Night Angel Nemesis: 1 (The Kylar Chronicles)

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But Kylar's best—and maybe only—friend, the High King Logan Gyre, needs him. To protect a fragile peace, Logan’s new kingdom, and the king’s twin sons, he needs Kylar to secure a powerful magical artifact that was unearthed during the war. Kylar goes through really annoying moral phases in the book. It reminded me of book two of the original trilogy. He basically can't kill innocents or the Ka'kari would leave him. But then he constantly does things that will get people killed. Then, he puts his brain in a pretzel shape and says, "Everyone on this ship is going to die...so....that means I can kill whomever I want!" And then he just starts slaughtering innocent people. Of course, he saves the ship so none of those people would've died. This book employs a story-within-a-story format in which neither POV is omniscient. And while there is overlap, both narrators know things the other doesn't. This creates an interesting tension to the story that is compounded by the fact that we're reading POVs of two characters who have to survive to a certain point (at least long enough to write the in-story story). All of this played with my assumptions and perceptions as I read. It was also a heist story, except not nearly as cheery as Ocean's 11. In true Weeks fashion, while I felt certain plot points coming, I was not ready for the ending. The ending definitely intrigued me enough to read the sequel and I would recommend it to people that are familiar with the first trilogy. While Night Angel Nemesisfunctions as an immediate sequel to Brent Weeks’ original Night Angeltrilogy, the author has said more than once that you canread this latest novel without having read his older works. Night Angelis one of those series I’ve had recommended to me many times over the years, and with Nemesis coming out it felt like time to finally take the plunge. I read both this new book and started in on the old series at the same time.

I will say, there were a bunch of things at the end of the original trilogy that didn't quite make sense, and I don't think it would have been possible to write a Midcyru novel without a little retconning, so I don't mind that. In the original series it kept fluctuating how powerful magic and the Talent was supposed to be, and here it's overall pretty buffed, for example. Which is fine and I'm not complaining about it. He did some work to build the universe, and then 50% of the damn book is spent on a magic cruise ship, so we don't even see any of it (???). We get some other returning characters, but they're pretty much miniscule cameos and we don't see them actually do much, which is a big disappointment when the original trilogy had POV from many of them. I am thinking that this book would be much better if literally everyone wasn't criminally annoying. I mean the plot is pretty meaty, the lore is interesting and the plot twists are entertaining though the plot sometimes is pretty slow.I don't think anyone who's read any of the Weeks's previous works hasn't noticed misogyny in all of them. And really, it's NOT a character problem, it's very much an author's problem. He seems like a big misogynist and keeps proving it. And then when I read the second book I was like this is even better! This is how you should do it. Because as a reader I had felt so betrayed by trilogies that…that the first book comes out the gate and you’re like this is amazing…and then second book sort of nothing happens, and in the third book the finale is interesting but you’re like man, that was like one and a half books that I got out of there. And I was like, no sophomore slump for George! Look at this, this is amazing. The Night Angel Trilogy: 10th Anniversary Edition Night Angel: The Complete Trilogy (omnibus) Perfect Shadow: A Night Angel Novella

Aside from the damage. Oh gosh, I know I have said here just moments before but... Brent Weeks, how could you??? How. Could. You. ???????? T I loved the original trilogy, but it had a lot of "new author" flaws: storylines that didn't quite add up, travel times that didn't make sense, characters that seemed to know each other for no reason, moments that were clearly very cool in the authors head but didn't translate well to paper, etc. Not to mention a bunch of the characters in the "lonely sad virgin" archetype, which I actually appreciated seeing by otherwise competent cool characters in a fantasy novel, but it was too much. They were otherwise really excellent fantasy books in a world with a lot of potential. As I mentioned, this is written like a journal of Kylar, and apparently this was written for Vi to read. There are random interludes where the story cuts to Vi’s point of view and she is at the chantry reading this journal because for some reason she is the only one who can. And the frustrating part is I have no idea when she is (as in timeline) or how she got this journal. All you know is she needs to read to find some clue of where Kylar’s body is?? The most annoying part is not knowing how far in the future she is when she is reading the journal. I have wanted a sequel to The Night Angel series for sooooo long, it was one of the first fantasy series I read that majorly got me into reading and it will always hold a special place in my heart. This series made me fall in love with actual grimdark characters, cool magic systems and dark/gritty fantasy worlds. In fact the talent remains one of my top 3 magic systems - out of all the fantasy books I have ever read....and I have read.... a lot of fantasy. The big baddie is just some generic evil guy with generic evil motives. Part of what makes The Way of Shadows so compelling was the villain and what he meant to the protagonists, and that element is just missing here. King Rephaim feels completely empty and boring. I don't remember the Outsider thing happening in the original series, and it was my least favorite part of Lightbringer, so seeing Weeks try to inject it in here as some form of universe cohesion between his series doesn't work at all for me. I wish he would have just dropped it.Both storylines were strong and I liked switching between them. There are multiple intriguing new mysteries to make the story feel fresh and pull you in. As for the writing itself, I think it will divide readers. Kylar is a 20-year-old dude and acts like it; he’s often immature or acts out in cringeworthy ways. This is believable for his character, but it’s easy to imagine how it could turn off some readers. For instance, he constantly objectifies the book’s female characters. And while Weeks does make a point of actively examining this particular flaw of Kylar’s, it’s still frequent and distracting enough that it jarred me out of the story more than once. Brent Weeks has a style of immediacy and detail that pulls the reader relentlessly into his story. He doesn’t allow you to look away’ Robin Hobb I particularly enjoyed Skylar’s evolved thought process in The Night Angel Nemesis. He was vulnerable, relatable and was struggling to find and separate himself from The Night Angel persona. There were so many heart breaking moments where Weeks delved into Skylar’s inner monologues which made you love his character more. In this book Vi is given a front seat, which she deserves, and her character is developed brilliantly, I fell in love with her all over again. Ah, I can’t say anything more without giving away spoilers, so let me just say there is a new MVP and you are going to absolutely love them. They are sarcastic, funny, distant, chaotic but surprisingly at times very empathetic as well. One of the best parts, for me, of the original series, and also of the Lightbringer series, is that with multiple povs you can see the story slowly knitting together, the characters coming together, and the noose slowly tightening around them all. There was none of that tension in this, the whole book was Kylar slowly bumbling from one mistake to the next. I was hoping at the end for an unreliable narrator situation that, while frustrating while reading, would have added a massive twist on the story and would have had me desperate for the next book. Vi’s very infrequent chapters were the highlight of this book for me and the only reason I’d consider reading the next, hoping she has a much bigger role to play in that one.

I could give so many more examples, but I would just end up quoting every thought of Kylar and every time he talks to someone. Weeks is a giant of the genre."—Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld After the war that cost him so much, Kylar Stern is broken and alone. He's determined not to kill again, but an impending amnesty will pardon the one murderer he can't let walk free. He promises himself this is the last time. One last hit to tie up the loose ends of his old, lost life. Where is Durzo? I don't mind him not being in the story at all, but it is a weird choice to have him just be in a fight with people and be gone. Presumably, he will be in subsequent books, but it was weird that we didn't get a single scene with him.One of the reasons that the worlds hang together or that you feel like there’s this foreshadowing…is the first novel I wrote was set in this world but 20 years later. I had this one really amazing character show up — I actually had three or four characters cross over, and I love these characters but the novel was broken. I’d done some things wrong structurally. And so when I threw it away I was like you know what…I like some of the worldbuilding I did, and I know where things are going. I know where history is headed. And in that [book] there was this one character who showed up and I was like that guys’ a badass. He’s scary and yet he’s got this code. And so…who is he? The incredible return to the New York Times bestselling world of the Night Angel, where master assassin Kylar Stern embarks on a new adventure as the High King Logan Gyre calls on him to save his kingdom and the hope of peace. Kylar is soooooooooooooo dumb in this book. He keeps saying "[My master] taught me.... but ofc I am not following it", and "[My master] said to NEVER.... Yeah, guess what I am about to do right now?". After 10 years of waiting for a sequel and re-reading the entire series I was so ready to dive straight into this and be swallowed whole. What I got was a lot of first person rambling nonsense, a Kylar who has become absolutely useless, and preachy to boot, and a weird structure that has nothing of the thrilling, drag you along the story feel.

Like previous books, I don't see what the complaints are regarding the accusations of misogyny. It's a first person perspective of a man who is like 20 years old, and you're offended that he is noticing boobs? The main thing I rolled my eyes at was how multiple times Kylar would wake up sleeping next to a woman he had to share a bed with, and he would be cupping her boob. I've shared a hotel room once with a girl I wasn't involved with. We were in separate beds, and it was still very awkward. In what universe do you wake up grasping her breast? And it happens twice, with two different women. The novel „Night Angel Nemesis“ by Brent Weeks is set not long after the events of the original „Night Angel Trilogy“. We follow the two points of view of Kylar Stern and Viridiana Sovari. Most of the surviving cast of the series plays a role in this continuation and it really made me feel nostalgic to see them again.Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway. However I also have some critique concerning the length and the pacing. Yes this is present in all of Brent Week’s books in some capacity. There are so many parts during the middle section that felt way too long and drawn out. I get that this can be immersive and make you get to know the characters but it really hurts the pacing. The story was meandering and there were so many scenes that felt sometimes repetitive. Cutting down on some of that journey would have made it way more accessible and impactful. Speaking of the queen, she was originally a very interesting character. She was smart and capable. She completely changes about halfway through and becomes the standard pompous, out of touch monarch that you typically see. She stops being smart and takes the magical shcakle off of Kylar that had him completely neutered. She does this so he can go and kill a sister. What does this gain her? Her guards are more than capable of killing her. The biggest threat in the world (in theory at least) is the Night Angel. So she releases a huge threat to her to go and kill a very minor threat to her. The book really would've worked so much better if both Kylar and Vi weren't established characters. Then you would just see them as weak and stupid people doing their best. Instead, you spend the entire book fuming at how thoroughly the characters are destroyed.