Shadow's Edge: The Night Angel Trilogy, 2 Mass Market Paperback – November 1, 2008

I can't believe I just now discovered this series. The author's imagination and the fully formed characters are a marvel. One of the best fantesy series I have read ever!

Great continuation of the plot.

3.75 Stars [I want to round up]Brent Weeks's "Shadow's Edge," second of a three-part creepy dark fantasy, has an even higher body count than the opener. And while "The Way of Shadows" started out as one of those Dickensian-style epics about a born-poor kid who learns dodgy arts, and who eventually develops into the Perfect Assassin, this volume is more like a Western. We begin with Kylar Stern trying to give up his "killing machine" ways and become an herbalist. With him is Elene, who grew up with Kylar and has turned into a super-righteous priss. And we have Uly, one of those annoying children you meet in these sagas, along for the ride, too. (She was a plot element in the first volume and the author, being stuck with her, tries to make use of her without all that much success.)Do I hear groans? Yes, well. That new career doesn't work well at all, although it takes about 200 pages (nearly a third of the volume) before Kylar finally realizes that, no, this is not working. When he finally does, the book careers off into a multiple POV classic Western chase-revenge tale, with each episode ending on the edge of a cliff. It's exciting enough, and you'll probably be anxious to see how things turn out; but the author unfortunately feels it necessary to look in on the various characters even when they're really not doing very much (multiple dungeon scenes could easily have been condensed into one or two), and a few of the characters really aren't all that interesting (oh no! Not Kaldrosa Wyn again!).Fortunately, most of the players here are, and the author develops their characters nicely. The magic is more essential this time than it was in the first volume, and far less subtle. That's fine for fantasy lovers, but it leads to another issue--there are so many characters who are possessed with different sorts of magic that it's never quite clear what their abilities are. (Now let's see . . . these guys can unweave spells, these guys can predict the future, these guys can wield swords with incredible skill. How does this quite work? Oh, because the author says so. Got it.)But all and all this is a reasonably competent continuation of the trilogy, one that suffers not at all from "midbook blues," and I'm eager to now begin volume 3.

This book took me by surprise - in a good way. After reading "The Way of Shadows", I was more than a little hesitant to read the next book in the trilogy. However, "Shadow's Edge" was a big improvement over its predecessor."Shadow's Edge" begins one week after the end of "The Way of Shadows." This time I was immediately pulled into the story without having to wade through chapters of painful description that really didn't tell me anything. The story moved along at a good pace and kept me wanting more. Each time I put the book down, I looked forward to picking it up again. Once again, a big change over the first one. The main characters (Kylar, Elene, Logan, and Vi) are well-developed and we learn more about each one of them; we also see them grow and change as a result of the events that they face throughout the book. Unlike many female reviewers before me, I have no problems with the portrayals of Elene and Vi - they are each a product of their environment. Even though I really wanted to dislike Vi, I found myself liking her a great deal by the end of the book and even feeling sorry for her.That said, I can't help but wonder what role the editor(s) played in this book before it was published. Why didn't someone suggest that Brent do some much needed refining of the text? There are way too many characters in play - it's hard to keep up with all of the secondary characters that come and go, not to mention the minor characters that show up out of the blue for no apparent reason other than to give us yet another unnecessary point of view. There are so many different races, complete with varying physical characteristics, involved that I can't keep them straight. True, an author needs to know all of these things about the world that he has created, but that doesn't mean that he actually has to cram them all into the book.Being a gamer, I can't help but feel that Brent Weeks is also a fan of the "Dragon Age" video games and it shows in his story. Two items that appear to have come directly from the games are the "Chantry" and the "Burning Man" guild. C'mon Brent - at least change the names!

I am hooked. I'm always surprised and just think I know what's going to happen. Not... On to number 3!

I really enjoyed this book. Its been a long time since I've read something and just didn't want to put it down. Great sequel and what a fantastic ending!!!!

First off, I have to admit that I made a lot of vocal complaints with this entire series as I made myself read them all. It was something I just had to make myself do, despite the times I had tried and failed in the past. Now then, with that said, I have to also admit that I am beyond glad I made myself do it and ultimately, that I let my friends's suggestions help me to decide to do it to begin with. This series as a whole is absolutely and utterly fantastic - it presents you with an entire world and a full cast of characters to love or hate, but it distinctively shows you why you should do just that each and every time. And though the politics and army talk really strained me and my attention at times, as those are not my usual type of interests when fictional, "assassin"-themed books are concerned, it again really helps build the world up around you and gives you the best feeling from all perspectives. The series as a whole is worth reading for anyone interested in fictional work and fully developed characters/plot points, and as a side note as well, the Kindle version of each book is also very well laid out and another huge plus for them.

Best book series i have ever read

Ok so first what the ratings mean from me5 = the best thing I have ever read and I will never enjoy any other book I read as this book was just that good (as yet no book has gotten this and I doubt any ever will)4 = this is a great book and I will read it again.3 = this was a good book but odds are I wont reread it (this is also based on the fact I have a really good memory so for the most part I don't need to reread it as I remember it)2 = This is a subpar book and you may want to look at others (unless you have liked other books by the writer)1 = this book isn't worth the time it took to wright it (odds are I may not even been able to finish this book)And now to Shadow's Edge well I had to think about the stars I was going to give it and it wasn't easy I mean it didn't fall cleanly into 3 or 4 of my rating system, the story is good but there was one or two things that bugged me, so it expanded on the world the books are set in which I always like but unless I missed something it introduced creatures and monsters but didn't say what they were, we finally find out what one of them was in a big reveal towards the end, the other problem I had was the pacing wasn't right in some parts (thou flow may be a better word than pacing) the bit were this was most jarring (for me) was when one of the leads goes off to save his friend we see him wake up get his gear on and then it jumps to the friend's story and after a bit the hero just shows up in this imposable to get to place I did a double take and had to check to see if I had skipped a page or two, now granted lots of people don't want to see travel time but we didn't even see him set off.So do I give it a 3 or a 4 its defiantly worth a read if you liked the first one you'll like this one but I'm going with 3 stars (it actually gets a 3.5 but I don't have that option here) get it read it enjoy it but I don't think its read more than once material.

First a confession to put my review (and score) into perspective. I read the first book in this trilogy (this is the second) a good couple of years ago and many books (some of a similar nature) have been read since. So I have to admit I did have trouble catching up on this one, but it just might be me. The vast cast of characters and magical elements did really make me focus to try and remember and even to the end, there were one or two elements I never really caught up on. So a warning, don't leave it too long between the books unless you have a far better memory than I do.Kyler is a "Wetboy" an assassin, but in reality so much more than that. But in the face of an ultimatum from the woman he loves, he tries to put his past behind him and make a living that does not involve killing people. So this book starts off with him just `wet' rather than a `wetboy' as he moves city and tries an honest living. Of course we know his past WILL catch up with him and bring him back into the conflict that has ripped the country apart and could get even worse....So, I was a tad confused. It was a little...dull....for a while....But then it picks up and takes off. Maybe a bit of a middle book as characters are positioned for the third, but the author has writing talent and plays to quite a dark side, so no light and frothy fantasy here (but then it is about assassination after all).Maybe let down by too many characters and ideas, certainly let down by making the lead character (and therefore the book) too dull in the beginning, but also redeemed by an eventually good story. A mixed bag, I have better hopes for the third (which I must read soon while the memory of this stays with me!).

I read this series originally years ago on paper back but decided after reading light bringer series which is also great wanted to go back and reread and enjoyed the books even more this times round.Brent weeks is definitely now up there with my other favourite authors.

This trilogy is a fantastic read. I went in blind, not having read any reviews or anything else from this author, and was gripped by the series from the first page to the last. I read them over the course of a weekend, so I can safely recommend this trilogy to anyone interested in gritty fantasy reading.We have a young struggling protagonist, and we follow him through all the books. He is a tortured soul who slowly comes to grips with the power he wields and his morals, while engrossed in politics, power struggles and war. The development of this character is solid and in depth, and somehow the author manages to give all of the peripheral characters real substance as well. I found the female love interest of the main character very annoying, in style with the women of the wheel of time, and hoped for most of the series that our hero would come to his senses and ditch her, but she was the only persona that I didnt feel empathy towards, which is quite a feat considering the many vile characters this series parades in front of the reader.

This was a poor sequel to The Way of Shadows. While the world and cast list expanded, my level of interest dropped. I didn't connect to the lead characters, there were too many occasions where things were introduced late into the story purely to allow a character to escape from seemingly impossible situations and Weeks's treatment of female characters is questionable, to say the least.Whereas The Way of Shadows had issues, at least it had a plot that kept my interest up. With this book I just lost interest. I won't be reading the third in the series.