Beyond The Shadows (Night Angel, #3)

by Brent Weeks

[Metaphorosis Reviews]

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
After the death of Khalidor's brutal God-king, the complex web of elements that brought him down has broken apart. But just because the God-king is dead doesn't mean everyone is safe - far from it.

Review
I thought the first two books of this series were excellent, and there are many good things about this third volume as well. But things that were quirks in the first book begin to develop into bad habits in this one. Notably, there are a lot of breasts in this book. This isn’t really new, but where in the first book, it felt like the focus on female sex appeal was honest character development, and began to be irritating repetition in the second book, by this third installment, it starts feeling icky. Some of it can still count as character development – these are things that the characters are genuinely feeling and doing, and sex is an important part of life for most people. But it is troubling that so many of the female characters are defined by their sexual characteristics and looks. To be fair, many of the men are also tall, handsome, and muscular, but the men here tend to be defined more by stereotypical male traits – stoicism, honor, and casual bravery. This was all part of the first book, but this far in, it’s a lot less interesting. Yes, key character Vi made a living from disconnected sex, but the whole point is that that’s not all she’s got.

This book also delves more into politics than the previous books, in part simply because so many of the characters are going their separate ways at the start of it. About a third of the way in, though, much of that is taken care of, and the book gets back on its character-driven track.

The ending, while satisfying in many ways, also has two flaws. First, it feels rushed. There’s a lot of backstory and legend and origin story and wrap-up in the last hundred pages in a calculated way. It all fits, but I would have liked to see it drawn out and developed. Here, it feels cramped for space. Second, the ending, especially for such a brutal series, is too happy and Hollywood-ish, down to the ‘what happened to all the characters afterward’ summary.

It’s still a good book, but the weaknesses of the series not only show through but threaten to get in the way. Here, more than in the other books, a good edit and a toning down of some characteristics would have served the book and the series well. Here’s hoping that the new continuation trilogy does all this better.

All in all, a satisfying finale, if not a great one.