From the Bookshelf of SOS: Serious Overload of Series…

The story begins with Azoth, a guilt rat for the Black Dra

The story begins with Azoth, a guilt rat for the Black Dragons, who struggles for survival and is constantly bullied by the Guild Fist, Rat. Azoth approached Durzo in an attempt to become apprenticed to him. Durzo agrees, but only if he can kill Rat. Azoth does the job, but not before Rat leaves rapes one of his friends, Jarl, and leaves the other, Doll Girl/Elene, with scars that will affect her for the rest of her life. After being accepted by Durzo, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and adopt a new identity: one as Kylar Stern, a professional wetboy (another word of assassin, apparently).

For the 600+ pages that this story takes to unfold, it actually does so quite well. Even with the length, it doesn’t feel overlong or boring at all. Brent Weeks has a very direct and not-too-descriptive writing style, making it feel easy and accessible to read. However, the story does get bogged down somewhat in all of the political mumbo jumbo. I mean it’s quite difficult to keep track of the various kings, princes and royal families and who wants to kill who for what reason. Or, at least it was for me. I mean, I still don’t even remember who the Sa’kage are supposed to be.

Luckily, there is a lot of fulfilling content that makes this novel worth reading. Even though it seems to be a bit sparse in action scenes, the story line and character interactions make it worthwhile. To be fair, the plot does seem to meander quite a bit between various plot points and subplots until it finally says “Hey now we’re getting to the main dilemma.” That’s not to say that those scenes aren’t interesting. I mean, we get Durzo’s grim philosophy on life, an awesome fighting tournament and a lot of awesome dramatic character history.

The characters feel very well-done, even if not totally original. Azoth/Kylar is an interesting character – a tough and hard-working hero with somewhat questionable morals, but still has a soft spot for his childhood love, Elene. Durzo is likewise a tough guy with a soft spot despite constantly preaching about how life is meaningless and love is worthless. He is one with both scars that are both physical and emotional. Elene, the main female in the series is extremely religious and likewise described quite as being quite saintly and innocent. Despite her facial scars, she is extremely warm and kind-hearted so that even Kylar is astounded by it. Yeah okay, maybe they’re not the most original archetypes, but they’re well-done, in my opinion.

In the end, the book is a very satisfying read with a great fast-paced storyline plus plenty of action and suspense. It’s a tad darker than your usual fantasy fare and perhaps a bit longer too, but The Way of Shadows is still nonetheless a fantastic debut novel from an aspiring author. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.