My summer reading this year has been dominated by a trilogy of books about fantasy assassins by author Brent Weeks, whom I know from his excellent Lightbringer series. I just finished the Night Angel series, and it made me appreciate Weeks even more as a writer.
The Way of Shadows follows a young boy who isn’t special or chosen (though, like many novels of this sort, he is an orphan). He faces some rather scarring adversary right away–this book is dark–and decides he wants to be an assassin (or a “wetboy” in the book’s terminology). An experienced assassin takes him under his wing.
As I write that, I’m realizing that it’s strikingly similar to the beginning of Lightbringer. Perhaps that’s Weeks’ comfort zone, though it’s interesting to see the wildly different approaches taken by the expert-level characters in both books.
This is a small spoiler, but it was interesting for me to see main character hone his skills without the use of magic for the entire first book. It means that when he finally finds his “talent,” he learns really quickly, as he hasn’t ever had to lean on magic.
As a whole, the series escalates well to a continent-spanning war (though each book also stands on its own). It seems to take a number of notes from The Wheel of Time, though while that massive series seemed to stretch out too far, Night Angel ends up feeling a little rushed, like Weeks wanted 4 books but the publisher only gave him 3 to work with.
Regardless, I enjoyed the trilogy, and I’d recommend it if you like dark fantasy. Not everything is dark, but there are a few elements that are very dark. If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments! What are you ready right now?