A plucky street urchin Azoth wants to be a wetboy (*). Which is basically an assassin on steroids . Minus the unfortunate side effects of acne, neck hump, obesity, testicular atrophy, and man-boobs. Also, call me immature, but when you call your magical artifact ka'kari, despite the mandatory fantasy apostrophe, the "kaka" part inevitably elicits immature giggles from me. Dear writers, please be careful in your word choices. Anyway, as I said above, our plucky street urchin (hello, fantasy t...

Likeable, really, but something made this a hard book to delve into and get lost in the story. Could be the gritty scrabble of life in the mud of the Warrens. Could be that while character building was excellent, the world outside the Warrens lacks details, even as we meet the characters living there. Could be I've read too many stories lately with heroes of questionable ethics, and I need to cleanse my palate with light and fluffy (taking applications for light and fluffy~).Halfway through. Fou...

5/5 stars“Killing was no longer an activity, it was a state of being. Kylar became killing.”The Skinny:This story follows Azoth as he becomes the wetboy, Kylar Stern. Under the tutelage of Durzo Blint, Kylar slowly transforms into one of the most formidable wetboys in the city. Kylar’s is put to the test, both physically and mentally, when a force larger than he could have anticipated threatens his city. My Review:As far as Fantasy goes, this is not the best out there. The politics were so-so, a...

“Assassination is an art, milord. And I am the city's most accomplished artist.” ― Brent Weeks, The Way of Shadows3.5/5The story starts out with a bang, and the author has built just enough mystery around the main characters and their motives to keep me turning the pages. The book is busy, it's fast moving, but I found it sometimes to be more complex than it needs be. I just hope it gets better in the following books.

A somewhat awful page-turner:A page-turner I'm embarrassed to have finished. The plot in this exciting thriller rolls along, almost too swiftly, but ultimately left me unfulfilled. The author never fleshes out his world or the characters inhabiting it. They often lack motivation for their actions and are little more than mere vehicles for the plot, whose elements fit *too well* together. The central love story is so trite its laugh-out-loud funny, and while I realize Mr. Weeks met his wife at a

*New individual reviews are on the way. Until then, make your self comfortable with this sorry excuse of a review" This review is for the whole series (spoiler free).This is, by far, my favorite fantasy story of all times. It begins as a personal story of a kid apprenticed to an Assassin, and ends as an EPIC fantasy story, including amazing magic, mystical artifacts, Immortals, Godkings, and of course politics. Both character & world building are impressive (Its architecture is delicate and refi...

www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.comDurzo gazed into the frothy brown ale as if it held answers. It didn't, and he had a choice to make. The usual forced gaiety of the brothel swirled around him, but nobody male or female bothered him. Perhaps it was Retribution unsheathed on the table in front of him. Perhaps it was merely the look on his face.I enjoyed the book and liked some of the characters. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. Azoth/Kyler was a nothing, a low-life that was in a bad situa...

The way of Shadows had been waiting for me to read for a very long time, and I’m glad I finally got around it. It’s a gritty coming of age story that has a great cast of characters and an intricate plot. While it has a few minor flaws it’s a fantastic debut by Brent Weeks.The characters are really well-drawn and most of them are very compelling. I liked the two main characters Durzo and Kyler, who are actually anti-heroes. Momma K, Solom, Dorian are really great charcters as well and I liked the...

3.5 stars”I don’t ask you to like reality. I only ask you to be strong enough to face it.”Durzo Blint is Cenaria’s most feared killer. Azoth is a frightened little boy living on the streets. Through a series of coincidences, the two come together in the dark underworld of the capital, and the guild rat becomes the assassin’s apprentice.The only thing you know about the plot is that you’re following Azoth’s journey from the streets to becoming a top-notch killer. That can make things a bit confus...

1.5/5 “Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins?" <- I read The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, I think that's punishment enough for my sins.This novel had a promising start, I really enjoyed the start and was excited to fangirl over this novel for eternity, as everyone already knows I am Brent Weeks trash & I'm not ashamed to admit it. So I expected to absolutely adore this book, to be submerged in feels and just want to cuddle it for long hours and cry tears of adora...

I found this series to have the kind of "well" written and "witty" dialogue that every 12 year old pervert will love, due to its "well" thought out and "intellectual" nature. However, I beseech one to read this series as one will not be surprised in the least by the plot twists. In fact from page one, a discernible reader will know the basic ending of the story, and thus can praise it for being a well written work of fantasy. The author's characterization of women as being either virgins or whor...

Since this book is full of tropes and stereotypes I'm going to do this review Disney style!Our main character Azoth is a street urchin. Don't you love street urchins? Of course you do! You have been conditioned by Disney to do so. (Remember Lady and the Tramp? Aristocats? Aladdin?!)Azoth meets Durzo, a master assassin, sorry, master Wetboy. And here comes my first problem with this book. I HATE the word 'wetboy'. I always thought it was silly how some people hate the word 'moist'… until I read t...

If Charles Dickens was born in 1977 and grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and then World of Warcraft and reading sword and sorcery mags and playing online games and who liked wearing a cowled hoody all the time – he may have come up with a book much like Brent Weeks’ The Way of Shadows.This is a good book. I was prepared to dislike it, thinking that it would be a pulpy X Box serialization or a campy Assassin’s Creed type fantasy – and both descriptions are fairly accurate – but it is also muc...

The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1), Brent WeeksThe Way of Shadows is the debut novel of American fantasy writer Brent Weeks. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art, and he is the city's most accomplished artist. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned 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...

So this book was a pleasant surprise! I left for New York and had only packed one book, thinking I wouldn't be able to read the entire book on my trip...oops. So I had to run to the bookstore to pick out another book to read. The bookstore closed in five minuets and I quickly grabbed the book because of it's interesting looking cover. Read the back, didn't sound too interesting, but noticed a quote from Terry Brooks which made me consider it. I picked it up and put it back down a couple of times...

I'd read a couple of sniffy reviews about this book and a friend was very meh about it ... even Weeks himself seemed a touch apologetic about his debut when he saw my tweet about starting it ... though I could be over-reading 140 characters there. In any event, my expectations were not sky high.It turns out that I tend to like what people tend to like ... who knew? I don't enjoy every popular book but I do generally find out that there's a good reason why they're popular. Brent Weeks is a great

The Way of Shadows is so laughably bad, I thought it was satire. Let me give you an example. So, near the end of the book, the protagonist is about to express his love to this girl after like 20 years of lusting, and at this point in the story, there's been a little cursing, the violence is PG-13 and badly written, all very YA. So, our protagonist approaches his lady and says to her (this is a direct quote):"I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And the purest. I'm not asking y...

I liked this book, although it didn't tread the newest ground ever, the characters were interesting and the plot held my attention. I think the only thing lacking was the world building, it was confusing and I found it hard to really get a grasp on everything that was happening politically. BUT I recommend it highly, especially to people who like Robert Jordan, Joe Abercrombie, Stephen Erikson Robin Hobb or Terry Brooks. Very accessable, but with the new era "grit" we've come to know and love in...

There are a few authors, Joe Abercrombie included, whose books I've read in large part because everything they've said outside of their novels (on blogs, etc.) has been hilarious and witty and they don't take themselves too seriously. Brent Weeks (or Sussex Months...yes I still think it's funny) is one of those authors.One of the reasons it's taken me this long to get to this book is because I think the cover is awful. I know cover art doesn't really effect anything and probably shouldn't anyway...

Brent Weeks has done a great job of tying it all together. While Azoth is the main character, several other plot strands with different characters are introduced and expertly tied together further down the line.This was one of those books that once I started I couldn’t put down – well written and with a strong story to boot, I’m looking forward to checking out the rest of the trilogy.