Jordan D. (jddennis) - reviewed on 4/16/2009 + 12 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Shortly after Cenaria's fall to Khalidor and the death of his teacher, Durzo Blint, Kylar Stern decides to give up the violent life of the wetboy. He moves with his childhood love, Elene, and Blint's daughter to another country, hoping to start over as an herbalist in a more peaceful setting. But unable to give up his training, Kylar takes to stalking the streets at night as a vigilante. After some time, an old friend seeks Kylar out, and asks him to return to help the resistance movement. At first, Kylar refuses because he wants to make his relationship with Elene work. But then his ward is kidnapped, and he has no choice but to rush back into the life of killing that he tried to forsake.

Like THE WAY OF SHADOWS, SHADOW'S EDGE shaped up to be a really strong, action-packed story. It isn't going to win any acclaim as great literature, but I'll certainly remember it as one of the more fun books I read this year. Weeks does a great job continuing the story from where it left off. SHADOW'S EDGE has a bit of a more magical feel to it, and I think that added a nice change. Kylar was frustrated for much of the previous volume because he couldn't access his Talent. Now that he's overcome that hurdle, it's really neat to see how he plays with his abilities.

One thing I really liked about the story was that Kylar's role as the Night Angel. He at first rejects the idea of being a wetboy because he doesn't want to be a person who loves violence. But he realizes that he can use his powers and abilities to do actual good and to meet out real justice. That changes his entire outlook about his abilities. He also learns that he needs to release his own desires and put the good of others first.

Also, I thought that the story was incredibly well plotted. Weeks made sure not to leave any major plot points unresolved, and was even able to throw in a really big twist during the climax that caught me off guard.

A year from now, I think I'll take away an aspect of Weeks' world-building that I hadn't really noticed before. He seems to really like using "real-world" ideas in an epic fantasy world. For example, he used the Hebrew concept of the nephilim as a kind of angelic messenger, even going so far as to echo some of the language found in Genesis. I don't typically like this type of allusion in my epic fantasy, and I wasn't 100% thrilled about it here. But from a creative perspective, Weeks is still working on his story crafting. I think the story is strong enough to stand a little real-world intrusion.

I'd recommend this book to epic fantasy fans who like the action and tone of Brandon Sanderson's MISTBORN trilogy, but with the salty language of Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. And, of course, if you enjoyed THE WAY OF SHADOWS, pick this up.

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