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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Compelling story, with lots of twists and turns, and multi-layered characters. Great main character, incredibly loathsome villain. Very dark at times, it also made me gasp and laugh, a book that makes you feel everything: including frustration at the gratuitous use of rape pretty constantly. I do hope that part gets better in the series, and turns female characters into more than what their body means to men.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence
A decent fantasy novel, though the world building is rather confusing at times. Writing is blah.
3.5 stars I think.. I am going to think about it a bit.
I am lost at how I feel about this book. At times I loved it and thought it was awesome but at times I was completely lost and I had no idea what was happening. I found that the narrative changes confusing at times and it made the story a little choppy. But was needed because without it you wouldn't find out about certain people and places. But I enjoyed all of the characters and loved how the story unfolded. I am excited to see what happens next. I will be continuing on with the series.
I am lost at how I feel about this book. At times I loved it and thought it was awesome but at times I was completely lost and I had no idea what was happening. I found that the narrative changes confusing at times and it made the story a little choppy. But was needed because without it you wouldn't find out about certain people and places. But I enjoyed all of the characters and loved how the story unfolded. I am excited to see what happens next. I will be continuing on with the series.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
This book is a common recommendation to those who have enjoyed Sanderson's Mistborn series and Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series. I can see the similarities - rather than following a thief in training, Way of Shadows features an assassin in training.
Way of Shadows was a fun read with some interesting twists. While it fits solidly in today's "grimdark" fantasy category, it was still enjoyable due to a likable main character, which isn't always the case with books similar in tone. That being said, it also has some major flaws. The worldbuilding is excruciatingly uneven, and I found some of the PoV switches/action sequences hard to follow (though the latter might be due to the less-than-stellar audiobook narrator). You can definitely tell this was Weeks's first publication because it's so rough around the edges.
Way of Shadows was a fun read with some interesting twists. While it fits solidly in today's "grimdark" fantasy category, it was still enjoyable due to a likable main character, which isn't always the case with books similar in tone. That being said, it also has some major flaws. The worldbuilding is excruciatingly uneven, and I found some of the PoV switches/action sequences hard to follow (though the latter might be due to the less-than-stellar audiobook narrator). You can definitely tell this was Weeks's first publication because it's so rough around the edges.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5
I was in the mood for a fast paced, brainless story about assassination and betrayal and definitely got that! Though it was very politically heavy by the end of the book, so I guess I wouldn't call it brainless.
I wish I paid better attention to all the characters in this book because there are SO MANY. LIKE 200 OF THEM. Should have written them down with a note or two, I think I would have been a little more surprised by some of the happenings in the story.
The book had great pacing in the first 3/4ths of it, but the climax at the end was written awkwardly, imo. It was split between a LOT of different characters and point of views. Naturally, there are characters whose point of views you actually want to be seeing, and then the author would cut to a pov that you didn't really care for as much. I wouldn't say it made it chaotic, but it was kind of a let down, cause I just wanted to see what was happening with all of the main characters (and all of that was freaking awesome), but instead the pov would switch to someone mentioned a couple times before who I didn't really care about, so the ending wasn't as impactful as it could have been for me.
The author should explain the magic a little bit more in the next book cause I hate when magic is left unexplained--you don't know it's limitations and it's like it is assumed that magic bearers can just do anything. Fight scenes would be a lot cooler if I knew the limitations of the magic because I would know when something was actually impressive or if it was normal. Didn't think the fight scenes were anything impressive for this reason. Also, someone would occasionally do something magically awesome and then would never use the move again--I feel like if they utilized these moves more, the fights would actually make more sense and you'd get a sense of tactic. Instead, you have a character do something awesome but then it is blocked by some magical ability never mentioned before, and you think, "Oh, I guess they can do that too." was it cunning or not?? I wouldn't know. WHAT ARE THE RUUUULES??
I'd read the next one--a lot of awesome plot twists happened at the end of this book and the author has a lot of content for its sequel.
I was in the mood for a fast paced, brainless story about assassination and betrayal and definitely got that! Though it was very politically heavy by the end of the book, so I guess I wouldn't call it brainless.
I wish I paid better attention to all the characters in this book because there are SO MANY. LIKE 200 OF THEM. Should have written them down with a note or two, I think I would have been a little more surprised by some of the happenings in the story.
The book had great pacing in the first 3/4ths of it, but the climax at the end was written awkwardly, imo. It was split between a LOT of different characters and point of views. Naturally, there are characters whose point of views you actually want to be seeing, and then the author would cut to a pov that you didn't really care for as much. I wouldn't say it made it chaotic, but it was kind of a let down, cause I just wanted to see what was happening with all of the main characters (and all of that was freaking awesome), but instead the pov would switch to someone mentioned a couple times before who I didn't really care about, so the ending wasn't as impactful as it could have been for me.
The author should explain the magic a little bit more in the next book cause I hate when magic is left unexplained--you don't know it's limitations and it's like it is assumed that magic bearers can just do anything. Fight scenes would be a lot cooler if I knew the limitations of the magic because I would know when something was actually impressive or if it was normal. Didn't think the fight scenes were anything impressive for this reason. Also, someone would occasionally do something magically awesome and then would never use the move again--I feel like if they utilized these moves more, the fights would actually make more sense and you'd get a sense of tactic. Instead, you have a character do something awesome but then it is blocked by some magical ability never mentioned before, and you think, "Oh, I guess they can do that too." was it cunning or not?? I wouldn't know. WHAT ARE THE RUUUULES??
I'd read the next one--a lot of awesome plot twists happened at the end of this book and the author has a lot of content for its sequel.