Beyond the Shadows

There was a lot I really liked about this book but much more than any other Weeks book I've read, it spent way, way too much of its time musing on the breasts and bodies of its female characters. Weeks has definitely done some of this in other books and there's some level to which you can write this off as “we're seeing the world through the eyes of a young male character” or whatever, but it was just too much in this book. It dragged the book down a lot, to an extent that I almost DNF'ed.

It dragged on too long. Too much lifted from WoT.

3.75*

An excellent and fitting conclusion to the Night Angel series. The scope of the story is expanded greatly in this finale. The reader is rewarded with a sprawling tale that challenges the main characters while bringing to light the importance of the side characters in the series.

An excellent end to the trilogy.

Loved it, as always. The journey you go on with these characters and the connection you feel to them by the end of the series always surprises me. I'll always love this series.

The Way of Shadows ???????????????Shadow's Edge ???????????????Beyond the Shadows ???????????????

For this review, you need to know that I went into this trilogy with an open heart. I had read the complete trilogy years ago, possibly encroaching on ten years ago, when I was a bairn. When it came to my 2018 re-read I only remembered the first book but my feelings regarding the trilogy were warm and fuzzy.

That was lies. I adored book one, it always and forever will be a favourite book of mine. Both books two and three are trash fires that I kind of wish hadn???t been written. That???s not a fair nor objective response to those books. My hopes were high and then subsequently destroyed so my ratings are possibly an overreaction. I???m going to cover my issues with both of the sequels in this review, but be aware that beyond here there be spoilers.

In the second book the cast widens from the first to include POV from Kylar/Azoth???s childhood friends, Elene and Jarl. Additionally we get POV from another apprentice wetboy who was mentioned in the first book Vi, Momma K, Logan Gyre and Solon, Feir and Dorian. There is a wide range of backstories and character types in this cast that would have made for some excellent reading. Only, every time any of the women in the main cast are in a scene it is somehow related to their sexuality and connection to one of the men in the series.

Momma K is the only one who I feel could argue doesn???t fall prey to this as she is successful currently in the timeline of the series on her own means. However in scenes where she interacts with any bloke we are reminded of her beauty and how it made her the hottest commodity back when she was a whore. So I both loved Momma K and her boss ass knowledge/most competent character thing and hated how her backstory kept creeping back in there.

Then we get Elene, the virginal woman who is literally lifted onto a pedestal for her morals and innocence. She really felt like I should be imagining a golden glow around her the whole time. I think this could have been passed over if it hadn???t been for Vi???s demonisation due to her promiscuity. It mentions that she used sex as a weapon and that the master who essentially raised her abused her sexually, yet somehow she never felt sexual pleasure until she fell in love with our hero. I???m not buying the dick so good it reversed the numbness. I just don't. The triangle that was going on for the last two books never felt worth it to me as it was so one sided and undeveloped. Additionally we were treated to that double love triangle goodness in the third book with Jenine/Logan/Dorian. I???m not touching that one at all, none of it was believable or well written and I could have happily skipped it entirely.

Another issue I had with this series was the lack of world building. I struggled to keep the countries and motivations straight in my head the whole time. I???m still not sure where the Chantry is or why everyone seems to not mind that their method of recruitment is kidnapping. Alitaerans are who exactly and what stake do they have in any of this? Why is Cenaria the name of a city and its country (as far as I can tell)? I thought Ceuran meantime someone from Cenaria for ages, and now I???m not sure. I feel like having read this entire series twice I should be sure. If this element had been stronger I probably would have enjoyed this series better.

And finally, what brand of bullshit are we calling that ending? Vi realises magically that Elene is no longer pregnant at Elene???s funeral when touching her. Then instantly realised this must have been because of Dorian touching the two most magical artefacts (as they sang that weird song as a group as Elene lay dying) took her baby and implanted into the pregnant womb of the woman he loved. I would like to smoke whatever Vi is smoking because it might have made that make sense. After this bombshell is dropped, we just move on with life in the happily ever after.

I???m doubting my choice to buy the first four Lightbringer books now. Can someone reassure me they are better that this mess?

This book concludes the trilogy. At times, I found it to be tedious with many characters and details. Some of the religious quotations made me uncomfortable - while other passages described sexuality so explicitly that I was uncomfortable in a completely different way. As with many fantasy books, the author starts with rules for magic - but later in the story the rules are broken. This causes inconsistencies in the story that we're supposed to ignore.

I greatly enjoyed this spanning tale. It had wonderful intrigue and some great plot twist. Several times I was greatly surprised (in the best way) at how a scene turned.
I must admit it skimmed a couple of the fight scenes that were full of flourish.
I will definitely be checking out more of his works and I look forward to see what the future brings in this world.

A nice conclusion but felt like there was so much more story to be told! (I'm talking epic fantasy size story here, so I guess it was good to keep it concise)

awesome!

Executive Summary: I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Most of my friends seemed to enjoy it, but I just found it a disappointment.Audio book: Paul Boehmer again does a good, but not great job as a reader. He is clear and easy to understand. He does a few voices, but I really have trouble telling some of them apart.Full ReviewI found this book to be a letdown. I felt [b:Shadow's Edge 3754016 Shadow's Edge (Night Angel, #2) Brent Weeks http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327881435s/3754016.jpg 3797880] started going off the rails a bit and to be uneven. This book was worse. There are things to like about it. I still found myself rooting for the main characters. The main plot was interesting. But that's about it.This book suffers from way too many subplots. Many of which didn't add much to the story for me. What started as an action packed gritty fantasy series in [b:The Way of Shadows 3227063 The Way of Shadows (Night Angel, #1) Brent Weeks http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327881551s/3227063.jpg 3261241] has somehow been morphed into a bad soap opera.I think the main story suffered as a result of all these subplots. It felt almost as if Mr. Weeks was considering expanding this from a trilogy into a longer series only to sort of plop all the characters together at the end.I would have liked to see more time on Neph Dada and Khali as the main antagonists of this book, they felt more like background noise.The most interesting character of the series to me was not the protagonist Kylar, but his master Durzo Blint. Now that I've finished the trilogy, I think I would have preferred if the first book was followed by two prequel books about Durzo previous exploits instead.The series did at least end at a good place, wrapping up all of the main threads and many of the minor ones, but by the end I was just happy to get it over with.

I really enjoyed all three of the books in the Night Angel Trilogy. Even though it was an “epic” story saving the entire world from catastrophe, the characters are not run-of-the-mill, but deep, and interesting, and so too is the story itself.

The only real negatives for me were the superficial similarities to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. None of it was the same, but some of the points were similar enough to pull me out of it every time I came across them, it pulled me out of the story because I recognized them.

The first of these are the Lae???knaught???an army without a country that dislikes magic; similar to the White Cloaks from The Wheel of Time. The second is the Chantry and the maja are, on the surface, similar to the White Tower and the Aes Sedai. In both cases, the differences are more important to the story and define it as something different, but unfortunately the similarities were enough to bring me out of the story, if just for a moment. This may be because of my mixed feelings about The Wheel of Time books.

All in all, I???m glad I finally got around to reading them. I???ve had the series in paperback in my collection for a few years???I was drawn in by the covers, but never had the time to read them, even if it meant spending my Audible credits on them.

I look forward to reading more by Brent Weeks.

OK, so he borrows a lot of stuff from other authors, and it's not super deep, but it's still fun reading.

AWESOME. This trilogy certainly doesn't get the popular attention it deserves. While other popular fantasy authors get touted for their complex magic systems, Weeks dives in with characters and plows straight through with action and a little emotional tugging to give you a satisfying read. Please don't take my stars on this series compared to past recommendations as valuing this book less - I've been too liberal with stars in the past, and this series deserves top notches. Think epic fantasy without the million cast member, 20 volume set.

Since book 2 in the trilogy had ramped up the story and given some of the other characters some interesting trajectories, I was keen to begin this last book in the trilogy right after finishing book 2. It didn't disappoint either. One thing is for sure in this book, some characters just refused to stay dead. I was racing through the end to see how everything played out. Fun mix of sorcery and action.

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
After the death of Khalidor's brutal God-king, the complex web of elements that brought him down has broken apart. But just because the God-king is dead doesn't mean everyone is safe - far from it.

Review
I thought the first two books of this series were excellent, and there are many good things about this third volume as well. But things that were quirks in the first book begin to develop into bad habits in this one. Notably, there are a lot of breasts in this book. This isn't really new, but where in the first book, it felt like the focus on female sex appeal was honest character development, and began to be irritating repetition in the second book, by this third installment, it starts feeling icky. Some of it can still count as character development – these are things that the characters are genuinely feeling and doing, and sex is an important part of life for most people. But it is troubling that so many of the female characters are defined by their sexual characteristics and looks. To be fair, many of the men are also tall, handsome, and muscular, but the men here tend to be defined more by stereotypical male traits – stoicism, honor, and casual bravery. This was all part of the first book, but this far in, it's a lot less interesting. Yes, key character Vi made a living from disconnected sex, but the whole point is that that's not all she's got.

This book also delves more into politics than the previous books, in part simply because so many of the characters are going their separate ways at the start of it. About a third of the way in, though, much of that is taken care of, and the book gets back on its character-driven track.

The ending, while satisfying in many ways, also has two flaws. First, it feels rushed. There's a lot of backstory and legend and origin story and wrap-up in the last hundred pages in a calculated way. It all fits, but I would have liked to see it drawn out and developed. Here, it feels cramped for space. Second, the ending, especially for such a brutal series, is too happy and Hollywood-ish, down to the ‘what happened to all the characters afterward' summary.

It's still a good book, but the weaknesses of the series not only show through but threaten to get in the way. Here, more than in the other books, a good edit and a toning down of some characteristics would have served the book and the series well. Here's hoping that the new continuation trilogy does all this better.

All in all, a satisfying finale, if not a great one.