Uneven is perhaps the best description of this trilogy from Brent Weeks who certainly has the potential to refine his future work into efforts of brilliance. The Night Angel trilogy follows the maturation of an orphan boy in a fictitious kingdom who begins his life in a guild of thieves. He's eventually apprenticed to a legendary assassin who, as a part of the boy's training, installs him in the nobility so that he might learn the ways of every walk of life. Thus begins the young boy's transformation from street rat into an instrument of vengeance, of dark justice, and one of the only entities capable of defending his home from ruin.
On the dark fantasy meter, The Night Angel falls short of Joe Abercrombie, but remains a solid 8/10 for shocking violence and other mass acts of cruelty. The realism which might have earned it a truly oppressive, Abercrombian 10/10, is intentionally muted by gallows humor which is quite engaging. All the elements are here to craft a memorable series, but too often Mr. Weeks dissolves into the timeless fantasy cliche's of magical swords, and haunted woods, and mystic witch healers, and unbearable "I just can't be with you" sacrifices. It was a promising beginning, holding in it echoes of some of Raymond Feist's work with Jimmy from the Riftwar Saga, but then matters just went down hill from there. Still, Mr. Weeks knows how to do action sequences and these end up saving the series. (2/5 Stars)
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