Beyond the Shadows

I really enjoyed all three of the books in the Night Angel Trilogy. Even though it was an “epic” story saving the entire world from catastrophe, the characters are not run-of-the-mill, but deep, and interesting, and so too is the story itself.

The only real negatives for me were the superficial similarities to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. None of it was the same, but some of the points were similar enough to pull me out of it every time I came across them, it pulled me out of the story because I recognized them.

The first of these are the Lae???knaught???an army without a country that dislikes magic; similar to the White Cloaks from The Wheel of Time. The second is the Chantry and the maja are, on the surface, similar to the White Tower and the Aes Sedai. In both cases, the differences are more important to the story and define it as something different, but unfortunately the similarities were enough to bring me out of the story, if just for a moment. This may be because of my mixed feelings about The Wheel of Time books.

All in all, I???m glad I finally got around to reading them. I???ve had the series in paperback in my collection for a few years???I was drawn in by the covers, but never had the time to read them, even if it meant spending my Audible credits on them.

I look forward to reading more by Brent Weeks.