Beyond the Shadows

Last night I was able to finish up Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks, the concluding volume in the "Night Angel" trilogy of fantasy novels.  Mr Weeks continues to be a major new talent in the fantasy genre in my opinion, but I felt this one to be a step below the second and two steps below the first...if that makes sense.

The first book of the trilogy, The Way of Shadows, was extremely good; a well-constructed novel that left me breathless with anticipation for the next two books.  I think what I like about it was the way the protagonist began as just a young boy in the worst of circumstances and through a series of circumstances, luck, and plain hard work, rose to become a master of his profession (assassination).  Along the way he grew as a character, coming to question the very morality of what he was doing, even though his targets ("deaders") deserved it.  The second book continued and he grew in strength and power until now we reach the third book...and it seemed like the author needed to re-invent where he was going with the trilogy.  The crux of the problem, I think, is that his protagonist has grown too powerful and has few vulnerabilities left.  How can you raise suspense with the reader when the hero can fight better than anybody, has powers like invisibility, fast healing, and, oh yes, he's immortal.  Every time he dies he is resurrected.

So here we are in the third book with an un-killable protagonist.  He does discover that there are dire consequences to his resurrections...every time he comes back, somebody else, an innocent, dies.  And usually its somebody he knows.  OK, that's a problem so now he has to be careful.  Most of the novel takes place at a larger scale than the first two books; i.e. we now learn far more about the world, itself, the major powers, and the ever-present power struggle itself.  The battles are no longer one-on-one (or one against 100) but rather on a more epic scale of armies battling one another.  Some of the minor characters from book 2 are fleshed out more now but I didn't really care about them as they seemed extraneous somehow. I wanted to see what was happening with the major characters.  And several times the pacing of the action was interrupted with lengthy descriptive passages that just served to ruin the flow.  I'm being hard on Mr Weeks here because the first book really showed what awesome talent he has.  In fact, I suspect the pacing issues may have arisen from editor/publisher requirements on length.  This volume is long as it is at almost 700 pages but I suspect if given free rein, the author would have given us a more complete experience.  Still, having said all that, I still look forward to more of this author's work.

The next short story in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century was "I'm Scared," by Jack Finney, best known probably for writing the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" story.  As with much speculative fiction of the 1950's, the emphasis is not so much on technological explanations or scientific theories but rather on mood and setting.  The story is told in the first person POV, as the protagonist tells how he has come across a theory that as time goes on, there are more and more instances of time anomolies occurring.  He gives several examples such as a lady who is visited by a stray dog for several days and then two years later becomes the owner of that same dog as a pup.  Another example involves a man from the turn of the century (~1900) that appears in the middle of a busy street in the present day and, bewildered, gets run over by a cab.  His conclusion is interesting: as time goes on we are more and more interested in escaping our current lives (yearning for the good ol days, back when life was worth living, etc) that the result is more and more disruption in the flow of time.  Where this leads is speculation at best but I wonder what Mr Finney would think about that same concept now in 2010, when even more of us wish for a simpler time...

Next up, On The Grid, by Scott Huler.

Shadow's Edge

It's seems to have taken me longer than normal to complete the reading of Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks.  I actually began reading this second book in the "Night Angel" trilogy last week on Saturday as I drove to a neighboring state to visit my parents for the weekend.  That may have lessened my reading time somewhat but mostly I blame the Winter Olympics.  We're big Olympics viewers, especially the winter games, and this past week has seen the whole family gathered in the TV room for hours on end witnessing some of the best sports drama I've seen in quite a while.  So, yes, my reading time suffered.  This book is almost 650 pages long though so I don't really feel too bad.

The plot picks up right after the first book ended, with our hero, Kylar, now having decided to give up the "wetboy" (assassin) life in order to preserve his sanity and pursue a more normal life with his childhood sweetheart.  But, of course, that won't be so simple, as another friend from his young days shows up and informs Kylar that Logan, the heir to the thrown is alive after all and imprisoned in a horrible place.  Only a wetboy of Kylar's skills can get him out.  Throw in to the mix the arch enemy and father of Kylar's major nemesis in book one, the "Godking" that is bent on conquering neighboring lands and we have the making of a great fantasy story.  But that's not all as several intriguing subplots flesh out the story including that of Vi, a female wetboy of great talent but questionable loyalty.

I admit to being a bit scared to start reading this one.  The first book in the trilogy, The Way of Shadows, was among my all time favorite fantasy novels and I dreaded what so often happens...a major let down where the second book serves merely as a bridge to get to the third and final climactic book.  Not so this time.  There were a few points where I thought the plot dragged or where one of the characters in a subplot wasn't properly fleshed out, but overall, this was a very good read.  And I think the book can largely stand alone; i.e. it has its own beginning, middle, and end (as long as you ignore the last paragraph which serves to setup an intriguing third book).  I'll get to that third book pretty soon, but after the Olympics are complete.

"The Alibi" was the next entry in Jeffrey Archer's Cat O'Nine Tales collection of short stories.  This one was a letdown from previous stories.  Just not much to it other than the criminal using conjugal visits to set-up his alibi for additional petty crimes.  It was interesting the way it worked but perhaps I am getting too many of these stories to make them stand out anymore.  Only a few left though so we'll see how it goes.

Next up: time for another Louis L'Amour western: Hanging Woman Creek.  Shouldn't take me a whole week this time.

The Way of Shadows

The second novel I completed during my trip last week was Brent Week's The Way of Shadows.  I'd been looking forward to this one for almost a year having read many good things about it and the entire "Night Angels" trilogy.  If I had simply seen this one in the book store I might only have picked it up for my teenage son based on the cover art; it looks like one step away from a comic book cover and very similar to the myriads of teen vampire romancy things that have taken over the book stores lately (not that I'm judging; I dislike those who pass judgement on something they haven't read).  But this trilogy, the first to be published by Mr Weeks, is often mentioned among the top of lists shared by people whose tastes best match mine.  He has earned a reputation among the best of the "new" fantasy writers and I will do nothing here to alter that prestigious notoriety.

The story begins with some very dark scenes concerning street urchins and the horrible conditions in which they live in this fantasy world.  The main character, Azoth, only a child at this point, witnesses brutal muggings, rape, sodomy, etc. and is forced to follow the law of the local bully, named "Rat".  But our hero is made of stern stuff and consciously decides he won't stand for such a life; he needs to be in control and never let such bullies dominate him again.  So he apprentices himself to the one man he regards as the most in-control person he has ever known, a master assassin, known as a "wetboy" in this universe.  The rest of the novel depicts his training and beyond, examining how his background leads him to his fateful decisions.  Just as Azoth's training progresses and he transforms into Kylar Stern so does our understanding of just what is really happening here. 

So far, reading what I've described, you would probably conclude this is a rather typical formula-driven fantasy novel.  But the way the intrigue unfolds here is utterly amazing.  Nobody seems to be who you think they are; I found this story to be completely unpredictable and yet very well constructed.  Loyalties are interchangeable and questions of good and evil are plentiful.  It's no small task for a writer to develop his main character as an assassin, have innocents perish, and yet expect the reader to maintain a positive attitude towards him.  But Mr Weeks pulls it off brilliantly.  It doesn't hurt that Mr Weeks is one of the best writers of fight scenes out there, well choreographed and exciting and yet not overdone.  All of the writing for that matter was crisp and clean and served to drive the story forward at a healthy pace.  Truly an outstanding result for a first novel, the best fantasy I've read in a year since Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, my all time favorite.

As always between novels, I've completed another short story, the next in Jeffrey Archer's Cat O'Nine Tales collection.  "The Wisdom of Solomon" is another good one, and one of the best twist endings I've read in a long time by any author.  It concerns a young man who marries a woman who has had three previous marriages (and divorces).  Predictably, after a year she wants her fourth divorce and through good lawyers, a sympathetic judge, and an incredible display of how to wear down your opponant, is poised to gain virtually all of her soon-to-be ex-husband's wealth.  It is hard not to divulge the twist at the end but I will say she gets what she deserves.  This is one of the three tales in the collection that was not told to the author during his incarceration but rather after his release.  Doesn't matter though, it's still done in an "as told to" style.

Next up, the novel I bought at the airport when I had run out of reading material on my trip: Cormac McCarthy's The Road.