The Nations of the Night

The Lightbringer #2

by Oliver Johnson

The epic trilogy that began with The Forging of the Shadows continues as the champions of the God of Light travel through the land on a dangerous quest for the ancient artifacts that will enable them to defeat the darkness. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 1998

About the author

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Reviews

[Brannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those frustrating fantasy trilogies. I absolutely loved the first book. Great characters, great world building, interesting villains and a plot with many wonderful possibilities.

I finished the first book and rushed to read book two and nearly everything fell apart.

I still love the character and world building but everything else took a huge drop in quality.

The villains from book one return for book two but they immediately feel too small to feel threatening and become very annoying. As the plot and world changing threats become bigger the villain should get bigger as well. There was a hugely missed opportunity villain that was wasted.

The plot gets very boring and flat as well.

So now I’m wondering if I stop or continue to book three?

I think I’ll take a break and see how I feel later.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my style, more of a horror. Demons, doppelgangers, deaths, etc. I hadn't read the first book but nobody seems like characters who interest me. Just looking at words frequently used, screams, poison, flickers, mildew, terrors, ugly, black cloud, etc. Not for me.
I read a paperback.

[Dominic Moffitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Classic fantasy trilogy - promising, brilliant and raw first book - horrific, bloated and confusing sequel. Nations of the Night is awful.

[Alien · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first book of the trilogy. It was special. The athmosphere was very gloomy but dense. And the story encompassed just one day, which was quite original.
The second one is not so special. One can see it in the tradition of Tolkien. Basically a long journey, to find the magic thingy that will save the world. You have probably heard this plot before...

The good guys get in trouble again and again. Their doom seems certain, but every time they have a narrow escape, often through a deus ex machina magical solution.
This gets quite tiring after a short while.
On the positive side, the characters are relatively interesting. Part of the story is told through the eyes of the bad guys, which I liked.
And the author is quite good at describing stuff and creating athmosphere. Towards the end of the book, the story picks up a bit, introducing new elements and characters for the third book.

All in all a rather conventional fantasy fare, but the quality is slightly above average.

I also have the third book in my bookshelf, but currently don't feel like reading it.