Shadow's Edge / Brent Weeks

Shadow's Edge
(Night Angel 2 /3)
by Brent Weeks

fantasy

copyright 2008
read in March 2013

rated 6 / 10: read to pass the time

Stephen King advises authors to, make their characters suffer. When I first read that, I had just finished writing a simple little short story set in a small country town. I liked my characters. I did not want to make them suffer!

Which is, perhaps, why I'm a reviewer rather than a writer.

Brent Weeks, on the other hand... makes his characters suffer. To a person of gentle sensibilities -- such as myself -- it is depressing.

This is book two of a trilogy. There is an adequate conclusion: a villain is disposed of, though the even-worse villain is just off-screen, waiting eagerly for book three. All quite satisfactory.

But the suffering!

I don't mean physical suffering, though there is plenty of that. I mean mental suffering...

Hero and heroine are dragged apart, families are separated, characters are introduced, then slaughtered... No-one is happy with the way that they are performing. It's all so... glooooomy... :-(

Two hundred pages in and I am thinking, will this story ever end?! I have to double-check the cover, to make sure that it clearly says, trilogy.

"Trilogy" tells me that there will definitely be an end to the story, at the end of the third book. If this turns out to be one of those interminable fantasy epics where the author had no idea how to finish a story -- I shall be most annoyed.

Shadow's Edge is exciting, imaginative, action-packed. It is also depressing. I rate it six, read to pass the time.

But read it only if you can handle a large load of suffering and despair.

And hope that book three will bring some modicum of a happy ending.

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The Way of Shadows / Brent Weeks

The Way of Shadows
by Brent Weeks

Night Angel (1)
fantasy

copyright 2008
read in December 2012
rated 8 / 10: really quite good

At the end of this book the author writes that the truly evil part of this story is near the start, in the abuse of children in street gangs. The rest, he writes, is tough and gritty but infused with hope.

Tough and gritty... indeed!

This book -- first of a trilogy -- tells of the hero's rise from child crim and victim, to professional assassin. Sounds bad, I know. Yet this trainee assassin has feelings and principles. The quintessential killer with a heart of gold...

Okay, the concept is a cliche. Implemented well.

The characters are troubled and sympathetic. I think that "conflicted" is the correct word... Sometimes that means that you don't know what they will do next -- nor why. With Weeks' characters you can understand their motivations. And even if you dislike some of their actions, you can see why they acted that way.

The death count rises rapidly in the last third of the book... Some likeable characters are killed. We are, after all, in book one of three. There is death and tragedy -- but not despair. The good guys suffer -- but they are fighting... and winning minor victories.

The characters move from personal suffering, to personal success, to global suffering, to personal survival. Just as they drag themselves clear of personal issues, the global problems take precedence...

As the heroes overcome their personal challenges, I grow to like them. As the challenges grow, I am cheering for the heroes. And the heroes come through...

The book ends with global catastrophe and personal success. A very satisfactory cliff-hanger of an ending...

I look forward to reading book two of this trilogy.

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