I’m like 98% sure I finished this near the end of 2019, but remember almost nothing about what I felt about the book. 3 stars?

I'd like to give it 10 stars and will re-read (and listen) to this series with joy. ( )

This book reads like it either had an amazing author and a poor editor (or overworked! There's over 900 pages in the hardcover edition!), or a poor author and an amazing editor. Since I've read the rest of Brent Weeks' books, I'd guess it's the result of both the author and the editor being so ready to be done with this series, and so behind on deadline, that they just shipped it.

While it is an impressive feat to tie up a 5 book series (that was supposed to be a trilogy) with so many disparate threads, this series was tied up using a clip-on bowtie. There were so many plot threads that were never resolved. Scenes with seemingly significant characters who were never mentioned again. Mid-scene POV slips (especially in Karis/Teia scenes) that I would expect of an amateur writer. Adding in POVs at the end that we've never had before. Things that could be fixed with a few additional drafts.

I did enjoy the twists and reveals in this book, much more than the confused lore of the third and fourth books. Some things finally came together.

Read it because you want to know how the whole saga ends, but don't expect an ending that answers all of your questions.


The immortals and their war, which was only even hinted at by the third book, and explicit from the fourth, seemed like they should be the main plot thread. After that point all mention of Koios and his people seemed extraneous - and anticlimactic. A bit more of Liv's POV could have increased the tension I felt about the Wight King's impending invasion. Instead we just get more and more lore about the immortals.

Yet in the final conflict we see only that Abbadon has been forced out of their world - for now. I'm assuming Weeks is writing a sequel trilogy/series to deal with this gaping issue, but if so it was poorly hinted. None of the characters seem the least concerned about the fact that immortals still have easy access to their world. There's no mention of how to prevent more wights from drawing them in, or defenses set up against Abbadon's return.

Kip's entire third and fourth book journey fighting Koios's forces was also completely undercut by Andross revealing his intended strategy. Why did I read all of that then, if it was pointless? If the point was Kip's growth, Weeks should have done a better job of convincing me it was worth all of that. The characters with the best arcs - Teia, Dazen - got little to no POV time in the finale. Even Karris had a more interesting journey than Kip. I felt great about Kip and his growth right up to that moment with Andross, and then Weeks ripped it out from under me. Even with five (that's right FIVE) epilogues, I did not get enough denouement considering how long of a build up there was.

I won't even get into the fact that nearly everyone lived (all POV characters) and everyone gets all their stuff back at the end! I loved it for Dazen, because boy does that guy deserve a break, but why does Kip also need to get resurrected, and then its hinted he even gets his drafting back. I didn't mind the whole "God is real and lectures us!" bit at the end until he started reviving people.

What I really wanted from this book - and this series - was for Dazen to be redeemed. We got that, but not nearly enough. He comes in to save them with the pirates, yeah that scene was awesome. But I needed more. This poor man has suffered so much over the course of five books - he deserves everything good in the world forever.
( )

Finally! The final book! I loved this book, but it wasn’t without its share of weak points. While the past plot points were carefully and slowly built up in the other 4 books, the ending here feels slightly rushed. The magic system was so complex and the rules of it made perfect sense in the past books. But in this book the rules are bent, often without much more of an explanation other than ‘because…God.’ Theology is a huge plot point in this book and, while that’s fine and commonplace in fantasy series, it still seemed a bit of a hurried excuse for some of the ways the story is tied up. I mean, who can really explain God? He just is. And so He seems an easy way to tie up loose ends. Maybe more of an explanation for why He behaved the way He did in the previous books? More of a reasoning for why He intervened where He did and why He stayed frustratingly absent when some of the beloved characters could’ve used Him? He left a sour taste in my mouth because I felt He wasn’t explained well enough.

The first part of this book went slow. Very slow. The Mighty’s story and dialogue still felt contrived and the buildup for the war was slow, although steady, only for the entire thing to resolve in too few of pages.

While I appreciated that everyone’s story lines seemed to (for the most part) be ended and explained well enough, I did find myself thinking that maybe they were ended a little ::too:: neatly? Some characters seem to even have a complete personality change which I don’t understand why. Not every character should have to neatly fall into a category of villain or hero. That’s not how humans work.

Let me be clear though, even with these couple of nitpicky details, I loved this series. All of it. There wasn’t a single point where I thought “I’m not enjoying this”. Even it’s weak points were still much better than average and it’s numerous high points were exceptional. The characters are well fleshed out and have, for the most part, well rounded personalities. By the end you’re invested in the outcome of this world and all in it.

The thing this series does best is plot twists, and Weeks keeps them comin’ all the way through the end. Nothing was safe from a plot twist until you closed the book. It made for an exciting read that rarely grew stale.

All in all, this series is high on my list of my favorite series ever and I would recommend it to any fantasy lover. ( )

The final volume in the Lightbringer series brings a ton of action, surprises and a conclusion to the series. Unfortunately, it also brings internal dialogue, evil monologues and just plain way too many trips down memory road. At 990 pages or so, this could have easily been trimmed down to 800 or less by eliminating all of the excessive babbling. The ending is just plain strange too, for a 990 page book, way too little is devoted to the action a the end.
I found this series to be inconsistent for me. Some were excellent, some were just so-so. ( )