Brent Weeks
Brent Weeks (born March 7, 1977) is an American fantasy writer. His debut novel, The Way of Shadows, hit The New York Times Best Seller list in April 2009[1]. 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]
Brent Weeks | |
---|---|
Born | Montana, USA | March 7, 1977
Occupation | Writer |
Genre | Fantasy |
Spouse | Kristi Weeks |
Website | |
brentweeks |
Early life
Weeks was born in Whitefish, Montana on 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
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 JRR 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 his publishers announced in 2012 (to coincide with the release of book 2, The Blinding Knife) that it would span four books,[13] 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 Lightbringer #4, 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.[14]
The fifth and final book in the Lightbringer Series, The Burning White, was published on October 22, 2019. Weeks wrote a longform essay for the promotional tour of the book, titled, "On Ending Well."
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[15]. The Black Prism was recently listed among the best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Novels of the 2010s by BookBub[16].
Weeks is represented by the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Works
Night Angel Series
- The Way of Shadows (2008)
- Shadow's Edge (2008)
- Beyond the Shadows (2008)
- Night Angel Novella
- Night Angel Short Story
- I, Night Angel (Sequel) (Found for free in Wattpad)
- Graphic Novel
- The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel (2014)[19]
Lightbringer Series
- The Black Prism (2010, ISBN 978-1841499048)
- The Blinding Knife (2012, ISBN 978-1841499086)[20]
- The Broken Eye (2014, ISBN 978-1841499116)
- The Blood Mirror (2016, ISBN 978-0356504636) [21]
- The Burning White (2019 ISBN 978-0316251303)
- Lightbringer Short Story
- Gunner's Apprentice (2014, between Books 3 and 4; non-canonical. Found on the Orbit website)
- Shawarma Scene (2019, after Book 5. Found on the Brent Weeks website[22])
Awards
Year | Award | Place | Category | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | Compton Crook Award | Nomination | Balticon - Best First Novel | Way of Shadows |
2009 | Gemmell Award | Nomination | Legend Award | 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[23] | Win | r/Fantasy | The Blinding Knife |
2013 | Endeavour | Nomination | Distinguished Novel or Collection | The Blinding Knife |
2013 | Gemmell Award[24] | Win | Legend Award | The Blinding Knife |
2013 | German Reader's Choice[25] | 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
- "Not An April Fools Joke". Brent Weeks.
- "Brent Weeks Bio". Brent Weeks.
- "Bio". Brent Weeks. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- "Brent Weeks". Hachette Book Group. 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
- "Author's Shelf Series feat. Brent Weeks". Legendarium Podcast.
- Weeks, Brent (2019). The Burning White. Orbit. pp. 916–917. ISBN 978-0-316-25130-3.
- Weeks, Brent (2019). The Burning White. Orbit. p. 430. ISBN 978-0-316-25128-0.
- Bastos, Cesar. "Bragelonne donne de la Voie". Fantasy.fr. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- "Orbit Makes a Third Rotation". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- Green, Scott. "Yen Press Licenses "Another" and "BTOOOM!" Manga". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- "THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY – LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER". www.orbitbooks.net. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
- "Fiction Book Review: The Black Prism". Publisher's Weekly.
- Fitzgerald, Laura. "THE BLINDING KNIFE by Brent Weeks releases this week!". Orbit Books blog. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- "The Blood Mirror Release Date". Brent Weeks, the Official Site. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- "Best Sellers - Nov. 10, 2019 - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
- "The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Decade". www.bookbub.com. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
- "Night Angel – Series Bibliography". ISFDB. Retrieved 2014-07-27. Select a title to see its linked publication history and general information. Select a particular edition (title) for more data at that level, such as a front cover image or linked contents.
- opossumWilliams, Charlotte. "Orbit to publish Weeks title as e-book only". The Bookseller. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- "Books". Brent Weeks. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- "Fiction Review: The Blinding Knife". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- "The Blood Mirror (Lightbringer, #4)". Goodreads. Retrieved 2017-06-14.
- "The Burning White - the finale of the Lightbringer series | Talons of Justice". talonsofjustice.com. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
- "WINNERS: r/Fantasy Best of 2012!". Reddit.
- "2013 David Gemmell Award Winners". SFF World.
- "German Reader's Choice/Leserpreis 2013". Brent Weeks.
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Brent Weeks |
- Official website
- Brent Weeks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Interview with Daniel Greene
- Brent Weeks at Library of Congress Authorities, with 8 catalog records