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Title: Shadow’s Edge
Series: Night Angel #2
Author: Brent Weeks
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 645
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
Kylar has sworn to give up killing to live in peace with Elene. They move to another city and Kylar begins life as an apothecary. But his hunger for justice causes him to go out each night, and while not killing, he does distribute justice to lowlifes and criminals.
All of that changes when his best friend Jarl, now the Shinga of Kylar’s former city-home, comes begging for him to do one last job: Kill the godking. Unfortunately, another wetboy, Viv (who’s a girl) is on the job to kill Jarl for the godking. Kylar watches his best friend die before his eyes. To make matters worse, Kylar must leave Elene (who he was going to ask to marry him the next day), for good. Because killing the godking is a one way job. He won’t be returning from it.
He ends up hooking up with Viv through an incredible amount of circumstance twisting and they decide to work together to kill the godking. Turns out Viv is the godking’s daughter and he has a magical hold of her. Kylar and Viv overcome through the magic of love (or at least, bonding magic) and everything is hunky dory.
Except Elene is kidnapped, Kylar can never be with her, he is magically bonded to a woman who killed his best friend, most of Kylar’s friends and acquaintances are dead by the godking’s hands and yet another city-state is waiting on the border to take over. And Kylar still doesn’t know the cost of him coming back to life each time. He should really find out, you know?
| My Thoughts: |
Man, I plowed through this in 2 days, or just a little less really. I started Friday evening (hence my post A Small Selection) and was done by 10am Sunday morning. It was not a “I have to get through this, so man up, soldier and start marching” kind of drive. I just couldn’t stop reading, even while I knew roughly what was going to happen because this was a re-read.
The main downside to this book was that I had just read Return of the Crimson Guard and that book, while leaving me somewhat frustrated, also awed me with its depth, amount of plot threads being woven simultaneously and the battle scenes. Sadly, Weeks did not, really could not, compare. His writing was not bad, it was good in fact but it just wasn’t AS GOOD. When you read two Epic Fantasy Books almost back to back, comparisons are going to happen whether you want them to or not. So read this after reading something by Michael Crichton or Modesitt and everything will be just fine.
For the record, I rated this higher than Crimson Guard. I enjoyed it more.
The biggest upside was a scene where Weeks totally riffs on Star Wars. As I stated, Viv is the godking’s daughter. She’s been developing feelings for Kylar during their stint together. Then, during one of the climactic clashes between the 2 wetboys and the godking, the godking lets it out that he’s also Kylar’s father. So a total Leia and Luke scenario. But it gets better. The godking then hollers out, “Just kidding!” I just about died laughing. Even now, while I’m typing this up, it still makes me laugh. And if you don’t get the Star Wars reference, you’ll lose nothing from the story. It just won’t be as rich.
Like I mentioned in my Small Selection post, the violence here is pretty intense. Thankfully, it is not glamourized, but Weeks doesn’t hold back in the slightest. Also the profanity is at the same level and of the same style as in Book 1. It’s very anachronistic, besides being unnecessary.
There is another whole storyline revolving around Logan, the rightful King, that I’m not going to touch on.This is a 2 weave story and his is the second. It’s pretty much about what a good man will do to survive and not cross the line into becoming a villain.
This book was just as good as when I read it in ’09 and the trilogy as a whole is holding up as well.
*double thumbs up*
★★★★ ½
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Ah, books you can’t stop reading are the best! I just finished one of those as well.
Love the ‘Star Wars’ reference 😀 I remember that book 1 had a couple of really funny scenes as well. Maybe i will continue with book 2 after all. Just tell me this: Is book 3 about Kylar chasing after Elene? Because then I won’t read it 😀
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I don’t remember what Book 3 is about, to be honest. But, I suspect there is a good bit of chasing after Elene, unless she dies, in which case there will be moping.
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I grew up on Tolkien (although I haven’t read much fantasy since my pimply teenage years). I actually have done some thinking about the links between Vic lit and fantasy. For Tolkien especially (I read this I forget where, so the idea’s not mine), The Shire is an idealized Victorian England, more precisely, the rural England fetishized in George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. One might think that medieval literature would be a more apt destination for ex-fantasy nerds, but my experience with literature from that era is, even though I really love Chaucer, it’s nothing at all like reading fantasy, in terms of plot, ideology, character development, etc. I think the medievalism in fantasy novels stems directly from nineteenth-century medievalisms as opposed to the medieval period itself: maybe it starts with Walter Scott and Ivanhoe (or perhaps the Gothics?), and continues with John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites.
It’s interesting that the distinction between sf and f is even stronger within English departments. There’s tons of writing on science fiction, and people are taken seriously as scholars of science fiction, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything with fantasy. It’s interesting that Ursula K. Le Guin’s achieved canonical status as a science fiction writer–her stories are collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature–but nobody pays attention to her fantasy stuff. It really is weird that the fantasy genre hasn’t received much attention. These days, with cultural studies approaches favouring popular fiction, it’s very much acceptable to study genre fiction like detective fiction, spy fiction, romance, chick lit, pulp fiction, so something that’s persistently in the Top 10 of everything certainly deserves attention.
Great review. Makes me wonder what I’m missing fantasy-wise.
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I definitely concur that the “medieval” idea in Fantasy is way more rooted in the idealized, romantic version of the middle ages than in the real thing. The tales of Robin Hood, King Arthur, etc are probably the foundations of modern fantasy.
I don’t know if you’d want to plunge into the Fantasy pool or not. Most indie authors write in the fantasy/urban fantasy arena, so there is a lot more to wade through. For every good book you see me review, there are probably 100 pieces of drek lying in wait for the unwary 🙂
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That’s what scares me. That ratio is atrocious…
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Yes it is. One reason I’m so vocally anti-indie.
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I like Abercrombie… I’ve read a lot of stuff by him.
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Well, when a book refuses to be put down and (happily) forces you through a reading marathon, it deserves to go on everyone’s “next” list!
Or at least on mine… 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
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Always glad to spread the love.
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It’s been a while, but I seem to recall not liking this one as much as the first one. Maybe it’s time I did a reread as well! I’m glad you liked it just as much the second time ’round 🙂
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What is really interesting, to me, is that upon this reread I am finding certain “tells” for Weeks. Now that I’ve read a bunch of his Lightbringer series, I can see trends and things and ideas that he likes and uses over.
I like that kind of thing 🙂
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Sounds like a phenomenal read. I’m still stunned by your ability to read two HUGE titanesque books one after the other. Laughed my arse off @ reading a Crichton book before embarking on this journey. Not a huge fan of any of his books I’m guessing? 😀
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Not a huge fan. I’ve read enough of his stuff to know that he’s full of pseudo-science crap. I enjoyed Jurassic Park and that time travel one, ummm, hang on…
Timeline! [yeah, I liked that, and the movie too] but other than that, I’ve either been bored or rolling my eyes at his other books.
Take Congo for instance. That SHOULD have been awesome. Diamonds, killer smart monkeys, etc. But he gets bogged down in details about computers, and that info hasn’t aged very well, at all. Even JP, which I really like, is so beyond believable if you know anything about genetics. 1 gene out of place can not only cause defects, but kill a person. So to just wholesale substitute other genes willy-nilly, have it work AND allow them to breed? I turn off my brain to enjoy JP 😀
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I have a feeling that he was among those authors that can be qualified as “over-rated” and who just gives birth to a bunch of books that don’t particularly go down as classics (he.. really.. has a lot of books). I did plan on giving Jurassic Park a shot since it is one of his biggest hits, but I guess I’ll be wary about the rest. I did have an interest for The Andromeda Strain though. Have you tried that one?
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I did read Andromeda back in ’02. I don’t remember much, but my little blurb was only “most boring book ever”. So take a chance maybe?
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hahahaha the “just kidding!” moment- they should have more of those in books!! Sounds really really great!!
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I read this whole series in a week or so…. back when I could fit that much reading time into a week.
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I can totally see binge reading this trilogy. It is fast paced enough to stand up to it…
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