Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella

• A beautifully written, engaging novella about some of history in the twisting, frenetic, and dangerous life of the author’s famous character Durzo Blint, first introduced in “The Way of Shadows”. I loved the brief glimpses of this fascinating assassin, an immortal soul that has held many guises over his 700 years of life, starting with his first Acaelus Thorne. I particularly liked how some of the other characters (I’ll not mention here to keep spoilers out of my review) from that novel were worked into this story.• Reading this novella might be a bit of a challenge at first because, as the author mentions in his own Acknowledgments, writing it gave him the chance to “experiment with a staccato, time-skipping, kinetic style that I [the author] hoped would be fitting for these characters.” Indeed, the style chosen for the novella does fit the telling of the history of these characters, but it is jarring for the reader.• The best advice I can give is to remember the main character here is Gaelan Starfire, and he’s giving an interview to a guy by the name of Yvor Vas. The threads then weave in and out and between the interview, and many other characters are mentioned, considerably more than for your typical novella. It will help the reader keep things straight in his mind to know that Brent Weeks wrote the interview portion of the story in PRESENT tense, while all the memories of the stories are written in PAST tense.• The second piece of advice is to know that italics are used for internal monologue (of course), but those italicized lines enclosed by tilde (“~”) characters are thoughts given off by the secret entity that lives inside the main character. Their silent dialogue exchanges can be insightful and funny, but confusing if you don’t realize this little detail.• Others have remarked you need to read the entire Night Angel trilogy before reading this novella. Not so! I’ve only read the first book in the trilogy, and I enjoyed this novella very much. Perhaps some of it went over my head? Possibly. But that’s why this wonderful work deserves a second (or even third) reading to capture all the nuances that author Weeks imbued this great tale. It is a must-read for any fan of “The Way of Shadows”.

This one was a nice quick read. Even though it gave you a hint at Durzo's life it was still a mere shadow of it. Not sure if Weeks meant to do that but he is a cheek bastard so, yeah, I'll roll with it.Usually I'm not a huge fan of tense and PoV changes, especially in such a short read. However, I never once got lost of where I was in the story even though it went back and forth in Durzo's life. That's how well written it was.Why only four stars? I grumbling in the places where little secrets were hinted at and then not revealed too much or at all. Maybe I'm just a curmudgeony old woman beyond the point of being teased with a carrot or just greedy and left wanting. maybe both.Still, I'm a fan of not overindulging a beloved series to the part of bludgeoning (willing) readers to death with super awesome characters. I prefer they go out with dignity instead of limping through the finish line only to see it has been moved.Sorry, no spoilers. Just read it (and pay for it, don't be a thief) and enjoy it for the little slice of ahhh it is.

I don't get the negative reviews of this novella, especially from readers claiming to be a big fans of the trilogy. Yes it's short - it's a novella - you knew that when you bought it. I for one am very grateful to have this additional taste of Night Angel story and history. It's as well-written as the Night Angel trilogy, and for as short as it is, it contains a lot of history. There are several time frames but it's not jumpy. There are a few short-story type segments, going forward in time with each clip, and then the majority of the novella is done in the same time frame, which is the most interesting part. There is more history here than just Durzo's too - Gwinvere (Momma K) is a young working woman during the last segment, and we're treated to their first meeting.We're given some insight into what has made Durzo Blint the man he is, and a little more personality of the black ka'kari itself. There are several conversational bits between man and ka'kari. We also see another ka'kari in action, and see its fate.This novella probably started out as some research-type writing on the author's part. Then at some point he realized hey, the fans might like to read this stuff. So here we have it, and I'm glad this didn't just end up sitting dormant in a hard drive or the editor's archive files. I too am anxiously awaiting the next Lightbringer novel, but this was great. And as far as the price - yes it costs more per page than a novel. But come on - how much do you think the author would make if this were $0.99? Almost nothing. He deserves our support for his fine work. $2.99 is less than the cost of a beer at a bar, it's not unreasonable.If you're a new reader to the Night Angel trilogy, I would definitely say DO NOT read this before reading the trilogy. It won't ruin it or anything, but I think discovering things as they are laid out in the trilogy is best, and this additional history afterward is great backstory. Backstory is always best once we know and care about a character.If you're a Night Angel fan, don't hesitate to read this, you'll enjoy it!