Amph Brent Weeks - The Night Angel Trilogy and The Lightbringer Series

Finished the series the other day. I really lked it, although I felt the ending was a little rushed compared to the rest of it. I was glad to read that Weeks will be writing more in Midcyru.

 

I ll have to read Night Angel for sure one of these days. I want to know how many more books Light Bringer is supposed to be though cause I freaking LOVED that 1st book.

 

I really enjoyed the surprises in TBP, it's rare for me not to see something coming, and Weeks had me grinning from ear to ear with his surprising plot twists.

Evil.

 

Three or four books apparently. You should definitely read The Night Angel Trilogy.

 

Three to four? Excellent news.

Oh yeah he threw some wicked cool curve balls at us for some great unexpected surprises which I hope will only continue in the coming novels. Im hoping we get 1 a yr. I dont know how fast he cranked out Night Angel? I think they were straight to PB editions with no released HC?

 

Yeah he had almost finished writing the entire trilogy when he got his book deal, so they were released really quickly. On his forums I read that we should expect about 16 months between books.

 

Cool, then we should get book 2 late 11 or early 12.

 

Finished The Black Prism. It was pretty good. It didn't seem like too much happened, but it was the first book and had to get a lot of world building out of the way. His writing style is still a bit weird to me but those parts are also funny so I don't really care that they feel a little odd. Also, Kip is a bad name, but then so was Kylar. Hopefully Brent is hard at work on the sequel.

 

Brent Weeks has been an inspiration for me. An average guy with a dream to write who finally got published after having to scrap draft, after draft, after draft. I've been working on my novels since college and the most I can gather is verbal praise from agencies and professional critics gradually followed by the sour "but..."

I've gotten dozens atop dozens of letters/emails from agencies saying how they love my writing but don't think that my story is a safe bet for a publisher (since I'm an unknown writer and my novel is larger than they generally want a newbie's to be). A few have told me that they'd like to represent me if I can whip out shorter works that contain the same punch.

Reading about Weeks' own struggle encourages me to try again and I've so far landed a few magazine features.


Anyway, I was very pleasantly surprised with Way of Shadows. I picked it up thinking that it would be like an Assassin's Creed novelization or something. But it became unexpectedly epic. I hooked my friend onto the trilogy by describing it as a combination of the Black-suited Spider-man in a medieval Gotham City. He also loved it.


As for the Black Prism...it really wasn't what I was expecting, but not quite in the same way that Way of Shadows wasn't what I was expecting. I went into Way of Shadows with pretty mundane expectations, but I obviously went into Black Prism with pretty high expectations.

I didn't appreciate how the magic system continually needed explanation (whereas the Vir from the Night Angel Trilogy was easily understandable and pretty badass). I felt that the sort of confusing system sometimes ruined the pace and took away from what was happening between the characters. I got the impression that Weeks knew that his light/magic system would be overbearing/confusing for some readers, because he explained it so frequently that I almost got sick of it. I'm all for Fantasy requiring readers to suspend their beliefs in reality for a bit, but sometimes I felt like he was asking for too much leeway from his readers with this.

I also didn't care for the descriptions of the Prism's crane, skiff, etc, etc. There was too much word-work on how the Prism employed the overbearing magic/light system to create equally complicated devices.

I guess I'm of the camp who went into this novel expecting a fast paced rumble in the Bronx, like Way of Shadows. Instead, we got tedious explanations on how different strands of light enable specific drafters to do specific things with them.

Moreover, while I appreciated the modern twist on dialogue in a Fantasy setting in the Night Angel Trilogy (that whole trilogy was sort of like a breath of fresh air to a sometimes stale genre, imo), the contemporary vocabulary seemed to distract me from what was going on in Black Prism. It sort of felt like it didn't belong and sometimes even seemed forced/lazy (especially from Kip's POV, imo).

Aside from these criticisms, I did like the novel...but mostly thanks to the Prism. He was, imo, a very refreshing character in an almost too-tedious-to-read novel.

 

I bought Way of Shadows while waiting at an airport...and smashed through it when I was supposed to be on holiday

Really enjoyed it, especially the ending sequence, and while this is a fairly stock-standard fantasy world there are enough variations to make it better than most. Reading Shadow's Edge now.

 

I love Brent Weeks.

I only picked up the Night Angel Trilogy because I liked the cover. Isn't that awful?

The books were amazing. I read through all three books in about a week, so obviously sleep was scarce.

And the first book of the Lightbringer Series...just wow. I'm inclined to say it's even better than part one of the Night Angel trilogy.

All the secrets and mysteries and there were a few parts in the book that had me gaping at the pages like an idiot.

 

Yeah Lightbringer had alot of twist in it that was erally cool. He def had me thrown off and in such a great way, I cant wait to get my hands on book 2.

 

Does anyone know when book 2 is going to hit the market?

 

I actually just checked his site the other day. He said he's handing it in in August with hopefully an August 2012 release.

There's also a Durzo Blint prequel novella releasing I think in the summer in ebook and audiobook. There are some limited print editions for $45 too.

 

I'll stick with the ebook then. 45$ for a print...I'm good.

2012...that's a long wait.

Looking forward to the Durzo Blint novella, though.

The graphic audio books are great. I can't buy them though because the company doesn't ship to Europe.

 

Unlocked.

 

Brent Weeks tweeted that he has submitted Book 2 in the Lightbringer series, The Blinding Knife. Now targeting a September release. He says it's his longest and best work yet.

Also, there's an omnibus of the Night Angel Trilogy coming out in April.

[image=http://www.brentweeks.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Weeks_NightAngelOmnibus_TP.jpg]


I recently got the Subterranean Press edition of the Durzo Blint prequel, Perfect Shadow. Haven't started it yet. It's only 99 pages though. Also available as an e-book.

 

Ha I checked his site 2 days ago to find out some Lightbringer info for book 2 and it did say there fall 2012 which cant get here fast enough! I loved that 1st book.