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    The Way of Shadows
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    The Way of Shadows
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    The Way of Shadows
    Audiobook21 hours

    The Way of Shadows

    Written by Brent Weeks

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir.

    For Azoth, survival is precarious, something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums and learned to judge people quickly-and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

    But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics-and cultivate a flair for death.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 24, 2009
    ISBN9781400182862
    Unavailable
    The Way of Shadows

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    Reviews for The Way of Shadows

    4.5/5

    398 ratings89 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      It took a little while to understand the world of this book. I had to restart a number of times, but the perserverance paid off in the end. Looking forward to more set in this world.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      3.5/5 stars

      I ended up really enjoying this! This book was a journey, I started it about 3 years ago, put it down, and finally decided to pick it back up. It took me a while to get back into, but once I did, I ended up really liking it.

      I enjoyed Kylar's character development and his relationships with other characters. They were all quite well developed and weren't one dimensional.

      I found the world building okay - it got a little confusing with the magic, but I think I figured it out. The society they live in is pretty easy to follow, monarchy, with basically a mob running things as well. It was quite intricate and I am intrigued to read more.

      Overall, I enjoyed the story, the plot got a little convoluted and complicated in the middle, but the end brought it back.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Wow. I think I like this book even more than The Black Prism And I wasn't as lost in the beginning as I was in Week's later book. He does have a flair for pulling you into the book quickly. You're not dropped right into an action scene and thus overwhelmed, but brought right to the catalyst. I also liked that I could watch Azoth the eleven year old turn into the twenty year old Kylar. (God, I'm in love with that name! And I'm not even sure why!) It adds a hundred pages to the book but it's worth it. I didn't just read a story about Kylar, I grew up with him. Granted the scenes were few before the book really got underway, but they were there, and the lack of the more 'peace of growing up and training' scenes kept the suspense level at a constant high. I've already gone and bought the box trilogy from Amazon.com so the second book should be my hands soon enough. I'm curious about what comes next. There's a chance Week's will ruin it all if some of my fears about the forewarned romance between Kylar and Elene come true, but I have faith that it will be just as good.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Starts off quite grim. Leads into fast paced action all the way to the end. Recommended.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It took some time to warm up and for me to like the characters (a few hundred pages) BUT I enjoyed the story enough to stick with it and it payed out. This was very good storytelling. I end up liking our main character. I am not 100 % sure I like all of the Epilogue but what an ending. Defiantly a recommendable book! It have kept me up reading into the early morning hours more then once and even the start where I didn't feel anything for our main guy held my interested over a boring ferry ride where there was no end of the distractions. If I had felt more for the protagonist earlier this would be a 5 star book - but lets face it takes some time for him to become the protagonist but the start of the book do make the rest of the book so much stronger.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Love the book. Was not thrilled with the audio version.
    • 4/5
      In "The Way of the Shadow" we are introduced to the two primary characters of the Night Angel series by Brent Weeks; Azoth and Durzo. Durzo is a wetbot, sort of like an assassin but better because wetboys have the use of the Talent (magic).

      Azoth is a young boy without much hope in his life. He has no family, only 2 friends, no home, and he is low on the totem pole of power within his chosen street gang. However, he dreams of being much more after meeting Durzo Blint; he dreams of being a wetboy - a man with no fears and endless freedom.

      Azoth can only see one way to become a wetboy and that is by getting Durzo to apprentice him - however Durzo doesn't take apprentices and even if he does Azoth would have to pay a high price to prove his worth.

      The Way of the Shadow is a very easy and fast read with great pacing. Azoth's two friends Jarl and Doll Face are both small gems nestled in the ugly world of the warrens that Azoth lives within and the three of them are all characters you can care about. Durzo is more than just an efficient killer though, truth be told, he remains fairly one dimensional throughout this first installment.

      The world featured in the tale is interesting, the magic is also sort of unique in how it explains the limitations of certain mages (or how magic even exists) and some of the nations within the world promise to be very interesting if Weeks ever revisits the world in another story. I bought all three books of this series at once so I was able to read the trilogy nonstop which helped keep my interest as well.

      I am also biased going in as I tend to enjoy stories featuring a rogue and this story, obviously, fits in that mold. Weeks does a decent job of depicting the assassins life with his many hideouts and traps. However, at times, I felt like the wetboys were too powerful compared to the rest of the main characters in the world. Even with that said "The Way of the Shadow" was nice introduction to the world.
    • 2/5
      This is the first and best of a three book series. The series progressively goes downhill - book three is particularly atrocious. Which is disappointing because the story started out with promise. By the last book it just seems like the author lost interest, or even had someone else finish it for him.

      The main character loses consistency, occasionally seeming to be modeled on Batman for no good reason, other times modeled on other random characters and cliches. Then there's this weird plot device thrown in near the end with pierced earrings that make a couple bonded to each other whether they want to be or not. Worse, one half of the couple becomes a sort of automaton of the other. And even though both characters just hate, hate, hate this - they never once think about ripping the stupid things out of their ears. I get extremely annoyed by big sloppy plot holes - and the third book is littered with them.

      And then there's the ending! Oy!

      To quote a memorable Amazon review: "Where do I start with the bad? The mystical fetus transfer? The improvisational singing scene? The Barbie movie theme about how love will save the day? I only wish I was kidding. But this is all merely the last fifty pages or so of the book."
    • 4/5
      More like a 4.5 star for me, really appreciated the character building, none of them being too much of a caricature as it often can be the case.
    • 4/5
      This is a long book that jumps around some throughout. A lot of the time the jumping around is confusing, but it ends up coming together very nicely. I think that the first book was just the mandatory back story to understand the next two books(not 100% on that since i just started the 2nd book). Overall though i think it is a great read especially with how amazing the end of the book is.
    • 2/5
      So far I'm a few chapters in and am having a hard time getting into the story due to the fact that the narrator sounds like an AI voice simulator. It's terrible- really. I'll try to push through as I love the Lightbringer series and have heard a lot of good things about this series as well; but dang, that terrible narrator is going to be hard to get past! I'll revise my rating based on the story if I can suffer through listening to Paul Boehmer narrate it.
    • 5/5
      I’ve read this book many times. Love it. The audio book is great! Only complaint would be that the voices I had imagined in my head for the characters were different from the audiobook. But that was to be expected!
    • 5/5
      I liked this book a lot. After a slow-ish start, it really captured me, leaving me reading hours into the night when I should have been sleeping. Today, I was almost unable to move in the morning, having lost many hours of sleep to this book, and not regretting it.

      I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in Assassins, or just good Fantasy books.
    • 5/5
      Amazing, captivating, a truly beautiful read! Filling the soul with action, love, and mystery.
    • 4/5
      Good, but rough and unrefined. His more recent work has acquired some much needed subtlety. Here some of the emotional scenes are a bit ham-fisted and not quite fully earned. Still I finished it and I'll likely continue through the rest of the series.
    • 1/5
      If you like tropes, this is your book. Take special note of the 1- and 2-star Amazon reviews for truth in advertising.Of the 645pp of this book, only the last hundred or so are interesting. Of the rest, the world-building is mediocre at best, and the plot concepts have been done before--and much better--by Brust, Glen Cook (Garrett AND Black Company, in a rare influence doubleteam), Rothfuss, Stephen Donaldson (the Mirror of Her Dreams) and Ursula LeGuin (Earthsea). I bought the first book, and will check the second out of the library, just to see if the second book shows any promise. If I had to do it all over again, I would have checked this one out instead.
    • 5/5
      I spotted this book at the bookstore while looking for something else entirely and the cover art alone was enough to make me pick it up. It's a choice I don't regret at all. It's fast-paced enough to hold one's attention, yet not too rushed or forced.
    • 5/5
      Another great book with great chary- he does not disappoint!!
    • 5/5
      It was a bit daunting to start at first, since it's 645 pages long, but it flew by! Azoth is pretty much a street urchin. Durzo Blint is the most skilled wetboy, which is an assassin with some magical abilities. When Azoth becomes Durzo's apprentice he has to leave everything behind and start a new identity as Kylar Stark, a poor nobleman living with a Count. This book is filled with assassinations, lies, magic, new cultures in a wonderfully created world, politics, and an action packed coup on the throne. Just brilliant, one of my new faves.
    • 3/5
      Great action but nothing new character-wise. It's kind of like Louis and Lestat. The magic system is cool though.
    • 4/5
      This is the first fantasy novel I have read in a long time, but it kept me interested all the way through. It is a coming of age story, which is so common in fantasy, but the characters are well described and the plot is exciting. You follow Azoth/Kylar as he goes from slum kid to assassin under the training of master Durzo Blint. One gets to follow Kylar growing up, and gets to know his friends and enemies, and the world of Midcyru and its politics, where assassins play a big role. With 650 pages, there is plenty of space to introduce and develop characters, and sometimes it is hard to remember characters that were introduced twelve chapters back. It is also a little confusing that three characters are named Ailene or similar...
    • 5/5
      This book was quite intriguing to say the least, but the constant change of who's point of view you were reading from was annoying and confused me at the start but at the end it became easier as the book went on as ther changes became less frequent and more enjoyable to read. There were a lot interesting twists in the book and it also left a great start for the sequel as well.
    • 4/5
      Brent Weeks' first book in the Night Angel trilogy is very good - full of dark humour, dangerously shifting politics, struggles for power and, of course, an apprentice. Another reviewer remarked that it doesn't cover any new ground, but the characters are compelling (you really, really hate the bad guys. oh yes.) and the story can easily sustain a trilogy (I actually felt that this was 4 or 5 books compressed a bit, probably because I want more worldview explanations. As it is, you figure things out on the way, during action and it can be a little dizzying.) I would recommend this to anyone not quite ready to take on, say Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, but is interested in an excellent introduction to fantasy heavily embroiled in politics and bloodshed.
    • 4/5
      What a thrilling adventure! I love the complex story. The characters had great depth and beautiful arcs.
    • 4/5
      A total surprise, i was expecting another C-grade story(often categorized as YA these days) but got a AAA fun and grizzling story! Wow! Fun-fun-fun plot that start small and build up as the book goes on. Recommended to any and all fantasy fans
    • 2/5
      Over the last few months, I've picked up and read books by quite a few rising stars of fantasy (The Name of the Wind, The Warded Man, for example.) Brent Weeks was the one author I'd been hearing a LOT about but hadn't read a book by yet, so I was pretty excited about The Way of Shadows.Azoth has grown up on the streets with every aspect of his life subject to the whims of people stronger than him. He dreams of escape, ideally by apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint, the greatest master assassin alive. However, Blint famously does not take apprentices, and to be accepted, Azoth must prove himself by turning his back on his old identity, his friends and possibly his humanity.New and edgy fantasy seems to have two major things - it's more gritty and realistic and strong women characters. Weeks definitely succeeds on the "gritty" count, there's plenty of rape, child sexual abuse, deaths of characters we like, a protagonist that kills innocent people for a living and so on. However, not only are there no strong women in the story, but all female characterisation seems to be derived from a hormonal teenager's view of the world. Every woman is either oversexed and isn't afraid to flaunt and use it (in an unflattering way, not in the unabashed and empowering way of the Kushiel's Legacy series), or she's a gentle and virginal soul that's prone to giggling adorably. And regardless of their type, they are all beautiful and have big breasts that are talked about endlessly. (Momma K might seem like an exception but she's actually just a hybrid of the two - the whore with a heart of gold.) The main love story of the book is laughable - I don't want to spoil it, but let's just say that I prefer romances that develop slowly from getting to know people. I thought I was annoyed by Peter V. Brett's women in The Warded Man series, but this is way worse.It's not like the characterisation of men is great, but it's still much better than that of the women. Azoth is a passable protagonist, but his motivations and thought process were never clear to me, so I was unable to connect with him. As a child, it was easy, he had a miserable life and Blint was the most feared man in the city and was likely to keep him safe. As he grew up, even though most of the book was from his point of view, it felt like I was watching him from a stranger's eyes. Blint seemed a bit more sympathetic, but his self-loathing is justified in the book. Logan is a Mary Sue with no real personality except perfection. The only characters I enjoyed were the three mages from Sho'cendi.Another problem was that the book didn't flow well. We start with some scenes when Azoth was young, then there are some chapters where Azoth is portrayed at different ages with transitions like "Now he was sixteen." These sections don't seem to add anything to the plot, and were way too abrupt. There were also an innumerable amount of POV characters, often 3 or 4 in a chapter (and some characters got only one POV in the entire book.) There are some books in which this is executed well, but in this one, it was disjointed and seemed like a cheap way of letting the reader know what was going on while sacrificing characterisation and suspense.There were some things I liked about the book, like the concept of a criminal underworld controlling the Kingdom, but not enough. I don't think I'll be bothering with Shadow's Edge.
    • 5/5
      Very well written. Characters are well fleshed out, not just two dimensional. You actually care what happens to them. Brent Weeks is one of the greatest authors of our time. I’ve not read one of his works and been disappointed. The only negative thing I can say is that the narrator left a bit to be desired, but wasn’t bad overall
    • 4/5
      The Way of Shadows is the first book in the Night Angel trilogy from author Brent Weeks. In this novel, he creates a fantasy world in which things are truly dark and evil. Rape, murder, cannibalism and sodomy all feature in this tale.Azoth is a street urchin, working in the gang of the evil Roth. Azoth desires to be an apprentice to Durzo Blint, who is acknowledged to be the best 'wetboy' or assassin in the city. He wants to do better, and to be able to protect himself and his friends from the evil of the gangs.Weeks combines a story of personal advancement with international plots and intrigue to create a memorable world. This isn't the best fantasy I've ever read but I truly liked the grittiness, darkness and flawed characters that permeate thebook.
    • 4/5
      This book was INSANE. I have no idea to review this without spoiling all the things.
    • 4/5
      For Durzo Blint, the most feared wetboy in Cenaria, assassination is an art. For Azoth, it's a way out of his miserable young life, and ultimately, about survival. When Blint very reluctantly takes Azoth as his apprentice, the young boy must change his identity and renounce his old life, including everything and everyone he knew. As Kylar Stern, a poor aristocrat, he struggles to give up certain aspects of his former life, comes to understand who really rules the streets of Cenaria, and learns the hard way what it takes to be a true killer.The focal point of this story is the relationship between Blint and Kylar. Blint is a hard master who will stop at nothing to make Kylar one of the best wetboys in the city, while the apprentice is reluctant to live as Blint does: rejecting all emotions and everything that would be considered a weakness; mainly, love. Ultimately, they both are left damaged, as are all of the characters in the novel; none are immune to the cruelties of the world, and they are all trying to find light in the enduring darkness, as bleak as it can be.Extensive character development and their individual reaction to the events surrounding them leaves little place for world-building, but the novel is so fast-paced that it doesn't really matter. I can only speculate, but I imagine that the world the characters live in will take much more space in the two other novels of this trilogy. However, most of that character development is spent on the main characters and few of the supporting cast. Most notably, the mages Solon, Feir, and Dorian hint at a fascinating shared past, but their relationship is never really explored upon. Perhaps they will be put to better use in the second or third installment as well.Brent succeeds in intertwining an assassin story and a coming-of-age story, while adding elements of wizardry and magic in a in-your-face, yet subtle way. And behind Kylar's story is a much bigger picture that becomes more visible as the story advances. By the end of the first novel, the unfolding events become to big to prevent, and all are caught in the cross fire.The author also excels at twisting plots and adding intrigue and suspense to otherwise common themes in fantasy novels; at building strong, believable characters without being caught in the trap of stereotypes.And each of them has a story to tell.