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curivm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ohio_enthusiast's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
ceuran's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
alaynamendoza's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Such a long book but honestly entertaining most of the way through! Some of the last few chapters made me emotional, gave me chills, and made me think!
tymgabriel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
witchfynder_finder's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Oh, it hurts to rate this book this low but I fuckin hated a lot of time I spent reading its 820 pages. Honestly the rating would be lower but the bastard Weeks pulled me back in to caring about the story in the last few chapters.
The biggest hurdle is the style of the prose. I get what he's going for with it; the vast majority of the book is first-person narration meant to emulate an immature main character's literal train of thought, meaning the prose is simple in style and structure. That, by itself, wouldn't be much of an issue to me, I can get on with some stylized narration. But Weeks also decided some time between 2008 and 2023 that Kylar is not only a very broken, traumatized young man trying his damnedest to do the right thing in a world that conspires to make that impossible, but he is also just an absolute piece of shit. He whines, he bitches, he complains (those are all different things to do), he thinks he's far cleverer than he actually is, he condescends to the reader at every available turn, he sprinkles in jokes so bad I genuinely don't know if they are meant to be jokes (he calls himself a "super assassin" repeatedly and then at one point when detailing how he's eating a meal after a time without food goes "More like supper assassin!"). In the original trilogy, Kylar was a flawed, desperate man, a man who did terrible things, but a man who you thought was ultimately a good man, or at least trying to be good. Kylar in this book talks so much more about wanting to be good but in the end I never believed him. He just wanted to use that talk to moralize to me, the reader, personally, about how awful I was for wanting to read a violent fantasy story. The prick.
The characters are all just absolutely awful, there's nobody to like, nobody to root for, they all suck, they all stab each other in the back, they're all working 17 different angles, and I just hated all of them. Phaena a bit less than the rest. One of my biggest pet peeves is when two characters refuse, for whatever reason, to simply sit the fuck down and talk to each other for five minutes and work out their problems. This was 820 pages of nobody being willing to talk about their problems and then afterward you get to hear one of them complain at you about how the conversation just went. It's like that meme with the giant book and the thing book. Huge Book: Night Angel Nemesis. Tiny Book: Night Angel Nemesis If Any Of the Characters Talked Straight With Anyone Else.
Weeks' action writing has gotten really sloppy, too. There were multiple multiple action scenes where I straight did not understand the geography, who was where, how someone was positioned, if key elements were in play, because it all just got lost in a blur. Weeks did a lot of research into martial arts for this book and you can tell (derogatory). A lot of fights were just excuses for him to say the names of swordfighting forms at you. Again, I get it, that is probably how Kylar would think it, but we're already allowing that he thinks everything he sees in perfect complete sentences at all times and can even say things like how he was struck dumb at the sight of some woman or another, I think we can allow a bit of leeway for him to just say how fights go. In a similar vein, it's genuinely hard to tell if the leering sexism is from Weeks or from Kylar. In this, I will give Weeks the benefit of the doubt, though. I never thought he was a Raging Misogynist and he took all the sexual assault out and he's clearly TRYING to depict his women as real as his men, so I think that's a style thing.
Many of the issues from the original books still haunt Nemesis; I still don't understand what Vi ever saw in the Chantry because I never got to spend any time with her as she was learning to find her place in it, so all I see is a deeply corrupted (that's me being polite) institution that asks her to do truly horrible things in its name and then she just. Does them. All of them. Until the very end, where her big moment AGAIN doesn't land because all I'm thinking is "Girl, finally, god damn." Vi is a complex and interesting character who deserves to be in better books.
And yet. And yet. Despite all this. Despite how frustrated I got with this book. Despite the breaks I had to take for an evening because I just couldn't push through any more of Kylar's self-satisfied brooding snark. Despite thinking for probably about 500 pages that I wouldn't continue with the series after this. The end fuckin got me. It looks like the first-person narration may have been just for this book, which would be a relief. There's massive stakes brewing, a clear and (potentially) extremely interesting villain, hints at a fuckin apocalyptic alien invasion. It might be about to pop off. Also I'm calling it here and now in writing: Night Angel and Lightbringer are in some sort of shared universe situation. I don't know how it works or anything like that, but that's my called shot.
This is a lot of ink to spill over a 2.5 book but it's really one of those cases where this was really close to being a 4. I think if it was just not told through Kylar's point of view the entire time, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. And, look, it's been a lot of work reading this book. I needed a moment to decompress.
I'm still mad I'm interested to see what happens next.
Quick Edit: Oh my god. The ending. It's. It's a cliffhanger. I'm gonna scream.
The biggest hurdle is the style of the prose. I get what he's going for with it; the vast majority of the book is first-person narration meant to emulate an immature main character's literal train of thought, meaning the prose is simple in style and structure. That, by itself, wouldn't be much of an issue to me, I can get on with some stylized narration. But Weeks also decided some time between 2008 and 2023 that Kylar is not only a very broken, traumatized young man trying his damnedest to do the right thing in a world that conspires to make that impossible, but he is also just an absolute piece of shit. He whines, he bitches, he complains (those are all different things to do), he thinks he's far cleverer than he actually is, he condescends to the reader at every available turn, he sprinkles in jokes so bad I genuinely don't know if they are meant to be jokes (he calls himself a "super assassin" repeatedly and then at one point when detailing how he's eating a meal after a time without food goes "More like supper assassin!"). In the original trilogy, Kylar was a flawed, desperate man, a man who did terrible things, but a man who you thought was ultimately a good man, or at least trying to be good. Kylar in this book talks so much more about wanting to be good but in the end I never believed him. He just wanted to use that talk to moralize to me, the reader, personally, about how awful I was for wanting to read a violent fantasy story. The prick.
The characters are all just absolutely awful, there's nobody to like, nobody to root for, they all suck, they all stab each other in the back, they're all working 17 different angles, and I just hated all of them. Phaena a bit less than the rest. One of my biggest pet peeves is when two characters refuse, for whatever reason, to simply sit the fuck down and talk to each other for five minutes and work out their problems. This was 820 pages of nobody being willing to talk about their problems and then afterward you get to hear one of them complain at you about how the conversation just went. It's like that meme with the giant book and the thing book. Huge Book: Night Angel Nemesis. Tiny Book: Night Angel Nemesis If Any Of the Characters Talked Straight With Anyone Else.
Weeks' action writing has gotten really sloppy, too. There were multiple multiple action scenes where I straight did not understand the geography, who was where, how someone was positioned, if key elements were in play, because it all just got lost in a blur. Weeks did a lot of research into martial arts for this book and you can tell (derogatory). A lot of fights were just excuses for him to say the names of swordfighting forms at you. Again, I get it, that is probably how Kylar would think it, but we're already allowing that he thinks everything he sees in perfect complete sentences at all times and can even say things like how he was struck dumb at the sight of some woman or another, I think we can allow a bit of leeway for him to just say how fights go. In a similar vein, it's genuinely hard to tell if the leering sexism is from Weeks or from Kylar. In this, I will give Weeks the benefit of the doubt, though. I never thought he was a Raging Misogynist and he took all the sexual assault out and he's clearly TRYING to depict his women as real as his men, so I think that's a style thing.
Many of the issues from the original books still haunt Nemesis; I still don't understand what Vi ever saw in the Chantry because I never got to spend any time with her as she was learning to find her place in it, so all I see is a deeply corrupted (that's me being polite) institution that asks her to do truly horrible things in its name and then she just. Does them. All of them. Until the very end, where her big moment AGAIN doesn't land because all I'm thinking is "Girl, finally, god damn." Vi is a complex and interesting character who deserves to be in better books.
And yet. And yet. Despite all this. Despite how frustrated I got with this book. Despite the breaks I had to take for an evening because I just couldn't push through any more of Kylar's self-satisfied brooding snark. Despite thinking for probably about 500 pages that I wouldn't continue with the series after this. The end fuckin got me. It looks like the first-person narration may have been just for this book, which would be a relief. There's massive stakes brewing, a clear and (potentially) extremely interesting villain, hints at a fuckin apocalyptic alien invasion. It might be about to pop off. Also I'm calling it here and now in writing: Night Angel and Lightbringer are in some sort of shared universe situation. I don't know how it works or anything like that, but that's my called shot.
This is a lot of ink to spill over a 2.5 book but it's really one of those cases where this was really close to being a 4. I think if it was just not told through Kylar's point of view the entire time, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. And, look, it's been a lot of work reading this book. I needed a moment to decompress.
I'm still mad I'm interested to see what happens next.
Quick Edit: Oh my god. The ending. It's. It's a cliffhanger. I'm gonna scream.
sykick's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
It was getting to slow and repetitive. Monologues were way to long
yyooh17's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Might just be me but the writing has improved so much?? It was so good, nearly cried a few times š. Some of the characters were so confusing but Iām sure things will make sense with the next book. (Poor Kylar š„¹)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
max_wave's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
itsfreelancer's review against another edition
5.0
Kylar Stern is alive. I think.
The book starts with him being dead and his magic diary retelling his story. Which is a surprise because that means he is dead.
This is a massive book. Far from the trilogy where all the books were mid level when it came to page count. Without getting into spoilers let me tell you why you should pick this up.
Action. Lots and lots of action. Kylar is fighting for his life wherever he goes and yes he travels far and wide to try and defeat someone who shouldn't have existed in the first place. You need to go back to the finale of the trilogy to figure out just who the nemesis is. And you'd still draw a blank.
Humour. This had so many laugh out loud moments and in such inopportune situations that it's criminal. Brent probably had a ball writing these. Specially Kylar's conversations with his magic bracelet. You know, the one called kakari or something ridiculous that like that.
I specially like how the Night Angel has grown over these pages of the book. He just isn't justice any more. He has a conscience which so far looks like it's putting him into a lot more trouble than necessary. A nice Night Angel doesn't work for anyone.
The book starts with him being dead and his magic diary retelling his story. Which is a surprise because that means he is dead.
This is a massive book. Far from the trilogy where all the books were mid level when it came to page count. Without getting into spoilers let me tell you why you should pick this up.
Action. Lots and lots of action. Kylar is fighting for his life wherever he goes and yes he travels far and wide to try and defeat someone who shouldn't have existed in the first place. You need to go back to the finale of the trilogy to figure out just who the nemesis is. And you'd still draw a blank.
Humour. This had so many laugh out loud moments and in such inopportune situations that it's criminal. Brent probably had a ball writing these. Specially Kylar's conversations with his magic bracelet. You know, the one called kakari or something ridiculous that like that.
I specially like how the Night Angel has grown over these pages of the book. He just isn't justice any more. He has a conscience which so far looks like it's putting him into a lot more trouble than necessary. A nice Night Angel doesn't work for anyone.