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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
This is the story of a young boy who discards his old life to become a not-so heartless assassin (aka wetboy), apprenticed to a heartless master assassin who eventually reveals that he was once like the young boy and more, but then love happened etc, mysterious past, etc., and finally, the inevitable fate of master and apprentice. Surrounding these two are several characters for the young boy to befriend, ensuring that he always fails the assassins' number one rule of not caring about anyone. And finally, political machinations, a prophecy and foreign invasion to round out the background plot. Oh and some suddenly magic, but more on that later.
I wanted to like this book, based on the praise it has received, but as you may be able to tell by my tone, I was not only terribly unimpressed by the predictability, I was quite bored and struggled to get through it. I listened to this as an audiobook book and although I wasn’t overly impressed with the narrator, I don’t fault him for being unable to make such a dull book better through narration.
I assume I was meant to like the main character, Azoth, but I found his whining and hesitation tedious and I never did appreciate his motivation to apprentice to Master Durzo Blint in the first place. His downtrodden life was basic plotting and the boy lacked conviction. I also failed to understand why the leader of the group he belonged to found Azoth to be so special and talented that he wished to use him as an example of power. Basically, Azoth was set up by others to be more than the author ever let me see of him, either before his transformation, or during. And after his transformation into a deadly assassin, he became a cliche, magically able to kill off a whole contingent of skilled soldiers all by himself to sort of save the day. At one point, Azoth “dies” – I’d warn you of spoilers here, but I did say this was a highly predictable book – and I found myself hoping that Weeks would surprise me and get rid of the annoying kid and just let me have more of Durzo, whom I did really like.
Somewhere along the way, magic shows up. A glowing sword choosing a master. Magi. Healers. A fireball or two. Immortality. Special "Talents." It's presence was enough for me to raise an eyebrow because the magic seemed to pop up from no where from time to time and serve no real purpose other than being magic, until the end when everyone was flinging it around like confetti. Granted, I started to skim through a lot of the book to get to the end so perhaps the magic was better explained and embedded into the story in the last half. Feel free to correct my analysis, but honestly, I wouldn’t really care to listen. This book simply didn’t work for me and, while I might try another of Weeks’s books, the rest of this series has been removed from my to-read list.
See more reviews at
The BiblioSanctum
I wanted to like this book, based on the praise it has received, but as you may be able to tell by my tone, I was not only terribly unimpressed by the predictability, I was quite bored and struggled to get through it. I listened to this as an audiobook book and although I wasn’t overly impressed with the narrator, I don’t fault him for being unable to make such a dull book better through narration.
I assume I was meant to like the main character, Azoth, but I found his whining and hesitation tedious and I never did appreciate his motivation to apprentice to Master Durzo Blint in the first place. His downtrodden life was basic plotting and the boy lacked conviction. I also failed to understand why the leader of the group he belonged to found Azoth to be so special and talented that he wished to use him as an example of power. Basically, Azoth was set up by others to be more than the author ever let me see of him, either before his transformation, or during. And after his transformation into a deadly assassin, he became a cliche, magically able to kill off a whole contingent of skilled soldiers all by himself to sort of save the day. At one point, Azoth “dies” – I’d warn you of spoilers here, but I did say this was a highly predictable book – and I found myself hoping that Weeks would surprise me and get rid of the annoying kid and just let me have more of Durzo, whom I did really like.
Somewhere along the way, magic shows up. A glowing sword choosing a master. Magi. Healers. A fireball or two. Immortality. Special "Talents." It's presence was enough for me to raise an eyebrow because the magic seemed to pop up from no where from time to time and serve no real purpose other than being magic, until the end when everyone was flinging it around like confetti. Granted, I started to skim through a lot of the book to get to the end so perhaps the magic was better explained and embedded into the story in the last half. Feel free to correct my analysis, but honestly, I wouldn’t really care to listen. This book simply didn’t work for me and, while I might try another of Weeks’s books, the rest of this series has been removed from my to-read list.
See more reviews at
The BiblioSanctum
it was a good story with good character development. for some reason, still had a hard time getting into the story. i'm the kind of reader that normally inhales books, can't put them down. granted i did read this in two days, but there was no sense of urgency behind my reading. we'll see what i make of the next in the series.
In "The Way of the Shadow" we are introduced to the two primary characters of the Night Angel series by Brent Weeks; Azoth and Durzo. Durzo is a wetbot, sort of like an assassin but better because wetboys have the use of the Talent (magic).
Azoth is a young boy without much hope in his life. He has no family, only 2 friends, no home, and he is low on the totem pole of power within his chosen street gang. However, he dreams of being much more after meeting Durzo Blint; he dreams of being a wetboy - a man with no fears and endless freedom.
Azoth can only see one way to become a wetboy and that is by getting Durzo to apprentice him - however Durzo doesn't take apprentices and even if he does Azoth would have to pay a high price to prove his worth.
The Way of the Shadow is a very easy and fast read with great pacing. Azoth's two friends Jarl and Doll Face are both small gems nestled in the ugly world of the warrens that Azoth lives within and the three of them are all characters you can care about. Durzo is more than just an efficient killer though, truth be told, he remains fairly one dimensional throughout this first installment.
The world featured in the tale is interesting, the magic is also sort of unique in how it explains the limitations of certain mages (or how magic even exists) and some of the nations within the world promise to be very interesting if Weeks ever revisits the world in another story. I bought all three books of this series at once so I was able to read the trilogy nonstop which helped keep my interest as well.
I am also biased going in as I tend to enjoy stories featuring a rogue and this story, obviously, fits in that mold. Weeks does a decent job of depicting the assassins life with his many hideouts and traps. However, at times, I felt like the wetboys were too powerful compared to the rest of the main characters in the world. Even with that said "The Way of the Shadow" was nice introduction to the world.
Azoth is a young boy without much hope in his life. He has no family, only 2 friends, no home, and he is low on the totem pole of power within his chosen street gang. However, he dreams of being much more after meeting Durzo Blint; he dreams of being a wetboy - a man with no fears and endless freedom.
Azoth can only see one way to become a wetboy and that is by getting Durzo to apprentice him - however Durzo doesn't take apprentices and even if he does Azoth would have to pay a high price to prove his worth.
The Way of the Shadow is a very easy and fast read with great pacing. Azoth's two friends Jarl and Doll Face are both small gems nestled in the ugly world of the warrens that Azoth lives within and the three of them are all characters you can care about. Durzo is more than just an efficient killer though, truth be told, he remains fairly one dimensional throughout this first installment.
The world featured in the tale is interesting, the magic is also sort of unique in how it explains the limitations of certain mages (or how magic even exists) and some of the nations within the world promise to be very interesting if Weeks ever revisits the world in another story. I bought all three books of this series at once so I was able to read the trilogy nonstop which helped keep my interest as well.
I am also biased going in as I tend to enjoy stories featuring a rogue and this story, obviously, fits in that mold. Weeks does a decent job of depicting the assassins life with his many hideouts and traps. However, at times, I felt like the wetboys were too powerful compared to the rest of the main characters in the world. Even with that said "The Way of the Shadow" was nice introduction to the world.
Despite loving the Lightbringer series I let the nature of many of the negative reviews dissuade me from this series for a long time. I wish I would have just went ahead and given it a chance when it first caught my eye.
It took a little while to get its hooks into me, but once I got into it I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a hard time setting it down.
It took a little while to get its hooks into me, but once I got into it I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a hard time setting it down.
I loved everything about the Lightbringer series - except the very end.
And I tried to read this trilogy years ago when I discovered Brent Weeks - and couldn't get into it.
I'm incredibly glad I gave it another chance. The Way of Shadows brings together a lot of common elements in fantasy (young boy apprenticed to a master, revenge, hidden identities) and also a lot that isn't (child abuse, prostitution as a profession) masterfully. Weeks has a talent (pun intended) for writing his characters so that the reader can picture them perfectly. Even the side characters who don't seem important to the story.
The only drawback to this story is that there are a LOT of characters to keep track of with the multiple POVs.
And I tried to read this trilogy years ago when I discovered Brent Weeks - and couldn't get into it.
I'm incredibly glad I gave it another chance. The Way of Shadows brings together a lot of common elements in fantasy (young boy apprenticed to a master, revenge, hidden identities) and also a lot that isn't (child abuse, prostitution as a profession) masterfully. Weeks has a talent (pun intended) for writing his characters so that the reader can picture them perfectly. Even the side characters who don't seem important to the story.
The only drawback to this story is that there are a LOT of characters to keep track of with the multiple POVs.
I really enjoyed this book, and the series. It is a well balanced fantasy, with many layered intrigues.
An excellent intro to the series. Fantastic characters, very compelling plot and and a non-stop pace. I'm amazed that Brent Weeks managed to create two main characters, both with decidedly unsavoury lifestyles, and yet both compelling, and somehow overall good. A fantastic read that had me hating to put the book down. Looking forward to reading the second in the series.
I found it to be a action-packed and enjoyable fantasy read. I loved that Weeks did not shy away from having bad things (including death) happen to appealing characters. I thought this gave the book some much needed grit that I would expect in the harsh world that he created.
I really enjoyed the action/battle sequences, perhaps because I am a D&D dork. For the last several chapters, I could not stop listening (I listened to the audio book).
I also like the myriad of characters and the way the author wove their lives together. There were even times that I was touched by the story and found some extra moisture in my eyes.
Having said that, the characters could use some more depth. Also, for a group of hard core survivors living in a harsh world, I thought that everyone fell for the treacherous plot just a little too easily. And, for characters who were good to the point of being willing to sacrifice themselves for others, there also seemed to be a whole lot of willingness to sell out their precious few trusted compatriots.
Also, while some of the battle scenes were fantastic, the pacing was inconsistent and there were parts of the book that seemed to drag. Probably a good thing, because otherwise I may not have gotten anything done for the very long duration of the audio book.
Perhaps because I listened to the audio book, I was a little confused about Dorian actually turned out to be. Was he a bad guy or a good guy? This was not very clear to me at all. Maybe I missed something?
Finally, the biggest reason that I downgraded my rating to 3 stars was the few chapters where I felt like there was the beating of the one true god horse. This just did not seem to fit the context of the rest of the book, and maybe it was just me, it felt a little like I was having some religion forced into it, which is kind of a turn off for me. I almost gave up on the book at one point because of this, but then I felt it got beyond its preachy point and let it go to enjoy the rest of the book.
PS - I really liked the cover art. The covers for books two and three did not play out as well, but I really like this one.
I really enjoyed the action/battle sequences, perhaps because I am a D&D dork. For the last several chapters, I could not stop listening (I listened to the audio book).
I also like the myriad of characters and the way the author wove their lives together. There were even times that I was touched by the story and found some extra moisture in my eyes.
Having said that, the characters could use some more depth. Also, for a group of hard core survivors living in a harsh world, I thought that everyone fell for the treacherous plot just a little too easily. And, for characters who were good to the point of being willing to sacrifice themselves for others, there also seemed to be a whole lot of willingness to sell out their precious few trusted compatriots.
Also, while some of the battle scenes were fantastic, the pacing was inconsistent and there were parts of the book that seemed to drag. Probably a good thing, because otherwise I may not have gotten anything done for the very long duration of the audio book.
Perhaps because I listened to the audio book, I was a little confused about Dorian actually turned out to be. Was he a bad guy or a good guy? This was not very clear to me at all. Maybe I missed something?
Finally, the biggest reason that I downgraded my rating to 3 stars was the few chapters where I felt like there was the beating of the one true god horse. This just did not seem to fit the context of the rest of the book, and maybe it was just me, it felt a little like I was having some religion forced into it, which is kind of a turn off for me. I almost gave up on the book at one point because of this, but then I felt it got beyond its preachy point and let it go to enjoy the rest of the book.
PS - I really liked the cover art. The covers for books two and three did not play out as well, but I really like this one.
Tell me a book is written by a man without telling me it’s written by a man:
“He was suddenly silenced as breasts went past. No, not just breasts. The breasts. They were perfect.”
“He was suddenly silenced as breasts went past. No, not just breasts. The breasts. They were perfect.”