Review: The Night Angel Trilogy

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Actual rating: 3.5

Book Info: Genre: Dark epic fantasy
Reading Level: Young Adult to Adult
Recommended for:
Trigger Warnings: murder, killing, assassination, violence, rape (M/M and M/F), torture, mutilation, stealing, slavery, infidelity, sexual assault, cannibalism, danger to child/kidnapping

My Thoughts: This is a general review of the overall series. To read the reviews of the books in the trilogy, go to the individual reviews on each book's page.

This is a dark, gritty epic fantasy. The first book of the series feels oriented toward young adult readers, having the typical fantasy coming-of-age tropes. However, by book two the writing is more oriented to adults and the sorts of problems inherent in ruling and judging and generally being adult and taking responsibility for your own actions. While many of the themes remain dark, by the end of the third book in the trilogy there is a strong feeling of hope and redemption.

The first book in the trilogy is rife with editing errors, and the third book also has a number of them. Only the second book in the series shows decent editing. I'm not sure why this is. The first book also relied strongly on tropes, but as the trilogy continues you can see the author's vision of the story opening up and also see the author's craft improving. All in all, a satisfying and interesting trilogy, and one I'd recommend to fans of dark epic fantasy.

Series Information: The Night Angel Trilogy
Book 1: The Way of Shadows, review linked here
Book 2: Shadow's Edge, review linked here
Book 3: Beyond the Shadows, review linked here

Disclosure: I purchased the omnibus edition of the trilogy for myself. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: 3 volumes in one giant omnibus edition.
"Way of Shadows", "Shadow's Edge", "Beyond the Shadows": all in one beautiful hardcover edition



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