Book Review: The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

Goodreads Summary: 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: 
I must say, this story was action-packed! Brent Weeks wove together a story of so many different people over quite a length of time (around 10 years) and although I don't think it was polished to perfection, I was still positively entertained. 

Let us begin with the characters, Azoth (later known as Kylar) and Durzo are two very rough characters for obvious reasons, killing people for a living does that to you. But it was still very interesting to see the relationship that grew between them, as well as seeing the different ways they handled important things in their lives; especially love, and even their view of life itself. I felt that both characters were well written, however I did have an issue with the way that the story jumped through their lives, at times it felt quite choppy and I would have liked to see more of their development through the years rather than just getting snippets. 

The side characters were even better than the main, in my opinion, since I found myself caring more about their well-being. I especially focused on Logan and Regnus Gyre, as well as General Agon, and I would have liked to have seen more from their perspectives. 
  
The plot, oh the plot. I think that this book could have been so much more, the plot was actually incredibly intriguing, but it didn't actually make sense until the end, and I was confused with most things for the entire book. In some books it is interesting to be confused for most of the book, and can make the book even better, but my confusion with this one was simply because things were not better explained. I just wish that the world-building had been a bit stronger.

This book is also incredibly dark and gritty, which may be appealing to some, but made it so that multiple times I had to set this book down and take a breather, so definite warning for that.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I am very curious as to what happens next, so I will certainly be picking up the next two. 

4/5 stars!