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Brent Weeks

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Brent Weeks
Born (1977-03-07) March 7, 1977 (age 47)
Montana, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Alma materHillsdale College
GenreFantasy
SpouseKristi Weeks
Website
brentweeks.com

Brent Weeks (born March 7, 1977) is an American fantasy writer. His debut novel, The Way of Shadows, was a New York Times best seller in April 2009.[1][failed verification] Each of the five books in his Lightbringer series made the NYT list as well, starting with The Black Prism in 2010. He lives and works near Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kristi, and their two daughters.[2]

Early life

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Weeks was born in Whitefish, Montana, on (1977-03-07)March 7, 1977. He attended Whitefish High School, and graduated from Hillsdale College in 2000 with a degree in English. He has said that he decided to try writing novels during a semester abroad at Oxford College, an experience that was influential to him personally and professionally. He briefly worked as a teacher at Salem Academy in Oregon and as a bartender before moving to writing full-time.[3]

Writing

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Weeks has published two complete series, the Night Angel trilogy and the Lightbringer series. All eight novels are published by Orbit Books,[4] a division of Hachette Book Group. His writing has been heavily influenced by the Classics (including The Odyssey[5] and Dante's Inferno[6]), Shakespeare, William Butler Yeats, and J. R. R. Tolkien.[7]

The entire Night Angel trilogy[8][9]—The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge, and Beyond the Shadows—was published as mass market paperback volumes in October 2008. Since its debut, the trilogy has been printed in more than 14 languages, and has more than one million copies in print. The Way of Shadows was also published as a graphic novel by Yen Press,[10] adapted by Andrew McDonald and Ivan Brandon. Orbit Books published a hardcover 10th Anniversary Edition of the trilogy in November 2018.[11] Perfect Shadow, a novella set in the Night Angel universe, was published by Subterranean Press as a lettered & numbered hardcover edition in 2011, and is currently available from Orbit as an ebook. There are more than 4 million copies of his books in print.

The first novel in his Lightbringer series, The Black Prism, was released in 2010.[12] The series was originally intended to be a trilogy, but after sending the completed manuscript for The Black Prism, Brent Weeks sent an email to his editor saying it would be more than three books.[13] His publishers announced in 2012 (to coincide with the release of book 2, The Blinding Knife) that it would span four books,[14] the third of which, The Broken Eye, was released in August 2014.

On May 11, 2016, Brent Weeks announced via email newsletter and his website that the fourth installment in the Lightbringer series, The Blood Mirror, would be published on October 25/27 of 2016 (US/UK release dates, respectively). He also announced that "There will be five books in the Lightbringer series, not four..." Weeks did not, however, indicate a release date.[15]

The fifth and final book in the Lightbringer series, The Burning White,[16] was published on October 22, 2019. Weeks wrote a longform essay for the promotional tour of the book, titled "On Ending Well".[17]

Each book in the Lightbringer series appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, with The Burning White reaching #4 on the Combined Print & E-book list.[18] The Black Prism was recently listed among the best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Novels of the 2010s by BookBub.[19]

Weeks is represented by the Donald Maass Literary Agency.[20]

On June 6, 2022, Weeks announced on Twitter that the fourth book of the Night Angel series would be released in the spring of 2023.

Works

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Night Angel series

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Original Trilogy
Main article: Night Angel trilogy
  1. The Way of Shadows (2008)
  2. Shadow's Edge (2008)
  3. Beyond the Shadows (2008)
Night Angel novellas
Night Angel short stories
  • "I, Night Angel" (sequel; available for free in Wattpad)
Graphic novels
  • The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel (2014)[23]
The Kylar Chronicles
  1. Night Angel Nemesis (2023)

Lightbringer series

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  1. The Black Prism (2010, ISBN 978-1841499048)
  2. The Blinding Knife (2012, ISBN 978-1841499086)[24]
  3. The Broken Eye (2014, ISBN 978-1841499116)[25]
  4. The Blood Mirror (2016, ISBN 978-0356504636)[26]
  5. The Burning White (2019 ISBN 978-0316251303)
Lightbringer short stories

Awards

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Year Award Place Category Title
2009 Compton Crook Award Nomination Balticon—Best First Novel Way of Shadows
2009 Gemmell Award Nomination Legend Award The Way of Shadows
2010 Goodreads Reader's Choice 6 Fantasy The Black Prism
2011 Endeavour Nomination Distinguished Novel or Collection The Black Prism
2011 Gemmell Award Nomination Legend Award The Black Prism
2012 Goodreads Reader's Choice 5 Fantasy The Blinding Knife
2012 Reddit Stabby Award[28] Win r/Fantasy The Blinding Knife
2013 Endeavour Nomination Distinguished Novel or Collection The Blinding Knife
2013 Gemmell Award[29] Win Legend Award The Blinding Knife
2013 German Reader's Choice[30] Nomination Leserpreis/Translation The Blinding Knife/Die Blendende Klinge
2014 Goodreads Reader's Choice 12 Fantasy The Broken Eye
2015 Gemmell Award Nomination Legend Award The Broken Eye
2016 Goodreads Reader's Choice 19 Fantasy The Blood Mirror
2019 Goodreads Reader's Choice 17 Fantasy The Burning White

References

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  1. ^ "Not An April Fools Joke". Brent Weeks. April 2009.
  2. ^ "Brent Weeks Bio". Brent Weeks.
  3. ^ "Bio". Brent Weeks. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  4. ^ "Brent Weeks". Hachette Book Group. 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
  5. ^ "Author's Shelf Series feat. Brent Weeks". Legendarium Podcast.
  6. ^ Weeks, Brent (2019). The Burning White. Orbit. pp. 916–917. ISBN 978-0-316-25130-3.
  7. ^ Weeks, Brent (2019). The Burning White. Orbit. p. 430. ISBN 978-0-316-25128-0.
  8. ^ Bastos, Cesar. "Bragelonne donne de la Voie". Fantasy.fr. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  9. ^ "Orbit Makes a Third Rotation". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  10. ^ Green, Scott. "Yen Press Licenses "Another" and "BTOOOM!" Manga". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  11. ^ "THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY – LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER". www.orbitbooks.net. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  12. ^ "Fiction Book Review: The Black Prism". Publishers Weekly.
  13. ^ "Re-Introducing an Interview with the Incomparable Brent Weeks!". GNN. 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  14. ^ Fitzgerald, Laura (11 September 2012). "THE BLINDING KNIFE by Brent Weeks releases this week!". Orbit Books blog. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  15. ^ "The Blood Mirror Release Date". Brent Weeks, the Official Site. 11 May 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  16. ^ The Burning White
  17. ^ "On Ending Well".
  18. ^ "Best Sellers - Nov. 10, 2019 - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  19. ^ "The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Decade". BookBub. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  20. ^ "Clients: Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror". Donald Maass Literary Agency.
  21. ^ "Night Angel – Series Bibliography". ISFDB. Retrieved 2014-07-27
  22. ^ opossumWilliams, Charlotte. "Orbit to publish Weeks title as e-book only". The Bookseller. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  23. ^ "Books". Brent Weeks. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  24. ^ "Fiction Review: The Blinding Knife". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  25. ^ Aplin, Marc (September 2014). "The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks: Review".
  26. ^ "The Blood Mirror (Lightbringer, #4)". Goodreads. Retrieved 2017-06-14.
  27. ^ "The Burning White - the finale of the Lightbringer series | Talons of Justice". talonsofjustice.com. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  28. ^ "WINNERS: r/Fantasy Best of 2012!". Reddit. January 2013.
  29. ^ "2013 David Gemmell Award Winners". SFF World.
  30. ^ "German Reader's Choice/Leserpreis 2013". Brent Weeks. 21 November 2013.
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