The Way of Shadows (Night Angel, book 1)

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Durzo Blint has made a reputation for himself as the city’s most accomplished assassin. Killing is an art for him, and his reputation is unrivaled.

Azoth is a guild rat. He grew up in the slums and has learned to judge people quickly. He’s learned to take risks because survival itself is precarious. One big risk: apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

If Azoth hopes to be accepted and to succeed at this new life, he’ll have to turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he’ll have to learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics and, along the way, cultivate a flair for death just like his master.

After attending a conference where Brent Weeks spoke, I wanted to give his work the benefit of the doubt. But the farther I read into The Way of Shadows I just kept hoping more desperately that the ending would be used to shine a light through the story’s darkness or signify a character’s growth in an explosive way. Indeed, there’s definitely something addictive about the way Weeks writes his introductory chapters, and the whole story has vibes of an adult Ranger’s Apprentice series, only 10 times more deadly. Overall, though, I regret choosing to finish it.

This book left me feeling dirty. Its uncomfortable carnal nature, matched with a plot twist of religious values introduced at the end of the book, makes it impossible for me to place where exactly the best audience for this book can even be found.

Rated: High, for 22 uses of strong language, 28 uses of moderate language, 81 uses of mild language, and 10 uses of the name of Deity in vain. A character gives the middle finger. Violence is brutal, gory, and bloody. There are countless deaths from child abuse, stabbings, assassinations, poisonings, beheading, sea monster attack, dismemberment, and massacre. References are also made to cannabalism. Sexual content includes frequent innuendo, reference to male and female anatomy, prostitution, sexual abuse, child rape, evocative nude statues (which readers find out a servant was forced to model for), infidelity in marriage, forced marriage, reference to suicide, and a descriptive sex scene where a man consummates his marriage with a 15-year-old girl. 

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