The Way of Shadows

Night Angel Trilogy 

by Brent Weeks

     I feel I ought to apologize to my youngest- that I didn't care for this book. It was a gift from her to me (a year or two ago, so she was eight or nine). She picked it out for me "because it looked exciting!" she said. I am sure it is- but it's just not my kind of read. I gave it a good try- got to page 106 and then argh, sorry, I just couldn't continue. I failed to care enough about any of the characters and the complexity of this made-up world and its politics just lost me. Similar to Jhreg I suppose, it's about an assassin. Young man who lives rough and half-starving on the streets, wants something better but mostly just wants to not be afraid anymore so convinces the most skilled and deadly assassin in the city to take him on as apprentice. He has to learn to blend in with people of much higher status, to learn stealth and swordplay and the arts of poisoning and there's also magic. I didn't get to the magic. Alternating chapters tell the story from other viewpoints- including of some leading factions and rulers in this city or neighboring realms- I didn't really keep track of what was going on with all the different ruling parties, varying cultures of the many countries and how they related to each other, even though the author dropped plenty of details and hints at such. Did kind of like the main character, at least his perspective starting out what somewhat sympathetic. I just couldn't focus on it.

 Abandoned                     677 pages, 2008