The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

Hi all. I'm Stacey and this is my first post for The Cyber Book Club. As a dedicated fantasy reader, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when I say that the search for a great fantasy novel is a frustratingly rewarding experience. Sometimes I end up stuck in the aisles of a bookstore searching through a tonne of similar looking books with an endless bunch of blurbs to work my way through. Other times, I stumble upon a book that promises the world and actually (Thank God!) manages to deliver it.

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks is one of these awesome books. And before I rave about it, I want to warn you that there may be some spoilers so don’t hold it against me, pretty please.

Anyway, The Way of Shadows is Week’s first book and the first of The Night Angel trilogy. It follows a familiar path in the world of fantasy fiction, telling the story of a legendary assassin with magical abilities (or “wet boy”), Durzo Blint, and his apprentice, a common street kid (or “guild rat”), Azoth. Assassins, even magical ones like Blint, are pretty common place in fantasy books, but Week’s gives a depth to the characters that drew me in from the first page. Even in a completely foreign fantasy world, his characters humanity is captured so honestly in their motivations and mistakes, with their redemption as complicated as their survival.

The story chronicles the life of Azoth, a common guild rat, who in desperation, seeks to apprentice with the legendary wet boy, Durzo Blint. The streets are a dangerous place to live, and when Azoth commits to his escape, he finds out that the price of his freedom will be paid for with blood. And not just his own. It’s a lesson that defines him and sets in place a course of events that will ultimately form the man, and the killer, he becomes. Predictably, Azoth wins his place as Blint’s apprentice and escapes the streets, only to find himself dedicated to a new, higher skilled version of danger that plays havoc with both his mind and morals.

Trained by Blint, the identity of Azoth, the desperate guild rat, is forgotten and in his place, a stronger identity emerges, by the name of Kylar Stern. As his skills sharpen and his Talent (magical abilities) grows, Kylar battles with the desire to stay true to himself and his humble beginnings, and to model himself on the enviable strength that his master, Blint, exudes. It’s a fight that wages in the shades of grey that most authors try to resolve, but Week’s lets his characters work through the layers of moral ambiguity without the promise of such a Disney-style happy ending. Which for some people may be frustrating, but I quite liked the honesty of his approach.

Nothing frustrates me more than an obviously fake happy ending, so I was genuinely happy that Weeks didn’t go down that path. In my opinion, there is nothing more important than characters being relatable and real, which Weeks does really well. So well in fact that I actually found myself thinking about Blint and Kylar during a university lecture instead of focusing on the critical aspects of childhood development. Probably a no-no, but that’s one of the reasons I enjoyed this book – the characters just stick with you.

Most of the book focuses on Kylar as he struggles his way through this moral minefield, with Blint providing the cynical, bitter backdrop of a hero turned disillusioned wet boy. It’s a somewhat sweet relationship between the two, with Blint serving as a father figure on some level. Maybe not the most positive father figure though, which is obvious in one of the most striking lines in the novel, for me at least. It’s the mantra that Blint lives by and attempts to ingrain within Kylar:

“Life is empty. Life is meaningless. When we take a life, we aren't taking anything of value. Wetboys are killers. That's all we do. That's all we are. There are no poets in the bitter business”

It’s harsh and it’s depressing, but it’s one combination of words that helps to understand the characters and the inner workings of their minds. While character development is a big part of the novel, the world around Blint and Kylar drives the plot forward as the more fantastical elements come into play. Unknown to Kylar, Blint is not only a legendary assassin but also a Ka’Karifer, the bearer of a magical artifact called a ka’kari, one of only six in existence, which endows the holder with immortality and enhances their Talent. As Kylar taps into his own Talent, he poses the most genuine threat to Blint as he too is a Ka’Karifer. These magical artifacts aren’t alone, with a magically imbued sword playing its part, along with many a mage and meister throwing their powers around as well. All of this is backed up by the world-building that focuses on both their home city of Cenaria, and its wider world, Midcyru.

My only issue with Weeks novel is that for the first twenty five pages, I felt like a little kid that got lost at Disney World – everything was interesting and amazing but I didn’t understand any of it. It’s something he fixes fast and soon enough the references make sense, but I know that that’s a deal-breaker for some people. What kept me going for those twenty five pages was his writing which kept up the promise of something interesting and worthwhile, and lucky for me, it actually delivered.

Ultimately, Weeks uses irony, in its greatest sense, as prophecy, blackmail and circumstance pit master against apprentice when Cenaria is attacked and brought to its knees by a rival kingdom, the Khalidorian empire. It’s a brutal and sudden attack that involves plenty of well-written action scenes and alot of swashbuckling adventure (which is incredibly fun to read) until the last few pages. That’s when Weeks grants us romantics some pleasant, old fashioned declarations of love and worthiness which made me pretty happy I must say. There’s something great about that little dose of happiness that the characters get after all of the darkness of the story leading up to it. It almost made me a little misty eyed.

In the end, some characters live, some characters die, and some characters that die, don’t stay dead for long. And all of it makes me super keen to brave the book store again and find the second of the trilogy, Shadows Edge. Which considering I’m now all out of fantasy to read, may in fact, be an intelligent idea. One thing that I ought to mention, is that The Way of Shadows actually resolves itself pretty well - so well, that even though you know it’s the start of a series, the book still finishes well enough that you could be forgiven for thinking that it was a stand-alone fantasy book which doesn’t happen too often.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading it and have developed an affection for both Blint and Kylar that’s got me pretty keen to get into the second book. I’d definitely recommend it to anybody looking for an entertaining and unique take on the whole fantasy-assassin story. It’s got the whole depth-characters-action-romance-reality-and-humour interaction going for it so I think you’d be hard pressed to find something not to like about it.

Anyway, I’m off so I hope you enjoy your forays into the weird and fantastical, and hopefully I’ll be back soon to report on my own :)