Shadow's Edge (Night Angel, #2) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

May 28, 2012 Patrick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-series

Shadow’s Edge is the second book in the Night Angel trilogy and a worthy follow-up to the original. It differs in many ways. While the first book is definitely the equivalent of any superhero origin story, the second isn’t merely the “middle book” which exists to tie the beginning and end together, but holds a story that stands on its own. Shadow’s Edge is also noticeably more violent than the first. With eye gouging, limb severance, bone penetrating skin and mentions of cannibalism and rape, Sh Shadow’s Edge is the second book in the Night Angel trilogy and a worthy follow-up to the original. It differs in many ways. While the first book is definitely the equivalent of any superhero origin story, the second isn’t merely the “middle book” which exists to tie the beginning and end together, but holds a story that stands on its own. Shadow’s Edge is also noticeably more violent than the first. With eye gouging, limb severance, bone penetrating skin and mentions of cannibalism and rape, Shadow’s Edge is, at points, not for the faint of heart. Third, this book focuses a lot more on a minor character in the first book: Viridiana, one of the deadliest female assassins.

Viridiana, or Vi for short, is one of the most interesting characters in the story. Once a minor character, Vi is a main character here, working for the Godking Ursuuul, to bring Kylar to the king dead or alive. While she is a villain, she is very different from any of the series’ previous villains because she is treated more like a main character given her own side story, point of view and all. Her connection with Jarl and Kylar is something that was lacking in the first novel. While Durzo is gone, Vi is a far more interesting character to read about.

Logan is the other major character with his own side plot. Once a noble prince, Logan is now confined to the depths of a prison known as Hell’s Asshole, a very apt name for a hellish cave. A true noble like himself is trapped with depraved and twisted criminals who are abused and malnourished from the guards. In the prison there is The Hole, which is so deep that it could possibly be bottomless for all the prisoners know. Logan’s side story isn’t as interesting at Vi’s but it’s quite entertaining and, at times, hard to stomach.

Then there’s a few more side plots. One about Dorian and one about Feir and Curoch and some involving Sister Ariel. Honestly, it gets confusing trying to remember what happens in all of the side plots particularly when you don’t read too regularly. Kylar, Logan and Viridiana all have excellent stories though the constant plot diversion does make it hard to follow all the different stories at once. It can become quite difficult to find out which ones are important to pay attention to and which ones are just filler.

One of the major flaws is that many of side plots and major dilemmas seem to come to rather inconclusive or non-dramatic results. While the build-up is good, sometimes it felt like the endings didn’t live up to the build-up. In addition, there are a lot of side plots and keeping up with Kylar, Elene, Vi, Ariel, Solon, Dorian, Logan, Feir and everyone else gets tedious after a while because, as a reader, there is a lot of different things to keep track of. I still can’t quite remember who is doing what at every time, so it does become a bit hard to follow.

Throughout the 600+ page length, there is quite a bit of story-telling, some of it fascinating and some of it tedious. But Shadow’s Edge is, for the most part, a welcome addition to the trilogy and an improvement on the original. It’s more exciting and has much more interesting characters and situations, and the book is a worthwhile read, even if a but long-winded. ...more

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Jul 24, 2023 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

2nd books in a series. are always trying to read, and this one was such a info dump . There were so many new characters and a flood of new information that I was tired of just reading this book . Kylar was for most parts so annoying, and Elene was trying my patience with all the crap about not killing and please what's with letting Vi live and chopping off piece of Kylar not appreciate the whole domesticated process just so much wasted time. ...more

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