by The WandererAuthor: Brent Weeks
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy
Series: Night Angel Book One
Pages: 659
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The Way of Shadows is a Tolkien inspired fantasy that at first glance doesn’t really appear to resemble anything like Tolkien’s work. Weeks’ story is so dark and bleak, and there are so many morally ambiguous characters, it’s hard to find the classic good vs. evil Tolkien staples. But deep down this story is still about a young unknown child rising to become a powerful figure in a fight against evil.
Weeks writes a descriptive “hell on earth” type of scenario. His characters live in a place with depressing realities that echo the darkness’s in our own world. I found myself loving every bit of the book until the end, which had a number of twists in the plot that agitated me. However, my personal qualms with the ending won’t stop me from continuing with the sequels. The Way of Shadows is a great introduction to a grim assassin centered fantasy series.
