This is a Novella on the Origin of Durzo Blint.

Spoiler

Where we see Acaelus Thorne at the lowest moment in his long life. He finally cracks when his latest family is murdered and during the course of the novella, we see Gaelan train to become a Wetboy and become a murderer for hire. During the course of the story, we also see the strain with his relationship with the Ka'Kari as it clearly disapproves of his actions. - which as we all know at this point is why the Ka'Kari abandons him when we get to The Way of Shadows.

We also get a peek at some of the other characters from the trilogy and learn some background info on them.

Although technically a prequel I would recommend reading the Trilogy first before reading this as it does contain massive spoilers for the first book and some of the content in this book can't be truly appreciated without having the prior knowledge of the other books.

Also my copy came with the short story I, Night Angel Which takes place after the events of the third book in the perspective of Kylar.

All in all a fun little read if you enjoyed the Night Angel Trilogy and want to spend more time in this world.

I actually have listened to the audiobook of this before, but it was my first time reading. Only 50 pages, so finished in a couple of hours; it's a short little story about lovely Durzo, although some parts jump around a little from third to first person, which is strange. Definitely better to read this after the Night Angel trilogy. Nice worldbuilding and writing as always, although the timeframes are strange and disjointed at points.

Assassins going to assassinate people all assassin-like. Add crazy awesome magical abilities, immortality, love, shadows, betrayals, and constant action. You may just have Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella.

I don't think I'd recommend diving into Perfect Shadow without having already read the rest of the Night Angel Trilogy, or at least the first book, The Way of Shadows. It's a great series especially if you want a book/series that's really hard to put down. With all its faults, it's so much fun.

If you haven't read the trilogy, or at least book one, then you may not want to read further...

Perfect Shadow takes us back in Durzo Blint's history. He's just around 700 years old, so he's got plenty to go around. We learn things not only from his distant past, but also how he got to where he is at the start of the main sequence, just before Kylar comes into the picture.

In a kind of Name of the Wind style (but a little more confusing), Durzo Blint, tells us his story as he sees it.

As I mentioned above, there's plenty of assassinining going on and a nice little plot with Momma K, to take out all the wetboys (super-assassins) in the city.

The writing isn't going to win any awards, but the action and imagination are what keep me coming back.

4 out of 5 Stars

So I read this after the Way of Shadows. Haven't read the other two books in the trilogy yet.

There are some things I LOVED about this and some I didn't take very well. I think because the audiobook has no indication of when we are jumping place and time it can be a little jarring. I will have to read it again in hardcopy in the future.

I think after WoS you could read this without being lost, however I can guess at what may be a spoiler for later books. I will have to see if my guess was right when I finish Shadows Edge and Beyond the Shadows.

It is a solid novella and I am glad I read it at this point even if it might be spoiling some later revelations. I only wish it had been fleshed out a little more and the skips were more pronounced in the audiobook or it would get a solid 4 stars instead of a 3.5.

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS. It will ruin several key plot points. I

This is marketed as a novella that explains Durzo's backstory (from the Night Angel trilogy) - it's actually more like a short story. I found it pretty disappointing since I thought Durzo was the most interesting character in the series. I was expecting to hear more about his original life as Acaelus Thorne and what happened before the ka'karis, but instead it was just about how he met Momma K. I don't know what the point of it even was - there was nothing new in it and nothing really new about Durzo's life either (and mostly nothing about his time as Acaelus Thorne). My opinion - you can skip this and miss out on nothing. Also - if you haven't read the Night Angel trilogy don't start with this book. It contains massive spoilers.