What's even worse is that a few times it felt like the author was unimaginative and couldn't think of smth interesting, and in those times the book just says "yeah, so, smth happened, but I'm not gonna repeat what had happened. It was interesting tho, trust me, bro" Durzo Blint is one of the most feared men in Cenaria. Azoth is just but a frightened little boy on the streets but through a series of circumstances, their paths cross in the dark city streets and the guild rat transforms into the assassin’s apprentice. The only thing as the reader you know about the story plot is that you’re following Azoth’s adventures from the streets to becoming one of the most feared assassins. That can be somehow confusing- but thanks to the never-ending subplots that piece together to create a fantastic main storyline. 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.

Kylar, although desiring to be a 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.Another thing, apparently this story is taking place 8-9 months after the ending of the Night Angel trilogy… there is no way. I refuse to believe that Kylar become that much of a loser and jerk within 9 months. Every character he talks with (especially from the previous series) ends up hating him because of how much of a jerk he is, whereas everyone loved him in the last series. This series is a terrible contradiction to the last series. In the previous series Kylar was all about honor and doing the right thing (i.e. sacrificing himself for Logan) and in this book all he does he sulk, insult and torture people. I do not believe for a second the Ka’kari would have chosen this Kylar. All the previous character’s personalities are different. The dialogue is cringey—there’s a ton of awkward heart-to-heart. Kylar should have been this awesome historical world-renowned character but instead he is an angsty teenager. Also known as the Makers, the Brown Magi specialize in the creation of magical artifacts. Feir Cousat is an example of a Brown Mage. With rumors that a ka’kari may be found, adversaries both old and new are on the hunt. And if Kylar has learned anything, it’s that ancient magics are better left in the hands of those he can trust. 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.

I didn't care for the first-person perspective. It bothered me less as the story went on, but I never liked it. It doesn't work with a character I now hate and find insufferable. It also needed to be drastically reduced. There was way too much repetitive inner-monologue from Kylar, especially when he was so annoying. I don't understand why Vitruvius makes it his life goal to stop Kylar. It seemed fine at first because he was just offended that Kylar tried to steal from him. That is kind of dumb, but not egregiously so. But then he is scouring the ball hunting him, and eventually fighting him on the roof of the castle. But then he doesn't actually fight him all that hard. And I was wondering what his stake in any of this is. Why is he even fighting Kylar at that point? Why is Kylar so stupid that Vitruvius has to explain to him that his Ka'kari can be made into a wingsuit. The guy has literally seen Kylar's abilities for like 5 minutes, and he is already more knowledgeable than Kylar.Well, there's some "WE LOVE GIRL POWER", that's again just another example of tell, do not show in cheap sentences like "I'm glad to hear that the women are protected, whatever it is that they do". Weeks does one of my most hated things. He has one person try to convey critical information. The person, who should be listening, instead continuously interrupts. There conversation ends up getting stopped short, and the person has to move forward with only some of the information they needed. It's so annoying. It's like: Just like in many other books, movies and games, The Way of Shadows is about a mentor-protegé relationship where the obvious star of the show is the mentor. Durzo Blint is the most skilled and infamous killer in Cenaria, and by far the character with the most depth. He’s the one with all the secrets and the mysterious past. The one everyone fears, to the extent that he may insult the king with virtual impunity. And does so repeatedly… From the author of The Last Rose of Shanghai comes a profoundly moving novel about a diplomatic couple who risked their lives to help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis, inspired by the true story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, Righteous Among the Nations. And where Kylar seemed invincible in the last series, all Kylar does in this series is screw up and talk about how everyone is so much better than he is and how he would lose the fight (especially against these blue mages). It’s not like he singlehandedly changed the tide of battles in the last series…

In the series, a male mage is called a Magus, with Magi as its plural form. A Maja is a female mage, with Magae as its plural form. The covers were what set this series apart, although it's hard to imagine that now, but they set the standard that is now almost a necessity and I can at least give them credit for doing that much. But really, what would a fantasy novel cover be without a cowled figure anyway...original? He was breaking the wetboy 101 principles left and right. And he was THE Night Angel, he supposedly became the best wetboy on the continent. Life is empty. Life is meaningless. When we take a life, we arn't taking anything of value. Wetboys are killers. Thats all we do. Thats all we are. There are no poets in the bitter business.” This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. ( October 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Night Angels

Azoth himself is generic young human male protagonist #1162. There is nothing special about him, his personality, or the way he does anything. However, this is actually positive for the book, as it takes away the attention from him, and sets the focus on the book’s absodamnlutely fabulous secondary characters. 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.

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.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. The ending definitely intrigued me enough to read the sequel and I would recommend it to people that are familiar with the first trilogy. Night Angel's Friend): "Night Angel always had to juggle school with chasing her dream, so she missed out on a lot, like senior prom. But one thing she was determined not to miss was earning her diploma. Our graduation conflicted with a huge career opportunity for her, but she refused to miss that day she'd worked so hard for because that's just Night Angel. She's always stayed true to herself despite the fame that's come her way. So girl, you've earned this. Get out there and shout your talent from that stage."