Is It Cheating If I'm In Love With...Books?

Posted by Boo

I read a lot of books. I average about a book a week, and sometimes my insatiable appetite for books leads me to read a lot of shit books. Books that I should probably stop reading, because it will only amount to hours of my time that I will never get back (I’m looking at you, Laurell K. Hamilton and your stupid Incubus Dreams!), but I can’t be without a book, so I usually just forge ahead. Like a bad relationship, I muscle through it, until something better comes along.

I never feel good about myself afterwards, either.

But then, there are books that wrap their pages around me, nestle me in the crook of their binding, and lovingly caress me with its words. These are the kinds of books that could never take too many hours of my time. In fact, I want them to take more hours of my time, to exist in this world of fantasy, myth and legend forever. So immersed am I in the world the author has so vividly created, I just don’t want to leave.  

These are the kinds of books I wait for to come along while I persevere through that other shit.

Ladies and gentleman, fellow book lovers, I have found that something better. And while I don’t want to overwhelm you with my mushy love affair with that something better, I can’t help myself. I must spring onto Oprah’s couch, jump up and down and shout, “I love these books! I love these books!”

I’m talking about the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.

I had been looking at the first book in the trilogy, The Way of Shadows, for a good couple of years. Every visit to the bookstore I’d see it on the shelf, hear it whisper my name. I’d pick it up, read the synopsis on the back cover, ponder, even doubt. I’m a scorned woman, after all, and it makes me a little shy sometimes. But when I happened to catch it half-off at a local book store in St. Paul, I knew it was fate. I was meant to read this book.

And I have no regrets.

I once described the book via Twitter: As if my favorite superhero mated with a ninja, and then that baby mated with Lord of the Rings. One, bad-ass baby, guys. Which is why this trilogy found itself at the top of my list of favorite trilogies, sharing a slot with Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy.   

I’m a sucker for stories with a hero that is also kind of an anti-hero. It reminds me that while we are all riddled with the flaws of humanity, we can still be great and do great things. In Shadows, we have such a character in Kylar Stern. It’s so very easy to empathize with him, to understand his doubt and insecurities, his fear and self-loathing. It’s what makes us want to see him victorious, and it also keeps us believing when he falters.

In addition to Kylar, we meet numerous other noteworthy characters, and whether you love or hate them, you can’t stop reading, can’t stop caring about what happens to them. 

All of this is possible, because Weeks is a great writer. His writing style is exactly what I look for in my books. The dialogue is endearing and witty, and the scene settings are descriptive, imaginative, and, thankfully, concise. He has an amazing ability to give a sense of space and establish an atmosphere with a few sentences. I love Stephen King, but can that man ramble while setting a scene! It works for some; it does not always work for this gal. I’m a notorious skimmer, and if I start to get bored, I start skimming. Skimming, in any of the books in Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy, felt like sacrilege. I couldn’t do it, had to hang onto every word, savoring each one like the sweet little morsel of the world’s finest chocolate that it was…

Oh, sorry. I started to have a moment, there. *blush*

There is not a weak link in this trilogy. Each book delivers a great story, great action, great plot twists, all with amazing heart and emotion. Like the Black Jewels trilogy, these are books that I will revisit time and time again. And each time will, as Foreigner sings, feel like the first time.