Reviews and Comments

Øyvind

oyviaase@books.babb.no

Joined 1 year ago

Mostly reading fantasy and science fiction books, reading while commuting is genius :D

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reviewed Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks (Night Angel Trilogy)

Brent Weeks: Beyond the Shadows (Paperback, Orbit Books) 4 stars

A new queen has usurped the throne and is leading Cenaria into disaster. The country …

The final book in the original Night Angel trilogy

4 stars

Beyond the shadows ends all of the ongoing story arcs, and it even sneakily puts in a jumping of point for the next series set in the same world. There's some world building mostly in the part of learning a bit more of the history of the world, and there is a fair bit of character growth as well. It's definitely a fun read although reading the previous two books is kind of a must, but that should not be surprising as this is the third book in a trilogy.

Brent Weeks: Shadow's Edge (Paperback, Orbit Books) 4 stars

Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin's life. In the wake of the Godking's violent coup, …

The second book in the Night Angel trilogy

4 stars

The second book of a trilogy sometimes suffers with primarily being a setup for the final book, this book however does not suffer that fate. That's not to say that there are certain plot lines that's left unfinished for the third book though. The story continues in it's good pacing and we get to know more about the world and new places in it. There characters evolve based on their experiences and all in all it's a well written and fun story.

reviewed The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks (Night Angel Trilogy)

Brent Weeks: The Way of Shadows (Paperback, 2011, Orbit Books) 4 stars

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city's most accomplished artist, …

The origin story of Night Angel

5 stars

The way of Shadows introduces us the world of Midcyru, and we follow the orphan Azoth and his story being teached the art of being a wetboy by Durzo Blint. It's an interesting world that we dip into and the world building is decent, and while the characters appear a bit one dimensional are there more to them and there is some character growth in this book, especially for Azoth.

reviewed Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks (The Kylar chronicles, #1)

Brent Weeks: Night Angel Nemesis (2024, Little, Brown Book Group Limited) 4 stars

An interesting return to the world of Midcyru

4 stars

This book has a totally different feel to the original Night Angel trilogy. It both works and throws me of it some times. The book starts fairly shortly after Beyond the Shadows and it one of it's main focuses is how the events from the end of the primary saga has changed the characters and the world. We get a fair bit of world building as we visit new places in the world and there are interesting character developments as well for the main characters of the book. If you like the original series then this is worth a read. You should be fine with having this as your first book into Midcyru since this is the first book in a new series, however you'll probably miss out on quite a few details.

reviewed Traitor by Anthony Ryan (Covenant of Steel, #3)

Anthony Ryan: Traitor (2024, Little, Brown Book Group Limited) 4 stars

A decent end to this series

4 stars

The traitor finishes the story of Alwyn Scribe that started back in the pariah, and I have some of the same issues with this book that I had with that one. Simply put there's just something about how this story is narrated in these two books that I didn't have an issue with in the martyr. However I'm unable to tell what the is though. I enjoyed the story and the characters and the setting. Alwyn is an interesting character to follow and how Lady Evadine Courlain characters develops through the story is both interesting and scary. We get to see more of the world and get some answers however I have at least as many new questions as the ones that got solved. Parts of the book felt a bit fast tracked however I'm uncertain if slowing them down would work either as that would make the story a …

reviewed Gold by Raven Kennedy (The Plated Prisoner Series, #5)

Raven Kennedy: Gold (2024, Penguin Books, Limited) 4 stars

What I thoght the final book would be in the series

4 stars

Gold starts of more or less straight after the events of Glow, when I started reading the book I thought it was the final book and it does a good job at starting to tie up the loose ends and we finally get to learn a lot more about Anwynn giving us a fair bit of world building in the book as well. The book is building towards a final confrontation that happens in Goldfynch, so the ending is not as satisfactory as it could have been. However it works great as a cliff hanger and setup for the next book. The book is definetly worth reading if you liked the previous books, just be warned you might want to read the next one quickly after this one.

reviewed Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy (The Plated Prisoner Series, #6)

Raven Kennedy: Goldfinch (Paperback, 2024, Penguin Micheal Joseph) 5 stars

'Find me in another life. Find me in them all'

One king caged my body. …

A fun end to the story

5 stars

Godlfinch starts right where gold finished Annwyn and Orea is at war with each other and the story takes us through how the war and the battles in it unfolds. Whlie Raven does a decent job at describing the action in the battles is it not the strongest point in the story that's goes to describing the interpersonal feelings for participants and their loved ones both during and after the battles.

Even though this is the final book in the series are there still space for some more character growth, and while I'd love for certain things to end differently are there nothing unsatisfactory with the ending of the story. And there is some final pieces of world-building happening here as well.

The series as a whole is worth a read if you're into romantic fantasy, and I think most fantasy readers will like it as well. This book is …