Name: The Way of Shadows
ISBN: 9780316033671

Brent Weeks

Determined to escape the Warrens, Azoth seeks out Durzo Blint, the city's most ruthless assassin, to persuade him to take him on as an apprentice and to teach him the deadly Way of Shadows, in the first volume in a new fantasy trilogy. Original.

The Way of Shadows

Elad Schulman

I enjoyed the storytelling and characters but not enough to continue the series.

Sam Ock

Aaron J Mitchell

Light and fun heroic fantasy with an edge, highly recommend for fans of David Gemmel or Joe Abercrombie.

Petaco

Well. I did like most of it but it kind of lost me in the last part. I don't know if I will read the next book in the series. I wanted (view spoiler)[Blint to live. I felt like he was as much a part of this book as Azoth was. I did not care for Doll face at all. I didn't connect with her. I liked the friendships that Azoth had. Everything could have almost ended so happily for everyone, but since the book is a little on the dark side, it could not.  (hide spoiler)]. I did like the time I spent reading it. It did not seem that long at all. Perhaps things may be better clarified in the next book, but I don't know if I can deal with that many pages of despair. It's not as emotionally exhausting as the Game of Thrones series (I could only make it through the first book in the series... don't get attached) and not nearly as brutal as the The Lies of Locke Lamora (that book scarred me for life). So far, I liked the Kingkiller Chronicle Patrick Rothfuss Collection 3 Books Box Set -GiftBox best.

Kirsten Simkiss

I made it 91 pages and then I quit reading. I found this incredibly difficult to get into for a number of reasons.

For one, the world building is incredibly hard to understand and picture. They throw out a bunch of terms about the type of buildings, but those terms mean little when you have no meaningful visual references to them. Mostly they seemed to borrow from more "exotic" real world cultures, becoming caricatures of those cultures, and yet all of the heroes seemed to be white males - save maybe one, who they indicated might be a person of color. The descriptors for the people and the countries were increasingly vague. Maybe I would have understood more once Azoth got out into the world more, but I'm not sure that I cared enough about any of the characters to worry about it.

There were five main character from whom you get to see the world in this book, at least as far as I read. All of them were men. They were all fairly similar in personality, save the little lord who seemed to be kind of sweet. I didn't particularly latch onto any of them because, again, they seemed like caricatures. It was kind of like reading a D&D campaign where you can tell they have an idea of what their character is like but it isn't fully fleshed out when they started writing.

And let's talk about the fact that Rat, the villain in the first 90 pages, is the only person with interest in more than one gender. And the way that the author chooses to express this interest? Sexual assault. I'm sorry, but when all the other characters are conceivably straight and you make only your villain bisexual, it reads like you think non-straight people are pedophiles and rapists. That may not have been the author's intention, but that's how it came across to me.

The writing style is also not particularly interesting. It's not bad, but it isn't good either. There's no descriptive flair, nothing happens that isn't entirely predictable. It's just... blah.

Obviously, I didn't finish this book. It was 650 pages and at 91 pages, I found I just wasn't interested in forcing myself through the remaining pages. This book came recommended to me by a college friend (I'm sorry Mike!), but I can't pass that recommendation down I'm sorry to say. If you're reading this review and considering reading this book, just keep walking. There are better books.

Bethany

Interested me enough that I'm going to continue the series but I hope it gets better; I'm not feeling attached to any of the characters and sometimes the writing is disjointed. I hope in the next book the magic starts to show more consistencies--none of it made much sense in conjunction with each other, and I didn't even realize magic was involved in this universe until a quarter of the way through the book--and it's a long book. I only started getting actually pulled into the story and reading faster about halfway through.

Kelsi Proulx

This book was so bad I couldn't even finish it. I have been trying to push myself through it for over a month (I am usually a fast reader, most books take me less than a week). I feel absolutely no attachment to the characters and every time something happens my response is kind of "ok...why should I care?" It is so simply written that there is just no challenge whatsoever. I have about a hundred pages left and have finally made the decision to put it down forever because I am just getting no enjoyment at all from reading it.

The razor-sharp first novel in the Night Angel trilogy, from international bestseller Brent Weeks The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city's most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned the hard way to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint. But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death. 'Brent Weeks is so good it's beginning to tick me off' Peter V. Brett 'Weeks has a style of immediacy and detail that pulls the reader relentlessly into the story. He doesn't allow you to look away' Robin Hobb 'I was mesmerised from start to finish. Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, non-stop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writers' work' Terry Brooks 'Weeks has truly cemented his place among the great epic fantasy writers of our time' British Fantasy Society Books by Brent Weeks Night Angel The Way of Shadows Shadow's Edge Beyond the Shadows Perfect Shadow (novella) Lightbringer The Black Prism The Blinding Knife The Broken Eye The Blood Mirror The Burning White

Book 1 of the Night Angel

The Way Of Shadows

As someone who absolutely adores fantasy and assassin-themed books, 'The Way of Shadows' ticked all of the things I love about these genres. The characters were interesting, the plot was immersive, and the action scenes were genuinely exciting.

Melea Mullican

Jessica Nottingham

I'm being generous in giving this a three star rating, mainly because the beginning of the story was actually rather good. Unfortunately, that doesn't last long. This story plays on every Fantasy trope out there. It spends too much time on graphic death scenes, and not nearly enough time on actual world building. It treats women like weak minded pawns, whose sole purpose is to either die violently or be love interests, to advance the plot. Or what little plot there is.

I love Fantasy. Nothing makes me happier than to get lost in a new world, with new rules, and hopefully with some magic. I need guidance though. The author needs to care as much about their world and the characters as I do. Weeks didn't make me feel like he was invested. So I never felt invested. Things moved along quickly enough that I finished this, but just barely.

So three stars for a strong start and an okay finish. I don't think I'll be moving on to the other books in this series.