The Way Of Shadows Review

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

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.

REVIEW:
There is only one genre from all that i can't read fast in Enligsh and that's epic fantasy. So here i got not only an epic fantasy book but 700-page book as well. That was a huge book! Lol, anyway...


So on the point..We basically follow Azoth's life. From his 11 years til 20.We see his transformation from an a small afraid boy to the apprentice of the best wetboy, Durzo Blint. Of course the important part of the story is not really Azoth. We see how a kingdom grows with a selfish and crazy king. As Azoth live both the life of a wetboy and a young baron, we get to see the situation from man different angles. Of coures the book is not only Azoth. There are scenes of king's life, the general, duke Gyre, duke's Gyre son, Durzo Blint, Momma K, Solon, all the bad guys...it has food.


I have read other reviews about it and it was said that it has too many details in annoying way. I will have to disagree with it. Lord Of The Rings was more boring to read. The book is full of action, violence, bad language..surprisingly the sex scenes are not detailed more than the necessary level. There is not even one calm scene. Maybe it's cause the characters have so much in mind or they are nervous. Anyway, i found the details in medium level. They didn't bored me and i had a pretty good image about the world and every scene. My imagination didn't run wild.I really liked that. And the characters are so well created and different from each other. It was making the story of each one unique.
The part that annoyed me was the number of the characters. It's obvious that a book in its size will have many characters but this one didn't introduce them in the right way. I was reading so many names from the very first chapters that confused so much that still can't remember who is who. Even some of the main characters, i need time to have in mind who a person is. That was disappointing.And there wasn't at the end or start a list with the names so...:/

Something that i really wanted to point out. I usually fell for the dark bad-good guy. In this book that guy is Durzo Blint. Ermm..well...congrats to the author! I didn't fell for him. Man, i was afraid! I think that's the point. Everyone was afraid of him but most of the times that doesn't pass to the reader too. Except this time which did.

Soooooooo...happy reading to everyone who likes fantasy and pick the book ;) I will certainly buy the next too^^