The Way of Shadows ✦ Brent Weeks

The Way of Shadows (First book in the Night Angel Trilogy)

By: Brent Weeks

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure

First, welcome! Sorry it’s been a while, I took a vacation from work and let myself have a mental break from everything for 8 long glorious days! Second, has anyone else not seen Hamilton yet or was I the last one to hop on the bandwagon? If you haven’t watched it yet, stop what you’re doing right now and go watch! Particularly with subtitles so you catch more of the lyrics! I felt all the feelings and I wish I could erase it just to watch all over again!

Now, on to book things. Omg. My thoughts are all over the place with this one. In a good way though! Where to start…. first of all, my rating! This one is easy!

Morgan’s Rating: 4.5/5

Okay, now the good stuff! WOW. I loved this book SO much more than I expected to! I picked it up as a recommendation from one of my friends and her husband who couldn’t say enough good things about it. It is a fantasy/adventure book that drops you into what will become a struggle for power in a far away kingdom with endless twists and turns. You never know if anyone is who they say they are or who can be trusted. Let me give you a brief synopsis for context since the back of the book didn’t really do anything for me.

Durzo Blint sees assassination as an art form and he is the master artist. Azoth is a street rat in a desperate situation. Neither one realizes that a chance encounter will lead to an apprenticeship spanning over a decade. Assuming the identity of Kylar Stern, Azoth will learn to navigate politics, magic, death, betrayal, and hope. Will he be able to subscribe to Durzo’s version of a moral code and turn his back on his old life?

Here is where I’ll put the trigger warning. Although there is nothing super descriptive, these are children growing up in the streets. Obviously they do things and have things done to them to survive that will make your heart hurt. It is a little dark and gritty in the beginning but there is enough hope and a redemption arc to lighten the mood. There are a lot of characters whose points of view you get to see and they are brilliantly and delicately interwoven in such a way that by the end of the book, most of your questions get answered! There were multiple times, especially in the last 200 pages, when I had to put the book down for a few minutes to process some of the big reveals.

Character wise, obviously our primary focus remains on Durzo and Azoth/Kylar. I do not like Durzo, but I don’t think we are supposed to like him. He has a lot of faults but over time we learn the reasons behind his choices, which frees him of a little bit of my disgust. On the other hand, I love Kylar!!! He is prone to sarcasm and he is an assassin who follows his own/Master Blint’s set of rules regardless of what anyone else thinks. He is a survivor and loyal to a fault.

Throughout the book, we dabble in magic and prophecy. There is war and blood and death. There are very few happy endings, although some fates are still being decided. The biggest flaw I noticed came towards the beginning, which is what took me so long to finish and review. The author throws a lot of information at you in the beginning. It is very descriptive and wordy and not in the best way. There are a lot of terms that you wouldn’t understand starting the first book in a trilogy. We are learning about a world that is not our own so using terms from that world is a bold choice that hits a little sideways. The story also starts off slowly and it is a long book overall (over 600 pages). Stick with it though, I promise it’s worth it! I am so happy I followed through with the read, I loved it so much! Thanks Bailey and Calvin! Keep reading to see what I started drinking!