The Way Of Shadows: Book 1 of the Night Angel

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La temática asesinos es algo que me encanta teniendo pendientes la famosa Robin Hobb y su saga, la que he intentado leer dos veces pero no era el momento.

Daily life under the circumstances Azoth was born into consisted largely of avoiding confrontation with Rat and similar thugs as best he could, scrounging the means to eat, and struggling to collect money for dues to pay off his questionable 'protection' as a guild member. He dreamed of being apprenticed by a wetboy -- specifically Durzo Blint, considered without argument the best Wetboy in Cenaria -- to escape the harsh life of the Warrens and make something of himself and his two closest friends, Jarl and Doll Girl, the former of whom suffered regular beatings for shortages on guild dues so that he could secretly save money on the side to try and fund Azoth's apprenticeship. By moving a basic light source, such as a desk lamp, closer or further away from an egg you can observe how the shape and position of the shadows change. Next, you can position the lamp to the side, then point it straight down or even up onto the egg to see how it alters things. It can be interesting to notice how areas you thought might be in shadow receive a touch of light reflected from the surface the egg is sitting on.If we return to the movies again, we can also see how shadows can be used to imply mystery. Perhaps the most obvious example is FW Murnau’s Nosferatu where the shadow of Count Orlok creeps up the stairs, gaining an almost physical presence, as it slips into Ellen’s room and clutches at her chest. And that friend of mine who wasn't a fan - she wasn't a fan of The Warded Man either, which I loved, and I have to say that this is probably the most enjoyable read I've had since devouring Brett's The Warded Man several years ago. Like that book TWoS takes what I loved about 80's fantasy and grows it up for the more demanding, hard-edged tastes of today. Definitely recommended. There is one major downside, however, and that’s the fact I have never read a fantasy book with a more stupid terminology. Durzo Blint is a wetboy, and while that sounds like an orphaned kid running the streets doing shit jobs for change money, the book gives the notion that a wetboy is some sort of ridiculously super-skilled master-assassin. The only thing that’s even more ridiculous is when the characters are trying to figure out what a female wetboy is called. Shadows are also great for emphasising texture. Landscape photographers often wax lyrical about the quality of light immediately after sunrise and before sunset, and when you look at their pictures it’s easy to see why. In this book we have a few storylines we follow. The main one is that of the main character but there's another storyline which involves the other race in this world, the Khalidoran. There are various political plots going on involving this other race and people who are connected with them, and whilst I found that story to be intriguing, we see far less of that and it seems more to be a set up for more revelations following those characters in the next two books.

Son tiempos turbulentos. Las familias nobles están enfrentadas. En el Sa’kagé, la gran organización del hampa que mueve los hilos de los ricos y los pobres en la ciudad, se ha abierto una lucha por el poder. Y una amenaza del exterior empieza a planear sobre Cenaria. Essentially, a shadow is just a dark area or shape cast by an object that stands between rays of light and a surface. But, as Tanizaki suggests, not all shadows are equal. When shadows and light are used insensitively – think bags under a model’s eyes or ugly shapes created by the use of on-camera flash – they can destroy a picture. It insists on the reader to assume the happenings in the gaps of time...then BOOM! Kylar/Azoth is face to face with Doll Girl/Elene after his first kill(s)...then BOOM! Durzo has a daughter...then BOOM! It goes on and on and on.Kylar later poisons Momma K, but also grants her the antidote out of mercy then comes face to face with Roth who is surrounded by vurdmeisters. Roth reveals himself as Rat, who had survived the earlier attempt on his life. Solon arrives outside with Curoch, the ancient magical sword that once belonged to Midcyru's first emperor, Jorsin Alkestes, and uses it to slay a large group of vurdmeisters. Kylar kills all of Roth's guard and eventually Roth himself, but dies in the process. While in the state of death, Kylar meets a mysterious figure known as the Wolf and is given the choice of an immortal life as the Night Angel or death in either heaven or hell. He chooses Elene and life and is revived. Kylar and Elene make up and decide to try for a life together along with Uly whom they adopt. While Roth was killed, his army successfully took over the castle and the city, allowing his father to conquer Cenaria, forcing Kylar, Elene and Uly to leave the country.

The first in a trilogy of books, Weeks introduces us to a master assassin and his new apprentice. The world is intriguing, and any book that looks into the dark and shadowy world of assassins is immediately interesting to me. While the book was entertaining and had some good concepts, it was deeply flawed in many ways, and really felt like it was targeted to 12-20 year old crowd, or should have been a CW network TV show. It was full of overused tropes and the way side characters all died off was like watching horror movie were everyone gets killed really easily while the hero can miraculously survive. And lastly there were many similarities in this book to the first book of the Mistborn Series, only the Mistborn book was, way, way better. This book is action, fantasy, adventure, and a coming-of-age story. It's also political, it's dark, it's savage, it's mysterious, and it's grim. I really, really enjoyed this, and I have to say that the last 3rd of this book was impeccable. So many twists and turns, so many crazy things that there was no way I could anticipate, yet it all still made sense and it was all exciting.

Customer reviews

A traveling mage from the Empire of Sethi, Solon Tofusin, arrives at the Gyre estate. He is on a mission from the prophet Dorian to help Lord Gyre. When he finds out Duke Gyre has gone to Screaming Winds, he plans to head there immediately, but his plans are disrupted when he finds out that Logan has also been named Lord Gyre. Logan forces him to spar, and Solon humiliates him. He tells him that Logan's soldiers have been losing to him on purpose, which infuriates Logan. He tells his men to treat him as no more than an equal, as he will one day join his father at Screaming Winds, and if they truly love him, they should prepare him for the battles there. He apologizes to Solon, who is impressed with Logan and decides to stay with him for now. Solon offends Logan's mother, and she tries to send him away, but Logan reminds her he is now Lord Gyre and sends her away instead. Solon is even more impressed with Logan and becomes less certain that Duke Gyre is the one he must serve. Esta saga estuvo casi una década en mis posibles lecturas, pero como siempre ocurre que soy un desastre pospongo todo. Bueno, a decir verdad, estaba ahí pero tampoco le veía tanta importancia y pensé que iba a ser mucho más ligera de lo que me esperaba. Our main character Azoth is a street urchin. Don't you love street urchins? Of course you do! You have been conditioned by Disney to do so. (Remember Lady and the Tramp? Aristocats? Aladdin?!) Basic grammar errors, such as missing words, were almost to the point of annoyance, but didn't distract too much from the story and in the end I felt that the climax was a little underwhelming as I didn't feel like the actions of the main characters were as necessary as they were made out to be. Otherwise The Way of Shadows was romping good fun. I didn't realize I would like this series so much.

The next day Azoth wakes up to find out that Rat has raped Jarl and made him "one of his girls". Rat wants to punish Azoth for pursuing Durzo but Ja'laliel forbids it. However, Ja'laliel is terminally ill, and Azoth is afraid that Rat will soon be the guild head. Azoth plans his revenge on Rat for Jarl's rape, trying to turn the guild against him, but Rat lets him play the hero.Just like in many other books, movies and games, The Way of Shadows is about a mentor-protegé relationship where the obvious star of the show is the mentor. Durzo Blint is the most skilled and infamous killer in Cenaria, and by far the character with the most depth. He’s the one with all the secrets and the mysterious past. The one everyone fears, to the extent that he may insult the king with virtual impunity. And does so repeatedly… Momma K and Elene were also both very cool characters in their own way. I liked the aloof aura that Momma K has around her and her status. She's a very skilled and wise woman who's worked her way to the top of the Courtesans, and I think her wisdom and ideas really helped our main characters to blossom and develop.