Publisher: Orbital Books

Author: Brent Weeks

Release Date: 8/2008-12/2008

Pages: Various

MSRP: $7.99 (Each)

Recommended Audience: Adult

I normally don’t read books by someone I have never heard of. When I was in Borders one day, I glanced at a cover that looked like something out of Assassin’s Creed and blew it off as a rip-off. When shopping on Amazon, I came across the same book as a #1 bestseller. After reading the first few pages online, I was instantly hooked by the dark, raw tone of the book and its excellent premise.

The series is broken down into three long books titled, respectively, The Way of the Shadows, Shadow’s Edge, and Beyond the Shadows. The two main characters in the book you will first encounter are Azoth/Kylar Stern and Durzo Blint. A boy trying to find his way out of a hard life of poverty and guilds tries to apprentice with a famous assassin. The book is just full of everything evil: candid rape and sex, murder, gore, lying, cheating, stealing, war, pestilence, and every other abomination you can think of. Weeks doesn’t hold anything back, and while the first book is mostly plot development, you really get a sense of longing for these characters, and when the series ends, you want more.

During the second and third books, something more than the boy turns, which is a war against an evil god-king and his race of horrid men. Following several characters throughout the series, you will be treated to some of the most original lore since Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. There is magic, suspense, action, and creatures that only you could dream of. Magical swords, mystical seers, evil magi, and the whole works.

The books flow beautifully, and you just never want to put them down. There are dozens of plot twists, and you are constantly in suspense, but the beauty of the book is the mystery at the very end that you never see coming. The end is fulfilling, and I hope Weeks continues the saga.

I can’t recall a book series with such strong characters in recent memory except for Lord of the Rings, and this trilogy would be an excellent movie. I can’t believe someone can actually create such a wonderful world in their head because, once you get so sucked into these books, you feel like you could be there, and you really feel these characters’ feelings. Every word is touching, sinister, and well placed because you will be at the edge of your seat at every turn of the page. Friends betray friends, enemies become friends, and enemies become more than what the mind could believe.

If you are really looking for a truly amazing book to read and love adventure, fantasy, and lore that’s out of this world, pick up The Night Angel Trilogy (the box set can be purchased for as little as $25) and indulge in over 2,000 pages of fantastic fantasy.