The cover caught my attention
Author: Brent Weeks
Suggested age rating: 16+
Note: This is an informative review. Sorry that I spent more time setting the background than actually discussing it.
I first stumbled upon this book through AllenP, our guru. He’d found the book while browsing through the endless shelves of fantasy books in a bookshop in Cork. The cover caught my attention and I began asking questions, to which Allen enthusiastically answered. A few days later he lent the book to me, and honestly, I’m indebted to him.
It takes a lot to interest me in a book, and I confess that I’ve probably put down more books after the second chapter than finished reading them.
The Way of Shadows, however, violently pulled me into its pages, and I was amazed from the beginning by Brent Weeks’ skill as an author.
The story starts in the Warrens, a filthy, poverty stricken slum in a corrupt city. Our main character is a guild rat named Azoth. We quickly discover we really wouldn’t want to be a guild rat. Life means nothing in the Warrens, and other members of Azoth’s guild drop like flies. He realises his only chance is to get out.
Durzo Blint is a wetboy, an elite assassin and a living legend in the city. A crossing with Durzo has Azoth wishing he could be Durzo’s apprentice. When the opportunity arises, Azoth jumps at it.
But he must disown himself, say goodbye to the few friends he once had and change his identity. Now, as Kylar Stern, he his life has changed completely. Ahead of him is adventure, pain, drama, impossible choices and epic battles.
It is everything you look for in a fantasy book and more. It evoked emotions I haven’t experienced in reading in years, and I spent many late nights turning pages, knowing I should go to sleep but not being able to pry the book out of my own hands.
The writing is top class, and throughout the book, there are very few parts that could be viewed as boring.
The fight scenes are fluid, raw and intense. The way Weeks writes those makes you really fear for the character’s well being, an effect which not enough authors can do.
Usually when reading a book, I notice (and I’m sure the rest of you do too) that many authors are good at writing a certain aspect of the story (e.g. fight scenes) and their writing in other areas is mediocre.
With Brent Weeks, this is not the case. In ‘The Way of Shadows’, the fight scenes are excellent, the tense scenes have an atmosphere that could be cut with a knife.
The intimate scenes would make you think a woman had written them.
The characters in this book are incredibly realistic, with unique personalities and feelings.
The Way of Shadows is simply a must read. If you read five books this year, let this be one of them.

You're gonna wanna read it...