5 Star Book Review: Beyond the Shadows (The Night Angel Trilogy, #3)

Author: Brent Weeks

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Edition: Mass Market Paperback

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Related Reviews: Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge

Rating: 5 Stars

So, there won't be any spoilers for this book in this review, even though it is the final book in a series.  I'd love to do a spoiler review if people are interested, though, so let me know in the comments if that appeals to you.

First of all, this book has given me massive book hangover.  Thank goodness I'm reading a contemporary to follow up on this or I wouldn't get any reading done.  The same feeling I had after watching the LOTR movies for the first time (I binge watched them and didn't know what I was getting into when I started) has attached itself to me now.  To describe that feeling... well, I feel a little lost.  I dedicated so much time to this series, to this world, to these characters, that now, knowing that I've said goodbye (though perhaps not forever... Brent Weeks has said he will probably write another series in this world, thank God!) has left a huge hole in my heart.

Because of this hole in my heart I'm having a hard time actually reviewing this book.  Yes, it was fantastic! but in a completely different way than book two was.  It's got action, but not so much, and I wasn't nearly as worried about where characters would end up or who would die because it wasn't such a roller coaster in that regard.  I don't want to say that people were "safe" or "in danger" life-wise, but for the most part there was never, at any point of this novel (until the very end, really), the threat of random deaths.  

Halfway through the novel though I did have moment (or two, or three) of just utter CRAZY where I threw little tantrums and actually threw the book away from me.  Like, you can sorta see me document it on twitter, but I had to get up and walk away from the novel or risk hurting my feelz too much.  Besides this feeling of UTTER BETRAYAL (I'm kidding, kinda, they were great twists) it wasn't a crazy novel and everything was very linear.

I realize now, as I'm writing the review, that I could go on forever about this book, so let me finish with one last thought: this book felt very religious to me.  I mean, I'm a practicing Catholic, and I've studied my religion pretty intensely for four years, so at this point I'm sorta trained to pick out religious themes in books, and this one was practically screaming with them.  And, honestly, I really enjoyed it.  I'd noticed it plenty times in the first two, but especially with this ending, it was just very religious feeling.  This is a personal theme, but I really enjoyed it and it added something extra to my own reading of the novel.

In a nutshell: read these damn books already!

5 Star Book Review: Shadow's Edge (Night Angel, #2)

Author: Brent Weeks

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Edition: Paperback

Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

Goodreads Link

Related Reviews: Way of Shadows

Rating: 5 Stars

This review will be spoiler free (for this novel at least; there are SPOILERS for book one, so read at your own risk).  If you're interested in a more in-depth review where I talk about spoiler stuff, let me know in the comments!

Shadow's Edge picks up nearly exactly where Way of Shadows left off.  Kylar, Elene, and Uly are leaving their country to try and carve a new life for themselves.  Kylar has sworn to give up killing.  Of course, peace can't last in this war-torn world.

Here are the three most important things you need to know going into this book:

1) Kick-ass ladies.  I think, almost subconsciously, the fact that there were very few women in the first book was killing me.  There wasn't very much room for me to connect with anyone, and the male dominance was boring.  This one throws several old characters into a new light and also introduces new ones that I love.  I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed some of these characters, and several that I started off disliking had such incredible character growth that by the end I adored them.

2) Magic takes center-stage.  In the first book magic is a bit confusing and not really super prevalent.  There are a lot of different orders and the rules of magic don't make sense.  That's quickly rectified by this novel.  All the different orders aren't too different, and now that Kylar can use magic it's easier for the reader to see how it all works.  I actually really enjoyed the way the magic works in this series, now that I can understand it.  It's not as defined as something Brandon Sanderson might create, but it's also structured to be a bit undefinable.  Looking forward to seeing how magic progresses in the final book in this series.

3) War.  I've read several books about wars, whether real or fantasy.  Of the the fantasy ones, this one takes the cake.  Never before have I felt so transported into a war, a real war with real consequences and political maneuverings and good generals and bad generals and spies and everything else, that didn't actually exist.  The plot was constantly moving, carrying the characters down their (unexpected) paths.  There were several moments when reading that I had to remind myself this wasn't actually real.

In a nutshell, this is a fantastic read.  If you picked up the first book and weren't completely thrilled with it, neither was I.  But this changes everything and is worth a go.

Book Review: Way of Shadows (Night Angel, #1)

Author| Brent Weeks (Facebook/Twitter)  Edition| Mass Market Paperback  Rating| 4 Stars

Buy Links| Amazon/Barnes and Noble/Book Depository

Recommended For: Fans of Mistborn and Throne of Glass; if you're looking to start a new fantasy series that will surprise you