[Fantasy] Way of the Shadows

Publisher: Orbit / Oct. 2008
Author: Brent Weeks.

This is the year old debut novel and first entry of the Night Angel Trilogy from fantasist Brent Weeks. The story is built around young Azoth, a poor street kid who is part of a guild of petty thieves. In this Dickensesque beginning, guild membership is the only way to survive on the street and quick witted, big hearted Azoth just gets by with enough for himself and his two closest friends while avoiding the attentions the of malodorous guild enforcer, Rat.

Azoth has a plan. His plan is to find a way, by money or deeds, to apprentice himself to legendary wetboy Durzo Blint. A wetboy is a highly trained assassin with some innate magic (called Talent) that enhances his deadly skills. “An assassin’s contract is for a target,” quips Durzo at one point, “A wetboy’s contract is for a deader. That’s because our target is already dead. We don’t fail.” That is what Azoth wants: To not be afraid, to be able to take care of his friends.

In structure the book works much like Orson Scott Card’s formula of adding fantastical elements to a Dickens-like tale. In an interview Weeks reveals that his wife works with abused children and some of that darkness bleeds onto the pages of Azoth’s story. The writing style is workmanlike with moments of near-brilliance, but if not for the use of profanity and horrific child abuse, the story would read much like a YA novel.

The main flaw of the a novel is that the author obviously has so much to tell the reader – so many ideals – that at times he loses focus to wander down another path only to return and slam A Reveal or character decision that feels like a stumbling contrivance. The inclusion of many contrivances rob the story of its impact. There are times when decisions made by characters, plans laid by the bad guys, and entire side arcs seem only to exist in the world of contrivance. As the novel goes along there is very little that seems like an organic decision from the protagonists or antagonists. The reader is repeatedly told exactly how a character feels and the agony he is suffering from those feelings. But those feelings only seem like something the author is telling the reader in order to skip more advanced development. Actions and depth of feeling never reach any level of realism. And that holds the story back.

As the reader is distracted by the main flaw, he is left distracted and not absorbed in the story. And the allows for the reader to find other lose threads – other flaws – that might have otherwise been hidden by full absorption. The use of startling modern sounding youth vernacular is something, though it did not happen with great regularity, I still found jarring:

If an effort to remind the reader of the youth of the protagonist and a supporting character, Azoth (now called Kylar) challenges the young Lord (and future friend) of a powerful family to spar. The end of the exchange is, “It would be my great pleasure Your Dukliness.” Your Dukliness? Jarring. There is also the use of modern anti-grammar filler, “like,” in use sometimes when portraying youthful dialogue. But not all the time. It gets quite, like, confusing.

There is also the use of a character whose sole purpose, it seems, is to be able to further the plot without the need of cause or narrative within the structure of the story. This character – a seer or a meister, or a god – is given little back story, is the leader of a whole host of other criminally thinly fleshed out supporting characters, and ultimately causes the actions that lead to the most pivotal events in the book. These characters, whose past actions are obviously of immense magnitude with regard to the future of the story, are given barely any treatment in the story arc of the first novel.

Also:

The magic system doesn’t work nor seems consistent. One moment Talent seems outside the realm of typical fantasy – obscure and dense – and the next a mage is preparing a fireball or losing a spell due to broken concentration while casting (an exchange that felt like a tired re-tread of every Forgotten Realms book ever written).

In summation the idea behind the story is captivating. It might not be genre breaking, but it is not that different from a work like Patrick Rothfuss’ beyond magnificent The Name Of The Wind. Where a book like Wind excels with a seemingly organic character where every dialogue and decision exudes realism and conscious choice from its characters, Weeks’ characters flounder in a narrative where the author has them act for the sake of the story, but one never feels they are acting for themselves.

2.5/5

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