The Way of Shadows review

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks is a very pretty book - the cover art attracted me to it before I even started reading it.  The story, however, is anything but pretty, following a young boy as he escapes the city slums to train as an assassin.  It's a dark concept, with a lot of dark characters, violence and unpleasantness.  Yet, the narrative draws you in, provides you with characters that have enough light to make them sympathetic, and ticks along at a pace that makes the 645 pages seem a great deal fewer.

Towards the end, a couple of incidents made me think I wouldn't continue with the series, but those incidents turned out not to be quite as they seemed, and the book concluded with several intriguing and likeable characters in predicaments I'd like to see them get out of, so I have in fact reinstated the second book on my wishlist.  I'm particularly hoping that a trio of friends, who didn't get much page time in the first one, will be more instrumental later in the series, as I really liked them and they have a lot of interesting potential.

This was a very well written book, with a very engaging style and story, that just about managed to stay on the right side of my ick threshold.