History Literature / TheNightAngelTrilogy

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event of AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', as Sanderson finished Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.

%%* BrownEyes: Essentially, part Doll Girl's namesake and most endearing feature. This carries on [[spoiler:when she grows into a woman, AKA Elene.]]

* BrownEyes: Essentially, part Doll Girl's namesake and most endearing feature. This carries on [[spoiler:when she grows into a woman, AKA Elene.]]

* NightmareFuel: Lots of it over the course of the series one way or another but special mention goes to:
** The Ferali: [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] that are magically-crafted monsters comprised of the forcibly-sacrificed flesh of people as well as any unfortunate that they they consume with their many feeding mouths. Once one of these mouths is attached to victim, they are (not all that quickly and very, very painfully) consumed and their flesh is used to grow the Ferali. They also MUST consume others or they begin to consume themselves. [[spoiler: Those who are consumed have their personalities remain somewhere within the whole leading to an [[AndIMustScream And I Must Scream]] and arguably a [[HeroicSacrifice Heroic Sacrifice]] towards the end of the series.]]
** Those who create Ferali are NightmareFuel in their own way as [[Spoiler: They become a resident host for one of the Others; malevolent, disembodied spirits that invisibly watch over the living and are said to have an affect on the personalities of those they inhabit in negative ways.]]
** The Others themselves are [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] that invisibly and malevolently watch over the 'real' world constantly. When they DO interact with the living, it is invariably unpleasant. [[Spoiler: They are also the power source and dark intelligence for the Krull]]

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Subverted with poor Kylar, who despises his virginity on.

''The Night Angel Trilogy'' is a fantasy novel series Brent Weeks; who is currently writing Literature/TheLightbringerSeries. It's about a boy (who ends up with the name Kylar, although that's not his only one) from the slums who becomes apprentice to a famed wetboy, assassins with magical talents, and who inherits a [[spoiler:magical artifact which gives him a manner of supernatural powers.]] Lots of politics, war, and evil megalomaniacs. Major subjects include Kylar's feelings about his job, his love triangle, and the fact that bad things happen to good people.

** This is more a subversion of the trope as Kylar chooses Elene over Vi repeatedly in the third book (even engaging in nightly sex and a secret marriage with Elene while still magically ringed to his "wife" Vi) and it's clearly shown during a magical earring induced dream that his feelings for Vi were more superficial, based mostly on his attraction to her body as opposed to any real romantic love. In this light any potential pairing with Vi at the end is less out of any romantic feelings and more out of a desire to seek the comfort of a friend.

* BrownEyes: Essentially, part Doll Girl's namesake (a doll-like face) and most endearing feature. This carries on [[spoiler:when she grows into a woman, AKA Elene.]]

** [[spoiler: Logan. His childhood love has screwed just about every boy their age, his family is slaughtered, his best friends were a spy for the underworld and one of the boys screwing his childhood love, his mentor was really a spy for a group of mages, he is forced to become prince against his will and enter a loveless marriage, his wife is murdered in front of them DURING their wedding night, and he is forced to leap into what is basically Hell Itself to survive. And that was just the first book... Justified since he ends up having the one truly happy ending (reunited with his wife and best friend, and destined to be a good King)]]

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Ceura seems to draw on (but not be identical to) medieval Japan, though with the standard medieval European setting as a base. Likewise with Ymmur and the Mongols, and Khalidor and parts of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Middle East.

* LostTechnology: Ezra the Mad created a lot of magical versions of this (including most of the ka'kari). [[spoiler: The black ka'kari is older than all of them, and the other ka'kari are imitations, although most characters are unaware of that fact, and its origins are lost to time. However, Ezra did tinker around with it and enhance its abilities- most notably, before he came along, holders of the black ka'kari were very much mortal, if still superpowered.]]

* NamedWeapons: Curoch, the Sword of Power, and Iures, the Staff of Law. The former has (or looks like a sword which has) a prominent place in one particular culture as Ceur'caelestos, the Blade of Heaven, while Iures spends most of the plot [[spoiler:disguised as a sword called Retribution.]] It's implied that they may both have had other names and guises through the ages, too.
* NearDeathExperience: When Kylar dies, he gets presented with two doorways - one goes to whatever comes after death, while another goes back to the world. If he selects the latter (and he does), he can never change his mind.

* ReligionOfEvil / PathOfInspiration: Khali gains her power from suffering. (It could be any strong emotion, but she simply finds that one easiest to generate on a large scale.) The extent to which this is understood and/or cared about is difficult to judge, given that her worshipers have little freedom to do anything else.

* RoyalBlood: Respect for royal blood is why the Duke Gyre (who'd have made a good king) didn't claim the throne. The lack of royal blood is also why Lantano Garuwashi feels such a need to prove himself despite already being a brilliant warlord and duelist - according to his culture, commoners can never achieve true greatness.

* TalkingWeapon: The black ka'kari, although more than just a weapon, fits this. (The two important ''actual'' swords don't seem very chatty.)

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Logan has to decide the fate of Kylar after he kills a really bad person, a really bad ''Noble'' person, and is caught. He decides to [[spoiler: sentence Kylar to death for Law, and send a wetboy to spring him from jail for Good (Kylar stays in jail)]]. Kylar actually understood this trope in advance, and knew what the consequences would be.

''The Night Angel Trilogy'' is a fantasy novel series Brent Weeks; who is currently writing Literature/TheLightbringerSeries. It's about a boy (who ends up with the name Kylar, although that's not his only one) from the slums who becomes apprentice to a famed wetboy, assassins with magical talents, and who inherits a magical artifact which gives him all manner of supernatural powers (and makes him effectively immortal). Lots of politics, war, and evil megalomaniacs. Major subjects include Kylar's feelings about his job (is it something that's necessary, or is it an evil that he should walk away from?), his love triangle, and the fact that bad things happen to good people (in these books, quite frequently.)

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful (yet dark and ultraviolent) adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event of AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', as Sanderson finished Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.

-->So first you kill a King and now you're going after a Goddess? If you don't figure out a way to kill continents next, you're going to have to retire.

* {{Badass}}: Many characters could qualify.
** Durzo [[spoiler: For being every goddamned hero of legend at some point or another.]]
** Kylar [[spoiler: He kills thirty highlanders (Effectively a race of [[TheBigGuy big guys]]), four vurdmeisters (Mages hyped up on crazy amounts of power), and an aethling (A vurdmeister son of the Godking).]] But, he lacks a certain ''je ne sais quoi''.
** Logan Gyre, resident BadassNormal nobleman. [[spoiler: He leaps into the Hole, effectively hell on earth. And ''survives''.]]
** Solon [[spoiler:Stormrider. He is commanded to halt a rebellion. So how does he do it? He sets off in a canoe to the next island over. In the middle of winter. ''By himself''. He then puts down the first rebellion single-handedly, takes the captured soldiers home, and wakes up to find people are volunteering to take him on their ship to the next island, still in the middle of the storm-ridden winter. And he has white hair - which, according to his crew, is growing through white because the winter storms found him too tough to chew on and spat him back out. The real reason is more awesome; he uses the most powerful magical artifact on earth, the merest touch of which can kill a lesser mage, and survives.]]And it kills almost every single munchkin bad guy magician in a mile radius. Oh, and he fights the next guy to a standstill, [[spoiler: with a sword on fire!]]
** Lantano Garuwashi : Another BadAssNormal A exceptional swordsman about on par with Durzo and without the use of any magical power. He's killed about 80 people in 1-on-1 duels.
** Dorian: This guy [[spoiler:rips out his own prophetic gift, becomes Godking after pretending to be a eunuch, murders many of his brothers, rips out his own vir, wields Iures and Curoch and lives, goes mad, but still manages to implant Kylar and Elene's child into Jenine.]]
** Vi [[spoiler: She's considered the most Talented woman to come to the Chantry in 100 years. She also opens a dam, with her bare hands and powerful magical ability.]]

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful (yet dark and ultraviolent) adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event of AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', as Sanderson finished Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.

->''Assassins have targets. Wetboys have deaders.[...]Once you've accepted the contract, whatever's left of the deader's life is just a formality.''
->- '''Durzo Blint'''

'''The Night Angel Trilogy''' is a fantasy novel series Brent Weeks; who is currently writing Literature/TheLightbringerSeries. It's about a boy (who ends up with the name Kylar, although that's not his only one) from the slums who becomes apprentice to a famed wetboy, assassins with magical talents, and who inherits a magical artifact which gives him all manner of supernatural powers (and makes him effectively immortal). Lots of politics, war, and evil megalomaniacs. Major subjects include Kylar's feelings about his job (is it something that's necessary, or is it an evil that he should walk away from?), his love triangle, and the fact that bad things happen to good people (in these books, quite frequently.)

** [[spoiler: Logan. His childhood love has boinked just about every boy their age, his family is slaughtered, his best friends were a spy for the underworld and one of the boys boinking his childhood love, his mentor was really a spy for a group of mages, he is forced to become prince against his will and enter a loveless marriage, his wife is murdered in front of them DURING their wedding night, and he is forced to leap into what is basically Hell Itself to survive. And that was just the first book... Justified since he ends up having the one truly happy ending (reunited with his wife and best friend, and destined to be a good King)]]

* ClusterFBomb: Aleine Gunder IX. Played for laughs. Poor Aleine or Niner as he is not so lovingly called by just about everyone, swears all the time. He can actually be quite creative there's only one problem, the only swear he knows is the word shit. Due to this fact, and his childish nature he is prone to rant for several minutes. This is so much the case that when he starts cursing everyone in earshot just tunes him out. It doesn't help much that he's the king and therefore no one will swear in front of him. Then along comes resident badass Durzo. It wasn't until after Niner saw the looks on his guards faces that he realized he'd been insulted.

* ScarsAreForever: Durzo is described as having divits in his face from some sort of poison. [[spoiler: Elene's face is covered with scars from the beating given to her as Doll Girl by Rat. Speaking of Rat/Roth, Azoth cut off his ear and left him to drown. He was saved by a Vurdmeister, who partly ''melted'' his remaining ear as punishment for nearly dying.]]

** This is more a subversion of the trope as Kylar chooses Elene over Vi repeatedly in the third book (even engaging in nightly sex and a secret marriage with Elene while still magically ringed to his "wife" Vi) and its clearly shown during a magical earring induced dream that his feelings for Vi were more superficial, based mostly on his attraction to her body as opposed to any real romantic love. In this light any potential pairing with Vi at the end is less out of any romantic feelings and more out of a desire to seek the comfort of a friend.

** Khalidor, to the North, is several magnitudes worse, a ReligionOfEvil- Magocracy / Theocracy literally built on suffering and war, where the GodEmperor is ''always'' a prolific serial torture-rapist-killer, and above him the GodOfEvil who controls the [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide highly addictive]] and [[TheCorruption corrupting]] BlackMagic that makes the country one of the most powerful and expansionist natons on the continent. Misogny is hardwired into the culture to the point where sexual slavery is the closest they have to marriage, and ''not'' beating and raping your sex-slave daily is practically revolutionary. God-Kings are chosen from a batch of the predecessors (male) bastard kids by his savagely abused concubines, who are "trained" on a diet of rape, torture and murder (the female bastards, their half-sisters, amongst the victims) and encouraged to plot and scheme against each other (to the point of murder, if they can get away with it). This has all been going on since the dynasty was founded centuries ago by a man one contemporary explicitly referred to as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Dark Lord]], and its armies include a range of monsters and, in a pinch, demons, all of which require multiple ritual human sacrifices to create or summon for battle.

** Lantano Garuwashi : Another BadAssNormal A exceptional swordsman about on Par with Durzo and without the use of any magical power. He's killed about 80 people in 1-on-1 duels.

--> "I am Sa'kagé, a lord of shadows. I claim the shadows that the Shadow may not. I am the strong arm of deliverance. I am Shadowstrider. I am the Scales of Justive. I am He-Who-Guards-Unseen. I am Shadowslayer. I am Nameless. The ''coranti'' shall not go unpunished. My way is hard, but I serve unbroken. In ignobility, nobility. In shame, honor. In darkness, light. I will do justice and love mercy. Until the king returns, I shall not lay my burden down."

** There are at least two outright quotations from Literature/TheBible. Elene says the God's blessings are 'new every morning' (Lamentations 3:23, best known from the hymn 'The Steadfast Love of the Lord Never Ceases') and when Dorian wrestles with his conscience over [[spoiler:whether to tell Jenine that Logan lives]], the voice of God quotes Jeremiah 29:11 to him ("I know the plans I have for you"). For what its worth, Brent Weeks is an atheist-turned- Christian (though the story never becomes an AuthorTract).

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful (yet dark and ultraviolent) adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event of AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', as Sanderson finished Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful (yet dark and ultraviolent) adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', as Sanderson finished Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful (yet dark and ultraviolent) adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' as Sanderson finished Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.

'''The Night Angel Trilogy''' is a fantasy novel series Brent Weeks; who is currently writes Literature/TheLightbringerSeries. It's about a boy (who ends up with the name Kylar, although that's not his only one) from the slums who becomes apprentice to a famed wetboy, and who inherits a magical artifact which gives him all manner of supernatural powers (and makes him effectively immortal). Lots of politics, war, and evil megalomaniacs. Major subjects include Kylar's feelings about his job (is it something that's necessary, or is it an evil that he should walk away from?), his love triangle, and the fact that bad things happen to good people (in these books, quite frequently.)

In some ways the story reads like a strange and wonderful (yet dark and ultraviolent) adult-themed hybrid of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' [[note]] To the point that Creator/BrandonSanderson once commented that Brent Weeks writing was similar enough to his that, in the event AuthorExistenceFailure, Brent is one of the writers he might recommend for finishing ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' as Sanderson is finishing ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''[[/note]] and ''TheFirstLaw'', with a bit of ''[[RealmOfTheElderlings The Farseer Trilogy ]]'' thrown in for good measure. From there things build to a study of faith, love, the cost of doing the right (and wrong) thing, what to do in an [[CrapsackWorld unfair universe]], and a look at what immortality can do to a person. Add in a high amount of action, politics, and a multitude of [[ThePlan plans]] conducted by [[GambitPileup multitudes of people]] of [[GambitRoulette increasingly complexity]] and you have an idea of what the series is like. And add gore. Gore and rape and prostitution and torture and more gore and rape. This is a series that starts with sexually abused children and gets darker from there.