Night Angel Trilogy, Sort-of (Spoilers)

[Calax]

Understand, this isn't going to be a comprehensive review, it's going to be more of a rant.

Earlier this year I was playing AC and needed some more Assassiny stuff to work with in my head, so I picked up the first book in the Trilogy. I read it before going out and buying the second and third books because I don't want to buy them and then regret my purchase (which is ultimately what ended up happening anyway).

The first book is good. Well paced the characters are fun, and it's not so bleak that you loose all hope. It builds itself well, explains it's own mythos and allows for the reader to be drawn into the world, even if (after a bit) you start to loose track of a few characters. There were some bad spots to me, like the idea that the world needs to have the underworld highly organized and structured in order for the nation to work (basically being the honest to god shadow government). The ending causes it to trip up as it starts moving REALLY fast (to fast) and has everything go to hell to set up the second "act" (book).

Here's where my issues started... with the second book. While at the end of the first book everything goes to hell, it still ended on a happy note, with the main character (Azoth) giving up his life of being a deadly shadow and instead moving to another town with his girlfriend (Doll Girl) and adoptive daughter (almost inconsequential except being a living macguffin). The second book basically opens with Azoth and Doll Girl living semi-normally in the new town, although Azoth is frustrated because he's used to being out at night and just being active, while his new lifestyle has him rather sedentary (by comparison anyway). Doll Girl has become a serious Christian (well, analogue church anyway), and won't sleep with him and refuses to let him think about hurting others and is constantly yelling at him to sell his equipment from his assassin work. This goes on for a bit with Azoth playing the night vigilante and killing people in defense of others (breaking a promise to doll girl) until another assassin from their old hometwon (who'd tried to kill Azoth previously) appears and attacks. Doll Girl was out, and Azoth was distracted so the other assassin walks in and kidnaps their girl. At this point the girl basically has served her purpose and is forgotten except for one more point in the book.

Thus begins the chase where Azoth is chasing the daughter and the assassin/kidnapper, and Doll Girl comes back and chases both. Early on in the book we were introduced to a new character, who again, is just a plot macguffin when all is said and done. And this leads to probably the biggest issue I have with the book. The New character (A lady mage) comes upon the Assassin and little girl, beats up the assassin, figures out something has been done to her, and tells her just what she needs to hear to rush back to the Evil Emperor, then Azoth appears and the Mage tells him "She went Thataway" and gives him just enough strength to go after the assassin (who Azoth thinks still has his daughter) so he takes off, meanwhile the mage has actually kept the daughter who, as it turns out, is magically gifted up the wazoo so miss mage is going to basically take the kidnapped girl, and force her to enroll in magic school, she can leave once she turns 13 and her parents ask for her back, but until then she's effectively a prisoner of the school.

That's the major thing that bugs me about all of this. This Mage, appears in the story only to manipulate the main characters and steal this kid (literally, that's all she does). Eventually, as a result of the manipulation, the Assassin (a hot chick) and Azoth end up being forcibly bonded together by magic earrings... to the point where the assassin can literally say "be a ballerina" and Azoth will pirouette and skip like he's a six year old taking the first year classes. And not only this, but the Assassin is promptly enrolled (forcibly) in magic school (the same school that the daughter is in actually) as part of a political gambit. Up until this point I was.... ambivalent. In my normal reading I get into some dark stuff (darkest being the gang rape of a 9 year old deaf mute girl in The Black Company... the rapists are promptly killed), so this seems ok. But the kicker is that eventually all the main characters learn exactly what was done to them, exactly why (so they can be political chattel for this one tiny school), and yet they all seem perfectly ok with the situation. Note, the ring bonding thing? It's explicitly stated as IRREVERSIBLE once that sucker is on. The only way to get out of the bond is to rip off the ear, and Azoth was FORCED into the relationship.

Understand, a child kidnapping mage, who effectively forced the mental rape of a pair of people, and ruined what little chance Azoth had of actually being a husband to the woman he loves, gets off scott free. Not only that, but all the characters are sort of happy the girl was kidnapped because it meant "she gets an education!" Never mind the fact that her family is completely loaded and could have easily given her an education that would rival a nobles (Azoth is rich from his assassin work, and the girls biological parents are Azoth's master, who was richer than him, and the woman who runs the entirety of the underworld in their home town).

Oh, and those rings I was talking about? Not only do they bind the characters to each other through compulsion (woman able to order the guy around), but they also force a telepathic link between the two that gets to the point where the literally have dream sex, and can tell exactly what the other is doing at any given time.

That was my biggest gripe with the entire thing. The mage doing something that's worse than probably have the "evil" characters every did, and yet still being considered "good".

The other niggling things to me are the fact that several characters (as I mentioned above) are little more than biological plot devices. The daughter is one, and the mage is another (of sorts) but the story is rife with those one hit wonders who only appear to cause or do something that effects the main characters and makes their lives harder. Also, as the trilogy goes on (honestly, you might as well have made it one MASSIVE book) it picks up the pace, to the point where you are barely able to see what's going on in the larger picture, and have NO time to breath. The second book gives 0 hope of ANYTHING good happening, and the third only starts to look "up" RIGHT before the end.

Is the series good? Eeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I don't like it. It would have been good if they had kept it as sort of one shot stories within the same world, but it runs to long, has the aforementioned issues, and is packed with filler (when all is said and done).

At least it's not as bad as the Elenium and Tamuli trilogies by Eddings.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

The review started out really good, but then I had to stop reading half way through because you just started telling the story of the second book. At least put a spoiler warning in the title. Also, post pictures of the covers just to break up the text a bit.

I read these books and loved them apart from some minor flaws, mainly the ending of the third book:

Spoiler

Which essentially ends with "and then friendship slayed the beast and saved the day

Another niggling thing that annoyed is how the pace would occassionally fluctuate from great to too-damn-fast. Although, it was a great read overall.

I even did a happy dance when:

Spoiler

I found out that Durzo was still alive

 

[FortheLegion]

I don't remember much about the series except that I enjoyed it, and Durzo was a pretty cool guy.
I should reread it sometime.

 

[Calax]

The review started out really good, but then I had to stop reading half way through because you just started telling the story of the second book. At least put a spoiler warning in the title. Also, post pictures of the covers just to break up the text a bit.

I read these books and loved them apart from some minor flaws, mainly the ending of the third book:

Spoiler

Which essentially ends with "and then friendship slayed the beast and saved the day

Another niggling thing that annoyed is how the pace would occassionally fluctuate from great to too-damn-fast. Although, it was a great read overall.

I even did a happy dance when:

Spoiler

I found out that Durzo was still alive

Spoilers IS in the title. I made sure of that when I realized I wasn't going to be able to describe my frustration at the events of the second book without throwing out the spoilers.

 

[Zenron]

Not really a review, more of a rant. I mean, nobody wanting to try out these books could come to this review to see how it is because you lay out half of the plot.

I've read the series and I liked it actually. You do realise that Ariel didn't force Vi to ring Kylar right? She dropped hints about it but she didn't make her do it. It was the only way Vi could have broken the compulsion placed on her by the Godking. It had to be done. Kylar forgives Vi because he can tell exactly how she feels through the bod, it wasn't a malicious act. Ariel isn't just a person used to move the plot forward either. She plays quite a big role over the second and third books. She is manipulative, but that's kind of the point and it's the reason why she is in any way interesting. No matter what though, you really can't compare Ariel with people like the Godking or the stuff Dorian does in the third book. She really isn't evil in comparison is she?

Also, Uly wouldn't have been safe if she had stayed with her parents, even though they are rich. You saw what happened in the first book. A kingdom nearly fell because Durzo would have done anything to protect his daughter. The truth always gets out, remember? She is safer in the chantry than anywhere else, and nobody else would be able to teach her the same things that the chantry would. Why wouldn't they be happy about that? Oh and by the way, Kylar was not rich. Did you conveniently forget pretty much half of what took place in Caeveron?

 

[Inkidu]

I've read them. I liked them. I think they tried a little too hard to be edgy and adult, and they have the unmistakable markers of "This is my break-in work" I'm reading Week's new one The Black Prism and it blows the Night Angel Trilogy out of the water. Durzo was really the main draw to the series, Kylar just kind of fumbled all over himself all the time.

I take comfort from his success though, because I know I can write as good as he can.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

My problem with the Night Angel trilogy was the amount of prostitutes. They were fucking everywhere, I mean, I know he was trying to make it all adult and edgy, and reinstate the fact that the country was all bad and corrupt and stuff, but seriously, all but about 3 female characters were prostitutes, and those that weren't were just all-round sluts anyway. I often felt like Weeks was just indulging himself and his sexual fantasies with the lavish descriptions of some of the girls and their incredible boobs, and all that kinky stuff with the earrings.

I also generally wish a lot of the characters just weren't there -- the plot seemed spread too thin over too many narratives. Characters like Solon and the entire storyline to do with the people from those islands to the south-west should have just been chucked out the window -- it was of basically no relevance to the actual plot.

That said, there were still lots of redeeming things about the book -- imaginative setting, one of the most successfully grim environments I've seen in a fantasy book and the ridiculous badass that was Durzo.
I liked wetboys more in concept than practice -- we see Hu Gibbet and Viridiana a few times, but mostly we are just left to Durzo and Kylar, which is great and all, but the brief moment where we see that other wetboy try to assassinate the Godking was the single most badass moment in the entire series imo -- it was just SO cool (even though they failed).

 

[Calax]

Not really a review, more of a rant. I mean, nobody wanting to try out these books could come to this review to see how it is because you lay out half of the plot.

Again, I stated that at the outset of the first line of the first post. I also stated spoilers in the title.

I've read the series and I liked it actually. You do realise that Ariel didn't force Vi to ring Kylar right? She dropped hints about it but she didn't make her do it. It was the only way Vi could have broken the compulsion placed on her by the Godking. It had to be done. Kylar forgives Vi because he can tell exactly how she feels through the bod, it wasn't a malicious act. Ariel isn't just a person used to move the plot forward either. She plays quite a big role over the second and third books. She is manipulative, but that's kind of the point and it's the reason why she is in any way interesting. No matter what though, you really can't compare Ariel with people like the Godking or the stuff Dorian does in the third book. She really isn't evil in comparison is she?

In comparison? No, but in any other setting she'd be the evil witch in the tower cackling and wringing her hands while swaying empires on her whims. And while she didn't out and out force anyone to do anything, the level of her manipulation basically made it a foregone conclusion that they would end up being ringed. Would Uly be safe anywhere else? Yes. Hell she was safe with Kylar and Doll Girl up until Vi decided to kidnap her on a whim. The point was that the reactions of the characters to these various situations within the novel are completely unrealistic. They're perfectly ok with a little girl being kidnapped (from a kidnapper), and forced into a school, after lying right to the face of the girls adoptive father about her whereabouts. Not only that but they're fine with going along with a plan for a tiny school of magi's internal politics... which requires them to be ringed and to fake that they're the happy couple.

If the person stood back and looked at things from a very distant perspective (or all knowing perspective) then they'd be ok with this. BUT humans don't do that when they're involved in a situation, they look at exactly what happened to themselves, and how they feel they have been harmed. I know of no person in the world who'd be ok with saving the organization that kidnapped your kid, and all but forced you into the compulsive mental bond with somebody you barely knew, and are expected to act as the husband of.

Also, Uly wouldn't have been safe if she had stayed with her parents, even though they are rich. You saw what happened in the first book. A kingdom nearly fell because Durzo would have done anything to protect his daughter. The truth always gets out, remember? She is safer in the chantry than anywhere else, and nobody else would be able to teach her the same things that the chantry would. Why wouldn't they be happy about that? Oh and by the way, Kylar was not rich. Did you conveniently forget pretty much half of what took place in Caeveron?

Honestly? I'd mostly forgotten that Kylar's riches had disappeared. I just remember the hack job that was "I sell my sword for this much! The rings that I want are that much too! MUST BE DESTINY!" They'd made a fairly large point in the first book that he was earning a WHOLE lot of money from his jobs, which is probably why I'd basically whitewashed the idea that he just had it sort of vanish before the end of the book.

I'm going to agree with Puzzlenauts post, but have to add one more quibble. Weeks has this whole thing that "Assassins have targets, Wetboys have deaders because wetboys don't miss!" Ok, first off, if you're trying to say something is superior to something else, but the supposed superior has 'boy' as part of the title? There is no way I can give that credence unless the 'boy' is a literal boy. Secondly, the whole thing is just flat out splitting hairs, the closest you can get to the difference is that Wetboys have a minor magical talent, while Assassins are "normal", and yet Kylar/Azoth is considered a Wetboy without his talent.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

The review started out really good, but then I had to stop reading half way through because you just started telling the story of the second book. At least put a spoiler warning in the title. Also, post pictures of the covers just to break up the text a bit.

I read these books and loved them apart from some minor flaws, mainly the ending of the third book:

Spoiler

Which essentially ends with "and then friendship slayed the beast and saved the day

Another niggling thing that annoyed is how the pace would occassionally fluctuate from great to too-damn-fast. Although, it was a great read overall.

I even did a happy dance when:

Spoiler

I found out that Durzo was still alive

Spoilers IS in the title. I made sure of that when I realized I wasn't going to be able to describe my frustration at the events of the second book without throwing out the spoilers.

Shit. Sorry, I didn't notice that. My apologies. Not exactly the most observant person today as you can probably see.