for you! If you're a fan of GRRM and you're tired of waiting for his next book, you will most likely enjoy this one. Don't let the 600 pages deter you, the story moves fast and something interesting happens every few pages. Like the first book, it's very good.

Warning: This book is very brutal! Avoid it if you don't want your imagination going to very dark places. Characters get physically and mentally broken. It's not a pretty sight!

Kyler Stern has settled down to a life of comfortable domesticity...at least he's trying; however the synchronicities of life conspire to pull him back into his darker avatar of the Night Angel (sort of a cross between Jet Li and the Shadow) to seek justice, right wrongs and just beat up bad guys in general.

"Shadows Edge" by newcomer Brent Weeks is as much fun as the first in the Night Angel trilogy "Way of Shadows". In the first novel Azoth/Kyler is being trained (by his teacher Durzo Blint) as a Wetboy, sort of a super assassin. In this novel Kyler has rejected the life of a professional killer but cannot fully accept the life that his fiancé wants for him, that of a budding herbalist. In a way, this is the coming of age of a young Kyler Stern. The novel does an admirable job of describing that time in most of our lives when we are forced to create of ourselves a new person; an amalgam of the person that our parents, teachers and mentors want us to be and the person that we ourselves wish to be as well the person that destiny has chosen for us. All change is difficult, especially when it requires that we may disappoint the people that we love the most, and this is the case for a young Kyler Stern. We see Kyler struggle with opposing sides of his nature in an attempt to be true to himself but keep the love and acceptance he has struggled for his whole life.

An emaciated but much wiser King Logan Gyre has escaped prison and taken his place at the head of an army to fight the Godking. This is a story of honor, war and redemption as the young characters from the first novel are all forged in the heat of despair to create the men and women that the realm needs in order to defeat tyranny.

As other reviewers have mentioned, there are a lot of story lines here but I did not find myself bogging down with them and in fact enjoyed the fleshing out of the trilogy. I highly recommend "Shadows Edge" and will be the first in line at the end of this month for my copy of "Beyond the Shadows", the conclusion of the Night Angel trilogy.

This is kind of a redo of a previous review. because my first review was pretty sloppy.

First of let it be said this is a good book series. the writer is new and so there are a few minor quibbles and gripes but the pacing and smooth the action well well done, the story compelling. long story short is that in every way that matters this book and this series are a good read.

since most of the reviews focus on how great the book is I just wanted to point out some of the flaws. first and foremost the writers voice is kind of... unusual. there are narrative descriptions of actions that read allot like a teenager telling a story to his friends at the mall.

This extends to the specific vocabulary. The story will often flow wonderfully until the author throws in a word that simply does not belong in the atmosphere created. its a sword and sorcery medieval fantasy but characters use words like Microbraids, contraceptive and bang (slang for having sex) which can be totally jarring in the middle of an otherwise well written narrative.

Avid readers will recognize the inspirational origins of many aspects of the story drawn from other stories especially, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, Magic for example is often described as knots or webs similar to the way the One Power is described. There is an organization of female magic users divided into subgroups based on their specific magical strengths or interests and labeled by color (women who specialize in healing magic are Green magae for example) Even their center of organization is not surprisingly a great white tower (in the shape of an angel) located on an island in the middle of a river/lake.

having said that even with the similarities to other writers the story maintains an overall uniqueness and originality that keeps you interested in the continued development of the story and characters.

I enjoyed this series and honestly look forward to more from this author. after a few more books in this world I would love to see something totally original as the writer develops.

(I want to say that I'm not going to give away the plot of the book. Weeks is great with plot as always, and I fear that even subtle of hint may spoil something.)

Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks.

Well.

As I thought with the first book, the world is amazing and the plot interesting. Brent Weeks shows that he has a strong imagination and the ability to lay out a complex story. Unfortunately with this second book, although the plot twists are interesting and I like the inclusion of more characters, I can't quite maintain the same interest as I did with The Way of the Shadows.

The first thing that struck me about this book was Elene. I spent the first half being annoyed at her. I eagerly await Elene's usefulness, and can't for the life of me understand why Kylar has any interest in her. She's annoying and incredibly two-dimensional, and I find it upsetting that although so much time is spent on her, so little is gained.

I soon came to realize that the reason this bothered me so is that this sentiment applies to all the characters. They all seem to be surprisingly immature. Their side thoughts are poorly entered into the text, jarring the reader from what appears to be a complex procedure, for example, to some random thought of Kylar's. I understand that Weeks may be using these thoughts to flesh out his characters, but it hurts the book more than aids it. Furthermore, be it Vi or Kylar, all of these side thoughts are the same. I feel like Weeks swings in at random moments and inserts his own thoughts, masking them as those of his characters. It doesn't work.

I suppose it all boils down to this--Weeks is an amazing author. His world and plot--and even characters, when not drowned in unnecessary thought--are all amazing. His work hints towards and impressive imagination, and I'm very happy that we are privy to it. He is, however, a poor writer, and it hurts his work. His syntax, the general verbosity--so much of it is unnecessary, and it actually takes a lot away from what could be a very impressive fantasy novel. I don't, however, wish to call Weeks on this; I want to call Orbit. I've said this about Orbit books before, and I fear that I will continue to say it: editors. They need better editors! It's great to have another Fantasy and Sci-Fi publisher out there, but what does it mean if editors are leaving authors unchecked? I feel that if Weeks had a strong communicative relationship with an editor, this book would come off in a way that his imagination merits, and not in the poorly-demonstrated way that it does.

Moral: EDITORS ARE A MUST. I'm mid-way through Weeks's third book in this trilogy, and am running against the same brick wall. I hope that in his future works his writing--or editing--greatly improves. His ability for creation all but demands it.

This, thus far, has been an impressive trilogy from an obviously talented new author. Weeks has done a great job building a believable world and engaging characters who grow and develop as the story progresses. While dark, at times, the story itself highlights the warring natures of good and evil and the people torn between them. Repeatedly, throughout the book, the question is asked, "can a man change?"

Shadow's Edge takes a huge step in the development of this story and, in my opinion, is a HUGE improvement over book 1 in the series, which I found to be highly entertaining itself. In fact, I'd go so far as to rank this one up there with some of the other fantastic new writing I've read lately by author's like Rothfuss and "Name of the Wind." The characters are deep and engaging, not to mention easy to identify with. The themes are well developed but not preachy by any means. The action and suspense are beautifully written and well-executed and the encounters, while truly bizarre at times, are made real by the level of description and immersion the book provides. Perhaps best of all, one can clearly see that the end was planned from the beginning. This is a cohesive story in which each part contributes to the whole. There appears to be little in the way of "making it up as we go." Refreshing considering the seeming prevalence of that approach in a lot of other fantasy on the market today.

If you're looking for resolution, you won't find any here. The book is clearly meant to be the bridge between the first and third. That said, by the end of Shadow's Edge, the stage is clearly set. And if the cohesion and organization that so characterized this book is any indication, Weeks is likely to have some great things in store for book 3.

My only gripe: really sloppy editing. So much so that it distracted from the story at times. And when I say that, I'm talking about really basic editing mistakes: typos, entire words missing from sentences that should be there to make them grammatically correct - that kind of thing. In other words, the actual production of the book comes off rushed, and doesn't do justice to the quality of the story. It's minor, but it's irritating. I don't remember this being an issue in book one, but then again, it's been a several months since I read it.

All in all, a great second offering and a strong recommendation. I keep wanting to compare it to Rothfuss because they are both fairly new to the game, but if you are a fan of grown-up, dark, smart fantasy with an eye toward character development, you'll love this series.

These books are amazing, I read a huge quantity of sci-fi/fantasy and these made my Top 5! It has been a long time since someone wrote something to make it on my list with Ender's Game, Deed of Paksenarrion, Dune, and The RiddleMaster of Hed. I was intensely impressed at this gold mine. I am eagerly watching for the books that Brent Weeks writes in the future!

Now that I am done raving, a product description: The books are excellent, a blend between the swashbuckling mysterious of The Lies of Lock Lamora and the action pack awesomeness found in Jim Butcher or John Ringo. Great character developement, they force you right along every page. I called in sick to work because I got the book at 9PM and didn't finish it until 6AM the next day! The first book had a slight bit of confusion, but it was resolved very nicely in the second book and finished beautifully in the third with a refreshing blend of sorrow and hope!

I hope this review inspired [i]everyone[/i] to buy these books!

I enjoyed the first book in this series with some reservations. Mr. Weeks uses a lot of vulgarity and references sex frequently in the first book which didn't bother me. The vulgarity in the second book did bother me. He pulls out all the stops in the second book utilizing references to sex and vulgar language right from page one. He really over does it for me. That might not bother some but for me the constant hammering on sex just gets old. I know it happens and the world is a bad place, blah, blah, blah. Referencing isn't enough. Mr. Weeks is constantly throwing it in your face that Vi is hot, sex is vulgar, and Kylar is itching to take his pants off. Seriously, it's like reading a book written by a 16 year old who is infatuated with sex. Again, for some this won't be such a big deal but for me, it's a deal breaker.

Also, the protagonist goes to great lengths to rescue Uly and Elene in the first book. Immediately, he employs Uly in an operational role which I found to be utterly ridiculous. For some reason, the fact that Kylar would use a girl that he went to hell and back to rescue in a dangerous (even semi-dangerous) role makes me throw down the book in disgust. It's not consistent for Kylar and I can't believe it. I'm a picky reader and this particular book really disappointed me. I can't recommend it.

Not only is this the second book in the series, it's also the second time I've written a review for this book. Not sure what happened to the first one. Anyways, onto the review!

1 star, yes. It was not a good book. The main character was written differently; it came down to consistency, or rather inconsistency. The mood for the main character changed for the worse. I couldn't reconcile how he became such an idiot from being the best assassin a few pages early in the first book. I'll break it down:

1) He leaves town with his girlfriend to start a new life. I had a huge problem with this because of the setting. He essentially left enemies, a large amount of enemies, at his back. Plus, he left his friends to deal with a new twisted leader. It just doesn't make sense to me why he would expect to move to a new town and all would be dandy and perfect and flowers and rainbows. In fact, that's the attitude he adopts.

2) His new attitude isn't reconciled with the fact he knows how to speak to women, very well, but when it comes to sex he approaches it all wrong. I mean, I'm not ricco suave, but whining about not getting laid and dropping f bombs and throwing tantrums in front of your woman is no way to the split tail.

3) Everything else goes on as I would expect; this makes the contrast to the Main character even more painfully obvious. I felt like he was using writing formulas and tricks to sell the story instead of me participating in an adventure or taken on a journey.

4) Probably the second biggest complaint is in the little things that Weeks missed. The book became self aware; not in an autonomous way, but it was broken so bad in some parts that I became aware of the words on the page. This is not good, it's like a musician hitting the wrong note in a song. In the first book, he used off timings and off keys and rhythms but it harmonized. In the first 200 pages, it became like nails on a chalkboard.

5) This led to the height of all absurdity. Allow me to set this up. I became emotionally attached to the main character; not in a creepy way where I stalk Brent Weeks and email him 10 times a day. But where I cared for him, not as an imaginary figure but as a real personality. This is a testament to good writing; I was immersed in the world Weeks wrote. Then around page 200 the main character stabbed me. Not in the back, but in the face. And then as I fell onto the ground trying to hold in my life juice; Weeks takes out a sword, which calls a Gundam from space, he then boards this Gundam and shoots a nuclear missle onto my body that is writhing in pain on the ground. This really happened. Believe it.

And here's how: Kylar kills his master and gets his sword which is a Lost Relic of impossible power; everyone is searching for these Relics and he now has one in his possession. To him it also symbolized his master whom he wanted to save, or didn't want to kill. Remember, he has countless enemies at his back. Oh, and this sword makes him live forever and invisible. So he does what any impossibly great assassin would do. He pawns it for a fraction of what it's worth (stabbed in the face) and then buys a pair of earrings, the earrings are like a wedding ring but it's 'magical' because you can't take them off so you're married man everywhere you go, because his 18 year old wife wants to get married. Now, if it wasn't bad enough and you aren't intellectually insulted and holding the book as if it were a pink python, get this: The earrings cost the EXACT amount as his magic lost relic sword he just pawned...(Gundam 9000 pwns my deeply disturbed countenance). I was like..............wut?

That's when I knew, deep in my heart of hearts, that this was the stupidest book I had ever invested in. The reason Weeks' gives for why the earrings are so expensive is because they are "display models" and that some queen or such a long time ago made some law that you can't sell display....yeah. yeah. I mean, he could have tried to sell it to me. But instead he was "**** you" and I was "****ed" out of my money. And I liked the first book so much I went out and bought the last two. The third one I will never read and I will take it back. I just accept that absurdity. Obviously, there are alot of people who can. I could have accepted selling the sword, or buying the earrings, but not in the way it happened. It broke keyfabe, and it was impossible to take it seriously, as a novel. I could no longer be immersed by such a slap in the face.

The great book about assassins, a touching story and a great read. The way the chapters work in the story are interesting. Satisfying end