[Alex]

Hello there, a few days ago I started a thread regarding Brent Weeks. For some reason the moderators saw fit to remove the topic, why I don't know. Anyways my question was whether or not anybody has read his debut "The way of shadows" and it didn't seem that many had. After reading what it was about I scampered of to the bookstore and bought the book. Now 2 days later after having read the first 650 page novel of his trilogy, which will have one book published every month in 3 consequtive months, I'm quite surprised why noone has mentioned Mr. Weeks before this.

I thought "The way of shadows" was astoundingly good for a debut and I will definatly be buying the next 2 books of the series. Solid characterisation coupled with an interesting and fast moving storyline topped off with some nice plot-twists marks for a very good read indeed!

A way of shadows is somewhat reminicent of Hobbs assassins apprentice series but as the storyline is much, much darker I have to say I forgot all about Hobb as the book progressed.

The story is about a little runt of a kid named Azoth who only has 2 friends, a mute little girl and a clever but weak boy who's name is Jarl. They are members of a guild consisting of children between 5-16 years old being led by a sickly guildleader and his cruel, sadistic right hand named Rat. Both Jarl and azoth are aware that they have to get out somehow and while Jarl has dreams of buying apprenticeship somewhere in the city Azoth dreams of being apprenticed to the deadliest assassin alive - Durzo Blint......


I would easily rate this book higher than the hyped "The steel remains" by Richard Morgan. The prose might not be as good as Scott Lynch, Abercrombie or Rothfuss (although it is very good for a debut in my opinion) but both the story and characterisation shows so much promise that I think we'll hear more of Brent Weeks in the comming years.

I highly reccomend his debut "A way of shadows" for anyone looking for a good fast paced read.

[suciul]

I would easily rate this book higher than the hyped "The steel remains" by Richard Morgan. The prose might not be as good as Scott Lynch, Abercrombie or Rothfuss (although it is very good for a debut in my opinion) but both the story and characterisation shows so much promise that I think we'll hear more of Brent Weeks in the comming years.

I highly reccomend his debut "A way of shadows" for anyone looking for a good fast paced read.

The original thread at which I have contributed too was most likely "eaten" in the database reorganization that's taking place.

I bought the book Tuesday night when it was e-released - Wednesday 1 am my time actualy - and I read some then and it hooked me so last night I stayed way too late to finish it :)

I agree with most of the comments above - I definitely enjoyed the book much more than The Steel Remains, and actually this book is quite dark in a more interesting way than Morgan "shock everyone at any price and maybe have a story somewhere there too" and it is one of the best epic fantasy debuts of the year on par with Empire in Black and Gold.

The series continues at the end of October and then November so we will see if the author can fulfill the immense promise of this book.

Without too many spoilers - the story/world of the book is a generic fantasy one, nothing original the way Tchaikovsky had the insect Kinden in Empire, but the characterization, pace of the action and storytelling are superb. This is a book driven by action, by making you care what happens to the main characters, especially Azoth/Kylar but the rest too, the bad guys are bad in a disgusting evil way more than pure evil way, the good guys are ambiguously good at best...

The book ends at a natural point with the story to be continued this month.

Since the next two books are to be released in the next two months, it's hard to rank the book for now, but I am on board for the next one and I will get it asap...

A page turner from beginning to end and highly, highly recommended.

[Alex]

Yet again I'm astounded by what I see as marketing misstakes by the publishers (orbit in this case). Why havn't we (I assume many are as ignorant to whom Brent Weeks is as I was) heard anything about Mr. Weeks debut? Scott Lynch, Abercrombie and not to mention Rothfuss had an immense hype surrounding their debuts probably serving to boost the sales and making them "names" in the fantasy franchise. Is there a lack of good "agents" in the fantasy field?

Enough rambling=)

Nice to see that I'm not alone in enjoying this new addition to fantasy.

[Hobbit]

Don't think it's a lack of good agents particularly, but perhaps a limit to publicity budgets. As much as publisher's would like to, there's not always the money there to push a debut novel. But Orbit are the biggest genre sellers in the UK, I believe.

Having said that, I got a copy yesterday. Initial impressions are good, but there's a couple I need to finish before I get to it.


Mark / Hobbit

[PeterWilliam]

Thanks for mentioning and, subsequently, enlarging my amazon wish list.

[Mithfânion]

I knew it was coming out, it's a matter of simply checking the publisher's schedule on amazon.com. Or reading Fantasybookcritic's monthly spotlight of Fantasy, SF and horror books ( recommended for anyone interested in new releases).

I've read few reviews, mixed ones, though more positive ones than negative ones. I know Aldarion/Dylan disliked it, but another blogger on Westeros said it was the best new book he read all year. Other than that there are almost no reviews for the book on the net and in that sense Orbit has failed in getting any pre-release publicity. Especially since this is a genre in which quite a few of the genre's readers also read blogs and such.

[phil_geo]

The one thing that makes me hesitate is that it sounds a little young-adult from the plot and the standard fantsy world. For example, I picked up the highly recommended Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams and was very dissappointed. I didn't get through more than 50 pages before I tossed it aside. How would you say The Way of Shadows compares to Dragonbone Chair?

[PeterWilliam]

For example, I picked up the highly recommended Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams and was very dissappointed. I didn't get through more than 50 pages before I tossed it aside.

The Dragonbone Chair, the first of a trilogy, is definitely an exercise in patience. The first half of the book is rather slow. It seems that there are two different approaches to assimilating a new world: 1) massive info-dump or 2) slowly ease the reader into it. Williams definitely took route #2 on MST and, perhaps, took it to an extreme. However, Shadowmarch doesn't suffer the same slow length of beginning. It would seem, in that case, even Williams was aware of the marathon-like beginning to Dragonbone Chair. Once into second half of first book, I felt the other two breezed through quickly, if somewhat predictably.

[Alex]

The one thing that makes me hesitate is that it sounds a little young-adult from the plot and the standard fantsy world. For example, I picked up the highly recommended Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams and was very dissappointed. I didn't get through more than 50 pages before I tossed it aside. How would you say The Way of Shadows compares to Dragonbone Chair?

I thought it would be YA aswell from reading about the plot...... Boy was I wrong. This is probably as far from YA as you can get (Morgan excepted ofc). The story is extremly dark, molestation, rapes, curses, murdering of innocents. You will be extremely surprised when you read as the "heroes" of the book perform acts that will leave you dumbfounded. Never have I read about heroes that behave like this=)

In the way of shadows is NOT Shadowmarch. I think you have mixed the books up somewhat in the post above=)

[Mithfânion]

So, what are the assassins like? As in what sort of weaponry do they use?

What sort of magic is used in this world?

Is it all human races or other races as well? I'm reading about a God-King in the North as well, are there different tribes of humans then?

Who/what sort of enemy is there for Kylar Stern and companions?