The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks

I just finished reading a series of books called the Night Angel Trilogy. This trilogy, consisting of The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows is written by Brent Weeks and was one of the most interesting series I have read in a while.

Basically, this group of books is about a rogue assassin named Kylar (a pun in "killer"). Yep, I said rogue assassin... you know it has to be cool once those two words are put together. The series starts with Kylar as a young boy growing up on the streets, follows him through his training as an assasin and his breif stint as a killer-for-hire before his monumental decision to go rogue... and that's just the first book! The second book follows Kylar's struggle to leave the world of killing behind and (as we can tell because there is a third book) his failure to do so. Finally, Kylar and the characters who have surrounded him since his childhood grow up to be powerful people who change the world in which they live significantly.

Brent Weeks creates an entire world in these books -- we're talking multiple different countries each with their own culture, quirks and skills. There is the country full of evil magicians, one full of people who deny magic even exists, a south pacific island paradise country and many more in-between. We've got two different types of magic weilded by three different types of people, kings, 700-year-old immortals on both sides of the fence, zombie-thingies, a bunch of different religions, love and betrayal and un-betrayal... everything you could want. By the middle of the second book you are following at least 4 different plot lines (don't worry, they re-converge by the end of the third book) taking place at the far corners of Brent Weeks' world. Despite this, I didn't have trouble following what was going on! A truly remarkable feat.

When asked to compare this series to another, I can't think of one. It's not quite "epic" in the way that Lord of the Rings is epic. There's no innocence and it's too gritty to be "harry potter-esque." Really, the thing that comes most to mind when I read these books is the last book I reviewed here, The Name of the Wine, by Patrick Rothfuss. Both are dark fantasy imbued with magic, but not consumed by it. I highly recommend this series of books. I devoured them in less than a week -- Rob just devoured the entire second book in a single day!

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I just finished a book titled "the Name of the Wind" but Patrick Rothfuss. It is this author's debut novel and I have to say that I really loved it! The book is a little daunting when you pick it up -- a 750-page paperback doesn't fit easily between your fingers -- but it kept me thoroughly engaged.

A number of things were interesting to me about this book that actually didn't have anything to do with the actual plot. First, we are introduced to our characters at what seems to be the end of a story, not the begnning. The main character, Kvothe (pron. quothe) seems to be a great man who is "retired" and is living his life as a humble -- undercover -- innkeeper.

Second, there are two stories and two very different characters in the person who is Kvothe -- the boy and the innkeeper. The bulk of the book is Kvothe telling his life story to a scribe. Kvothe went to "magic" school as a young boy -- this gave me a little bit of a dark "Harry Potter" feeling. The author frequently jumps back to present-day innkeeper-Kvothe as the narrative gets interrupted by the daily activities of running an inn. While reading the chapters about the young Kvothe, I would completely forget that I was supposed to be reading a narration and would often get a little jarred when the author swapped back to innkeeper-Kvothe.

Finally, the plot itself. This book, while huge, really is simply setting the stage for the later books of the trilogy. The entire book encompases a little over 24 hours of innkeeper-Kvothe's life -- the first of three days he has agree to spend recounting his life story. The majority of the book is the narration of Kvothe's boyhood and adolescence. However, enough strange stuff is happening in innkeeper-Kvothe's life during the opening and closing of the novel -- the two evenings on either side of the day of storytelling -- for the reader to want to learn the backstory so that we can get to the current-day stuff! In terms of young Kvothe's plot, there is love, tradgedy, mishaps typical of magic school, adventure and, of course, a dragon. What more could an adventure/fantasy reader want?

Overall, five stars for this book -- I devoured it in two days of good reading (thank you to summer coming early to NYC!).