SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Brent Weeks has been kind enough to agree to join us for a Q&A this month to discuss the first book in his Night Angel series. However, he will be on tour for most of the month promoting the recent release of the latest book in his Lightbringer series and so will only be available to start answering questions in the last week of September. Regardless, you can start posting questions about The Way of Shadows to this thread now.

Ask away!

As the group has also read The Black Prism you can also ask questions about it as well. For non-group read books please use spoiler tags and say which book you are asking about outside the tags.

The most obvious question is do you plan to return to the Night Angel universe again?

Not really a question, wanted to say I loved 'The Black Prism'. Great writing, a very long book but never felt my interest flag or that it was padded at all. Fascinating magic system.

Look forward to continuing the series and finding out what happens to the Prism after that climatic battle.

Same question as Kim. I would love to see more of Kylar, especially as he explores the limits of his new power.

Q: Do you get tired with being compared to Joe Abercrombie b/c his First Law books were published before the Night Angel trilogy? And b/c they have the same (?) type of anti-hero???

BTW: I love both and am totally infatuated with both :)

Oh, and what decided you to write about chromathurgy (is that the right word??) ?? How did you decide/imagine the possibilities of light separation in order to produce a (fantastic) fantasy??

And, just in case you missed this, I am totally enamoured with all 6 of your printed books :)

Brent

I have only read the one book of yours, The Way of Shadows and I was thoroughly engrossed from beginning to end. Its a cracking tale well told.

I now plan to read the rest.

I have 2 questions

1. How much say did you get in the cover of the book? While one shouldn't judge a book by its cover I'm not convinced the cover did justice to the book which was far more nuanced and dark than I expected it to be and ..

2. Airwolf or Blue Thunder? (Because I'm pretty sure any other question I had would be one you have heard 200 times before.)

The Way of Shadows is the first of your books that I've read, but I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the Night Angel series. No question, just a thanks for a good read this month!

Enjoyed reading the book a lot, a very grim and bloody tale not at all like the world of 'The Black Prism', hard to believe they were written by the same author. Which of the two were tougher to write (ignoring the fact Prism is much longer)?

1. One of the things I've enjoyed reading in your Lightbringer series is the fact that Kip is not the normal hero physique. How did you decide to write him that way?

Kim wrote: "The most obvious question is do you plan to return to the Night Angel universe again?"

I do plan to return to the world of Midcyru for a full-length series after I finish The Lightbringer Series. Many of the characters (who actually survived) the end of Beyond the Shadows will show up!

David wrote: "Not really a question, wanted to say I loved 'The Black Prism'. Great writing, a very long book but never felt my interest flag or that it was padded at all. Fascinating magic system.

Look for..."

Thank you! The next two books are even longer, and yet I strive to write stories in which every chapter is necessary, and something is always happening. I hope you enjoy them just as much as this one -- if not more.

Gav451 wrote: "Brent

I have only read the one book of yours, The Way of Shadows and I was thoroughly engrossed from beginning to end. Its a cracking tale well told.

I now plan to read the rest.

I have 2 ques..."

I think I suggested a white background, and I have to admit, I too was skeptical when I first saw the cover (for very similar reasons). I thought that the image was eye-catching -- especially at the time amid a sea of very colorful, very intricate fantasy covers -- but I too thought, "My book is about so much more than just a ninja!"
But as Tim Holman, the head of Orbit, explained to me, the purpose of a cover isn't too fully tell the story inside the book -- it's to get the right readers to pick up the book. So from a glance at this cover from across the room, you see 1) that it's different from what's around it, 2) that it's going to be a adventure-y story focused on a ninja/assassin character... and that's it. Considering how well the book did, I think that this cover was wonderful about getting the right readers to pick it up. Later on, Orbit did reissue an omnibus (all 3 novels in 1 volume) with a very different cover. I know some fans simply hate the first cover, and the omnibus cover is far more sophisticated.
2. Air Wolf. I loved that show as a kid. I made the mistake of trying to go back and revisit my childhood by watching it again... and there are certain things best left in one's childhood! Compared to today's TV shows, well, sometimes the good ol' days aren't quite what we remember!

David wrote: "Enjoyed reading the book a lot, a very grim and bloody tale not at all like the world of 'The Black Prism', hard to believe they were written by the same author. Which of the two were tougher to w..."

I would say that technically, The Lightbringer books have been far harder to write, as they're more ambitious, more complicated, and subject to a higher level of scrutiny. But The Night Angel books were written before I was published, and so I constantly had the threat of never being able to finish the series because I had to get a real job, or nobody ever caring about what I thought was pretty darn good work. So that was really hard in its own way.

Brittany wrote: "*SPOILER* Brent: "Life is meaningless. Love is a noose." We come to understand this throughout the entire series. My question is, was this the idea from the first draft, or did it come about throug..."

The utter nihilism of Durzo's philosophy in The Way of Shadows, and the contradictions of that philosophy -- not least in his own life -- are central to the entire trilogy. That was there from the beginning. A lot of what Durzo says is bitterness coming through at what he's experienced, rather than what he really believes.
Engaging some of the big questions was always something I wanted to do with this series. And my take here was actually reflected in the titles themselves -- a progression from darkness to light, with The Way of Shadows, to Shadow's Edge, to Beyond the Shadows.
That said, yes, I wanted to write a very different story, still dealing with some big questions, but starting at different places, and depicting different struggles with The Lightbringer Series. I'm not interested in writing the same book over and over, not even within a series.

Carole-Ann wrote: "Q: Do you get tired with being compared to Joe Abercrombie b/c his First Law books were published before the Night Angel trilogy? And b/c they have the same (?) type of anti-hero???..."

1. No, I don't get tired of being compared to Joe Abercrombie. He writes excellent books. That said, I've been compared to a lot of different authors at different times. I think of the comparisons as akin to shelving books in a bookstore. Some authors don't think their books fit solidly in fantasy, and wished they were shelved elsewhere... but at the end of the day, you have to put books somewhere. Not every author can have her own shelf!
I think my books have strong thematic and tone differences from Abercrombie's work, but if you want to say, "Hey, there's really great fantasy being written right now by a new generation; check out Sanderson, and Abercrombie, and Weeks..." Then hey, that's a wonderful place to be!
2. Chromaturgy came about simply because I'm fascinated by light. It's one of those things that the more you learn about it, the more mysterious it is. Consider the bizarre simplicity of Einstein's e=mc^2.
I mean, that corresponds to the way the universe is. Isn't that magical and marvelous? Then when you contrast and add to this objective system of electromagnetic radiation, the subjective and flawed systems of how our own bodies perceive light -- some of us with very poor color differentiation, and some with super color differentiation -- you wonder if people are even seeing the same things. That's cool and mysterious and complicated to me. So getting to delve into that in my work is a gift.

Leonie wrote: "1. One of the things I've enjoyed reading in your Lightbringer series is the fact that Kip is not the normal hero physique. How did you decide to write him that way?"

This is one of the greater challenges that I took on in writing this over the Night Angel series. Having a character with fewer differentiating features allows a reader to more easily put themselves in his shoes. So when you are a person who is not fat, and has never been fat, and you read about Kip, it takes an imaginative leap for you to feel with him; rather than simply say, "Stop eating so much, fatty!"
That said, I was just kind of tired of fantasy characters who felt the same. I wanted to do something different.

Brent wrote: "Leonie wrote: "1. One of the things I've enjoyed reading in your Lightbringer series is the fact that Kip is not the normal hero physique. How did you decide to write him that way?"

This is one of..."

Thank you so much for responding to our questions!

I really like Kip as a character - probably more than I've enjoyed a character for a while - and I think it's because he's different to the normal tropes, and because he seems more real than many other characters I've read recently. It was fascinating to read from his perspective in The Broken Eye.

I'm not sure if you're still answering questions, but I do have one other.

Ironfist - was he always going to step up into a central role or was he one of those characters who weaselled his way into a bigger place in the story? He's one of my favourite characters, and I'm still recovering from the end of The Broken Eye...

Thanks so much for joining us for this Q&A Brent! Your responses are fantastic and have been great fun to read.

I'm excited to see what else you have in store for us in this universe.

Brent wrote: "Kim wrote: "The most obvious question is do you plan to return to the Night Angel universe again?"

I do plan to return to the world of Midcyru for a full-length series after I finish The Lightbrin..."
Thank you! The ending of the trilogy is very open and I NEED :o) continuation!

Please, who are/were parents of Azoth/Kylar? Why they abandoned him? Or they died? He had not any other relatives, or why they abandoned him?
Why he is ka´kafier - is there any special reason for it?
Has his first name (Azoth) any special meaning or it has only nice sound for his parents?

Brent, please, was Jarl gay, bisexual or traumatized heterosexual man?