Night Angel Nemesis is a vast improvement on the original trilogy Brent Weeks wrote. While I enjoyed the trilogy a lot as a teenager, rereading it as an adult made me realize how incoherent the worldbuilding is, and how little the rules of the world mattered since things could change instantly according to what the story needed. Magic was just a fix for everything. I think writing Lightbringer with a very hard magic system really helped reel in Weeks' inner saboteur. That being said, the world has already been created, so he was stuck working with the broken rules he had established in earlier books, but this time he used a lot of restraint and wove a tight and engaging story that felt fairly grounded in its magical elements. He did a really good job creating a story that was exciting to read, and despite the massive page count, I absolutely flew through this book and enjoyed nearly every moment of it.
The characters we know and love returned and we got to pick up where we left off, and experience the new state of the world as they navigate a changing political system. I really enjoyed getting to see Vi again as she was one of my favourite characters. My real favourite character though is and has always been Mama K. I loved getting to see her again. Kylar reprising his role as the Night Angel was exciting too. The only character I missed was Durzo, who unfortunately is only mentioned in this book.
The plot of this book moves along at a good pace and manages to keep me entertained even in downtime between larger set pieces.
All in all, this was a much better written and more grounded version of the original series. My only structural issue with the book is the frame-story we're using felt a little thoughtless.

I haven't read the original trilogy in this series, but as a big high fantasy fan, I know that Brent Weeks has become an incredibly popular author. So I was excited to see what all the fuss is about! (As an aside, as a new reader, I will say that I could definitely see where knowledge of the original trilogy could have helped flesh out this book, but with some patience, I was able to feel comfortable enough to get into this book on its own merits).

I really enjoyed this one! I thought the character aspects were good, with some genuinely funny moments. Much of the dialogue was hilarious and had me cackling out loud. It is also clear that Weeks has a talent for writing fast-paced action, and I enjoyed many of these tense, action-paced scenes. As far as the overall plot, it felt perhaps a bit underwhelming as a whole, but I felt like this was in line with the sort of reluctant hero type character that we were following.

Overall, I think this book will likely please both fans of Weeks' previous books as well as other high fantasy readers!

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

Violence, betrayals, missing children, snarky conversations, horribly nasty magic fish, and a cliffhanger ending. Yup, it's a worthy (if a bit long) read, and highly entertaining.

I wanted to like it but I struggled to get through it and couldn't finish. I loved the original trilogy and it seemed like some of the originality was lost. It was also way too long.

Weeks ingeniously sets the stage for possibly a new trilogy. In 'Night Angel Nemesis' - the deadly Kylar steps into a new adventure involving the fate of a kingdom, at the cost of his own personhood. The characters, the plot, the pacing - are still top notch, as Weeks returns to form, in this fantasy thriller. Recommended!

A long awaited follow-up to the original Night Angel Trilogy..Strongly suggest reading the trilogy first. (or again) before picking this up to read. Enjoy most of Brent Weeks books. This one - DNF due to the "conversation" writing. Still ok if you can get over the style of this particular book which is not his usual writing style. 3 of 5 stars.
I received an e-ARC compliments of the publisher and NetGalley.

To start, I received this has an ARC. A large thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for trusting me to read this and provide feedback. Life has a funny way of getting in the way, so apologies for the late return:

In the early stages of the pandemic, I found the Night Angel trilogy while stomping through a Barnes and Noble, and realized I had owned, but not read, the first book. After a few solid weeks of reading, I was caught up, but definitely wanted more of Kylar and his world, and with Night Angel Nemesis, you definitely get that.

From the start, this is world where the events of the Night Angel trilogy have introduced the consequences that you don't often see in a sequel series. There's not a completely "good ending" in Night Angel, and the opening chapters makes this apparent by showing how the world has evolved with Logan being King, but also how Kylar has been handling himself as the Night Angel, and the internal conflict he's had to come to grips with as a result of the events in Beyond The Shadows.

To keep this spoiler free, Kylar is placed in a position of trust, but after a bad night, this results in him taking chase across the world to make things right. The Chantry are still here, and we learn more about how they operate, and Viridiana takes a bigger role in this story, which allows for some great character growth with those characters that have returned from the previous books.

All in all, it's a very solid continuation of Kylar's story, but it's also a frame story that jumps perspectives at random times. This can throw some folks off, but by the third time it jumped perspective, I was able to not feel as discombobulated by the change in tone and the shifting from First to Third person perspective. Actually, as the book moved further along, I really liked the insight these breaks gave, especially when the events taking place were pretty heavy and would have an impact on the other side of the story being told.

Initially a slow start, the book did pick up quite well, and the final half the book is a solid ride of chaos, discovery, and simply "figuring it out." With this being Book 1 of The Kylar Chronicles, I'm really interested to see how Brent Weeks takes the events from this book, applies the consequences and opportunities, then continues to develop Kylar, Viridiana, the Chantry, Logan, and other characters to meet this evolving world that has expanded greatly between the first 3 books and this one.

If I could do a half star, I would. Solid 4.5 stars out of 5. Thanks again to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC.

After loving the original trilogy, I eagerly picked up the newest entry. Reading the first trilogy is recommended for a better understanding of the characters. Weeks has developed as an author, with writing closer to the Lightbringer. He addressed previous complaints, like the male gaze. While I enjoyed the humor and action, the overarching plot was underwhelming and lacked high stakes. Nevertheless, I found it enjoyable. Weeks excels at writing fun, action-packed stories with great humor and witty dialogue. Although Nemesis was too long for its story, filled with self-pity, I still recommend Brent Weeks' books.

Well that was....disappointing. I was really looking forward to this book as I enjoyed the first trilogy immensely, but this was a bit of a let down. I didn't like the point of view it was written from and it seemed to drag out so much. After finishing the book (all 850 pages) and I could sum the whole thing up in a page. To say that not a lot happened in that long of a book is a disappointment. I read like it's just setting up the next book which is really annoying. Writing was good, although it seemed like he was sprinkling in big words just to prove that he has progressed as a writer since the first trilogy.

3 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
Kylar and crew settled the risk of several wars by awakening old, powerful magic and building a new city to boot. However, it looks like that magic has had several dangerous, and unexpected consequences.
Review
The key against overwhelming odds, Kylar tells us several times, is to attack is to attack viciously, aggressively, and quickly, so that foes are afraid, uncertain, and overwhelmed. That’s pretty much the approach Weeks takes with this book – it’s constant action and drama, so that we’re always running to catch up, and often unsure of what’s happening, and who’s supposed to be betraying whom this time. It’s a very self-aware book, so I don’t doubt this was a conscious choice by Weeks, just as it’s a (long) story of a heist – which Weeks carefully defines for us as requiring a witness who misunderstands what’s happening – whose witness is us.
I very much liked the original trilogy, despite a weaker-than-hoped ending, and was happy to see more of the world coming our way. Unfortunately, this wasn’t what I hoped for. In fact, there were any number of places where I think Weeks went wrong.
It’s a near-immediate continuation of the first series. Despite having just reread all of that thick trilogy in preparation, this wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted more discovery about the backstory, the ka’kari, the magic, etc. Instead, it’s a direct follow-on at exactly the same scale – day-to-day, not great epic.
Weeks doubles down on nearly everything:
length – where each previous book was 600 pages, this was 900. It didn’t need to be, and would have been better at half the size (or less)
drama – where Kylar was put through the wringer several times in the first trilogy, now it happens every several chapters, and there are 108 chapters. Weeks knows exactly what he’s doing – there are constant asides about whether it’s too much, too over the top. Yes, it is.
breasts – we saw a lot of breasts in the last books. Well, Kylar was adolescent, inexperienced. It was a debut series. Now, both Kylar and Weeks are older. But they still haven’t lost their prurient fascinations with breasts; Kylar even talks about it directly. It got old in the last series. Now, it’s old and tired.
The framing for the story didn’t really work for me. It’s all in the form of a not very credible journal Kylar records, using magic that suddenly exists for the purpose. There’s quite a bit of other magic that is new, very convenient, and not very credible, including a key quest object.
The villain of the piece is not only highly powerful, but appears from nowhere. This appears to be a feature, not a bug, but it’s a pretty large stumbling block that the book stubs its toe on repeatedly.
The climax of the book is a highly non-credible decision by our hero.
Mostly, though, there’s too much going on, too much too fast, and too many turnarounds, even in a book this size.
It doesn’t really help that Weeks is so clearly aware of all these issues, and refers to a number of them directly through asides to the in-book audience that are clearly intended for his true audience. Some of them are funny, but a lot of them fall flat; good effort, but distracting.
It’s disappointing. It’s still interesting to read, but very muddled, and not the sequel I was hoping for from a now presumably higher-skilled author (as he himself notes). Whether it’s the usual case of editors deferring to a now-successful writer, I don’t know, but I do wish that someone had given Weeks some more brutal feedback.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

This really surprised me and pulled me back into the world of Midcyru after all this time!

The novel „Night Angel Nemesis“ by Brent Weeks is set not long after the events of the original „Night Angel Trilogy“. We follow the two points of view of Kylar Stern and Viridiana Sovari. Most of the surviving cast of the series plays a role in this continuation and it really made me feel nostalgic to see them again.

I read the first trilogy roughly ten years ago and it introduced me to adult fantasy. I really liked the characters and they stayed with me for a long time after reading the books. Coming back now I was curious but not overly invested in the book before release. But now after finishing it I’m really glad I came back. There is so much more potential in the story around the Ka‘Karis and characters than I had anticipated.

This book is structured as a story within a story- which I love! We see Viridiana reading Kylars diary of the last months as it has been recorded by the Ka‘Kari. Especially the dialogue between Kylar and the Ka’Kari was so fun to read.
Both storylines were strong and I liked switching between them. There are multiple intriguing new mysteries to make the story feel fresh and pull you in.

However I also have some points that I have to critique. First of all is the length and the pacing. Yes this is present in all of Brent Week’s books in some capacity. There are so many parts during the middle section that felt way too long and drawn out. I get that this can be immersive and make you get to know the characters but it really hurts the pacing. The story was meandering and there where so many scenes that felt sometimes repetitive. Cutting down on some of that journey would have made it way more accessible and impactful.

My second critique is the audiobook narrator. During my reading I alternated between the eBook and the audiobook. The narrator Simon Vance is outstanding at his job but in my opinion sounds too old to accurately give a voice to Kylar. Since Vance is currently 67 years old it just didn’t match the emotionally immature, young man that is taken aback by the thought of a breast. Since the majority of the novel is Kylar’s internal dialogue with the Ka’Kari and the fact that his sexuality plays a significant role, I would have been more immersed by a believable narrator.

The ending definitely intrigued me enough to read the sequel and I would recommend it to people that are familiar with the first trilogy.

A big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Orbit Books for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Listen, I’m a huge fan of Brent Weeks’s writing. The Night Angel trilogy is one of my favorites. So when I saw that he had another Night Angel book in the works, I was already sold. I have a tendency to be very cautious with sequel books written well after it feels like the story has ended. But this one….this one dragged me into its depths and would not release me!


Kylar Stern is the Night Angel, a feared assassin that does what it takes to make the kill. He is the darkness that finds the third way in any given situation. He always makes it out…until he doesn’t.

In Night Angel Nemesis, we follow Kylar’s adventures after the war. The war that changed everything. King Logan now calls upon him to save the kingdom. Meanwhile, Kylar is being hunted for his own magic. This book has a million twists and turns. Filled with humor and adventure, it was impossible to put down. Brent Weeks, once again, has created a world filled with magic that the reader will never want to leave!

**I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Having been an avid fan of the original Night Angel trilogy, I was thrilled to receive an ARC for Night Angel Nemesis. When I think back to 2008, the year the last of the trilogy was published, much has changed. While I've spent the past 15 years losing hair and starting a family, Weeks has spent that same amount of time tightening up his writing while simultaneously tweaking his style. This was met with mixed reaction.

The first thing I immediately noticed was that the narrative had switched from third person to a first-person tale. As the book progresses, the story is told by two characters (Kylar and Vi) and it is made clear that the former is not exactly a reliable narrator. The inner monologue is used to explore the inner turmoil that brews inside Kylar and can sometimes be distracting.

When I first dove into the book, I fully admit that I didn't dig the first-person style. I found the intro-heist scene very difficult to get into and wondered if this was truly in the same vein as the series that I had loved years ago. Once familiar characters were re-introduced, things started to gel a lot more. It was easier to identify with the characters with reminders of what they had been through. The characters are deeply flawed, and seeing the story develop through the eyes of Kylar (and later, through Vi's eyes) was a deeply personal touch that ended up working for me.

This being said, while Night Angel Nemesis can certainly be read as a stand-alone novel, there is so much history and world-building that I would encourage you to not enter this one blind. Even if you'd previously read the trilogy, it is world revisiting them as a refresher. Nemesis introduces references to the past, but trusts that the reader is familiar without offering many detailed summaries. The back story is relevant, especially Kylar-Chantry relations, Durzo himself, and the Black Ka'kari itself, and may feel like you are at a disadvantage without knowledge of it.

The setting was a contentious factor that I had to get over; I hate it when a story takes place on a ship. It's just so bleak and limiting as a setting, with characters usually forced to wistfully stare out at the horizon in the the distance (while complaining about how boring it is). The difference here, I guess, is that it is a really (really) big ship with a really (really) big storm happening outside. It's also a magical ship, full of magical creatures, and it never feels like it's happening in cramped close quarters. I'll give Weeks a pass here because so much effort was put into character development and plot twists.

The story was told in several parts and was not rushed. The author could have easily sliced this up into several novels, with a cliffhanger at the end of each, but I'm glad that he didn't. There is room for a sequel (or two!) after this, with just enough loose ends left dangling to keep readers wanting more.

As a sequel to the Night Angel trilogy, Night Angel Nemesis follows the story following Black Barrow. Kylar is forced to deal with his murder of the woman he loves. This book is actually structured in such a way that you do not know what Kylar's fate is going to be, which adds some more tension to the plot.

Wow! Brent Weeks has written a saga worthy of the character he created in “The Way of Shadows”; one Kylar Stern. Other characters reappear and new ones are introduced, but all are three-dimensional and relevant to the story. This 319k word treatise on morality easily could have been two or three separate books.

“Nemesis” has everything I love in a novel and nothing I don’t. The characters are well-developed, have interesting interactions, and grow throughout the tale. The plot is straightforward, but does not reach a guessable conclusion. There are turns that are stunning, including the ending. Weeks takes the time to deliver a message on morality and while I disagree with his conclusion, I do appreciate the tone and time taken to reach it. Pacing is excellent throughout the book, which is super-important for an 848-page tome.

Five stars for Weeks’ wettest work. My gratitude to Orbit via NetGalley. All opinions are my own and offered without recompense.

It was so nice to return to this world. You can tell Brent Weeks has grown as an author, but was still able to capture Kylar and all the supporting characters. I love this and I can't wait for more!

I gave this book a 4, but it’s probably closer to a 3.5 star for me. I think where I struggled was it has been years since I read the original trilogy and could have used a summary or something. And then it’s told in a nonlinear way and it was sometimes hard to follow when it was in the story. Plus, the end is really dang depressing. I feel if I ever circle back and reread the entire series, I think I would appreciate this book more

Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks, Weeks always delivers. I look forward to each new book and am always captivated. If you are a fan of the series, Don't MISS this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance copy.

I remember Brent Weeks's Night Angel series was one of my favorite series. I was sad when it ended. So was very excited to hear there was a new book in the series and jumped at the opportunity to read and review it.

It took me a while to get back to the groove when I first started reading this. I had forgotten a lot of things and wish that Mr. Weeks had provided a refresher at the beginning of the book, but hey I plowed on, and on, and on, and on, and ... boy this book was loooong. Mr. Weeks even brags about the number of words--315000!--in the Acknowledgements.

The book was long and had a little bit of a slow start but I still look forward to get back to the world I remembered I'd loved so much so long ago.

Have you ever looked forward to something so much but then once you got it, you felt let down? Well, I have and I felt the same with this book.

Seems Kyler hasn't grown up at all in-between when the last book was published and now. Even after everything that has happened to him, he hasn't learned not to "trust" so blindly. On top of that, Mr. Weeks paints Kyler as if he is a teenager with repressed sex life. Every time he is teamed up with someone beautiful he seems to be fantasizing about them or at least that is what I got out of most of the passages when he was either with Vi or Phaena. What's up with that?

To me the book was overlong, the plot convoluted and strained and the characters, I found out that I've started to despise Kyler for his thickness and blind trust.

1 star is for the memories, this one doesn't deserve more than 2 stars

After fifteen years, Brent Weeks returns to his Night Angel series with Kylar's diary--a diary only Vi can read.

When Kylar's diary makes its way to the Chantry, Vi is given only three days to read it and discover the location of the magical artifact (the Black Ka'kari) that Kylar had in his possession. But while Vi may only have been a side character in the story the diary tells, she WAS there--with her own agenda--and knows more about the mission to save his son than Kylar ever did--including its ending.

Returning to the Night Angel world is wonderful, but Night Angel Nemesis was not an easy book to read. The majority of the book is in the POV of a Black Ka'kari recording of Kylar's thoughts, and after losing Elaine and absorbing the Ka'kari, Kylar's head is a dark place where he spares his readers nothing in his thoughts, filtering himself very little and critiquing himself a lot. As Kylar asserts himself to be one of the premiere wetboys, the number of mistakes he describes in his work is excessive--and a bit tedious to read about. His conversations and relationship with the Black Ka'kari are fascinating and hint at bigger making in the world, but after recent events that leave the diary with a dark and painful ending, Kylar might not be up for what the future will bring.

While I'm excited to get back into this world and will definitely read the next book, I was a bit disappointed in this one.