The Way of Shadows was quite bad. The writing was poor, the plot was badly paced, the characters were all strangely misogynistic (which can work sometimes if you sell it in the context of the world, but he completely did not do that). By the end I was basically laboring to finish it, still without a solid grasp of all the words.

Future writers of fantasy, if you can flip to a page of your book and there are 10 words on it that you cant define ex-ante, the book is probably terrible.
( )

F/SF

This is my 2nd time thru this series. SUCH a good read... ( )

I tried to like this book but I just couldn't. I thought it started out interestingly, setting up a sort of Thieves World-ish city rife with crime lords. But the characters felt very flat to me and behaved in a jarringly inconsistent way in order to fit the needs of the plot; this made it very hard for me to care about them. I ended up giving up about 1/3rd of the way through. ( )

Assassins, oh how I love assassins. It seems a rare thing for me to find a book series (or in this case trilogy) with an assassin as the main character.

The world of The Way of Shadows is as brutal as it is fascinating. Weeks seems to have meshed together some of the best and worst aspects of historical civilizations. You have the overly lavish and indulgent lifestyle of the French (before the Revolution) aristocracy sitting hand in hand with the bloodlust of the Arenas from the Roman Empire.

The book isn't a 'pretty' book. There are actions and motivations throughout that would make most people cringe. Characters with such unquestionable evil intentions and personality that you want to run them through. Then there are characters like Durzo (who only takes jobs he feels are necessary) and Momma K (an aging prostitute with rules over the brothels of the city) who have traditionally 'bad' professions, but aren't bad people with bad intentions.

Azoth falls into that category. He is a good person, despite his angst, and became a wetboy to not only save himself but to help his friends. Which to digress--there is a definite difference between an 'assassin' and a 'wetboy' such as Durzo or Azoth. Not just in their methods, but in how they are viewed. Wetboys are the accepted, if not condoned, part of the book's society. They train and perfect their skills. They leave deaders. Assassins however kill with little finesse or thought and leave bodies. In the latter half of the book a better illustration of these differences presents itself.

Overall I love this book and am eagerly looking forward to the next two. Not my normal run, I tend towards female leads not male, but I'm very glad I picked it up. ( )