I haven't read anything this hard core into the Fantasy genre in a long time, and I was quite nostalgic reading it. It reminded me of my angst filled youth.
The Way of Shadows is an entertaining story, but by no means especially well written or with particularly interesting ideas. It's a story about a street urchin who leaves his abusive life on the streets by apprenticing himself as a "wetboy" or super assassin. The author never really explains why they're called wetboys, just emphasizes the fact that they are supposed to be better than mere assassins because they have magic powers or "Talent". The kid, Azoth (renamed Kyler after he becomes an assassin) has the usual moral issues, becomes good and starts killing people. Near the end, the climax of the story arrives in one big long arc where the King of Kyler's country is assassinated, and the neighboring GodKing invades. There's conspiracy and subterfuge, and this thing called a ka'kari that gives special people super powers that Kyler's master spent his life guarding and collecting. Of course, Kyler's one of the few people who can use a ka'kari, so it ends with Kyler getting super powers to work as a bit of a cliffhanger for the next book. The biggest cliffhanger of course is when it is revealed that Kyler's best friend, Logan, and natural heir to the throne is still alive but stuck hiding in jail with psychopaths - makes you wonder how twisted he will become when he gets out.
The story itself is not very interesting, but the background is. The world created for this story is very complex, but unfortunately not very well explained. The author almost assumes you know a bit of the world before you start, so the reader just ends up being kinda confused as names and histories are thrown at you.
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