The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

I was gifted the box set of The Night Angel Trilogy by a friend. My friends are amazing; I feel that should be noted now. This series has eaten my soul just a bit. I devoured all three in five days.

So...book one. Let's set the scene.

We open in Cenaria with the guild rat, Azoth. He's young, downtrodden, beaten for missing guild dues.

Enter Durzo Blint, legendary wetboy. Azoth encounters the mysterious Blint while climbing under a tavern looking for dropped coins. It is here his life truly begins.

In order to escape the guild and a tormenter known as Rat, Azoth does everything in his power to apprentice with Blint. An apprenticeship will get him out of the Warrens. It will give him power, a heady desire when he's known nothing but want and abuse for his few short years of life. But it will also let him protect his only friends, Jarl and Doll Girl.

But nothing is ever what it seems, is it? Poor Azoth. He enters a world that is darker than any he could have ever imagined, and it tears him from all angles. Obeying his master means abandoning love and the only true friends he's ever had, taking on a new life and a new name. And Durzo Blint is not exactly kind in his tutelage.

Azoth is reborn as Kylar and finds himself set back by his own morals. New friends or old--he lacks the ability to let them die in the name of professionalism. It's this very break between what's demanded and what he does that makes him an enemy of the empire and sees him framed for the murder of Aleine Gunder, crowned prince of Cenaria.

With prophecy thrown into the mix, Kylar's problems are only beginning. Cenaria is on the verge of a massive coup that could topple everything Kylar has ever held dear--and it demands the death of the very man who gave him his new life. For Cenaria to survive, Kylar must kill Durzo Blint.
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This story is engrossing, well-crafted, and the characters are interesting. Simply put, it's been a long time since a fantasy grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go. The Way of Shadows definitely did that.

I did roll my eyes at the use of prophecy when it was first introduced, but Weeks did a great job of putting limitations and high prices on its use. Deus ex machina is also a deal breaker for me--USUALLY. Weeks managed to turn that in his favor, however. With masterful twists on the trope, we come to see everything has a price in a wetboy's world.

While I would normally award a book of this caliber an automatic 5, I did dock for technical errors. Even with the backing of a big publishing company and the caveat that this book was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, it was still riddled with grammatical errors, something that continues on through series. It tossed me from the immersion several times, enough that I had to grit my teeth and remind myself how good the plot and characters were.

I give a solid 4.5 and recommend it to anyone that enjoys dark high fantasy. Excellent read, and I'm ever grateful to the friend who thought I would enjoy it; they were right.

But I'm Not Depressed by Lia Rees

Poignant, witty, and equally as dire for what it reveals about the state of the medical field.

"But I'm Not Depressed" is a memoir which takes the reader down the rabbit hole and shoots them via cannon straight into a proverbial hell. It details the author's fight for proper diagnosis and treatment after a brain injury brought on by an MMR vaccination.

I found it hard to put this down. Despite the train wreck of disintegration it explains, there is a hard-edged dark humor to every chapter. It drives the narrative arc in a way that touches on what it means to maintain hope as a blip on the radar. Maybe more of a figment, actually. It exists by merit of determination rather than false attributions to the silver linings mentality.

Furthermore, this book touches on aspects of the medical field which made me cringe, internally rage, and eventually smirk. The author's struggles move through mandated psychotherapy--poorly conducted--to self-diagnosis, and finally a semblance of answers. Rees paints a dark picture, but it's not all doom and gloom.

Often, she touches on the idea of rebuilding herself; this theme runs much of the arc, and its one that makes the narrative--despite being a memoir--relatable, even to those of us without a brain injury. How often do we look in the mirror and build ourselves anew after such knocks? Could you do it with a good portion of your memories gone? Certainly thought-provoking, and it made me examine myself more closely for having read it.

The material is well-written, almost perfectly edited, and accessible to those with little knowledge of the subject matter. In all, I give it 4.75-stars due to a slight piece of word-for-word repetition in different chapters. That being said, this toes the line so closely to 5-stars, I hardly think that piddly .25 matters.

Bottom line: read this.

You can find "But I'm Not Depressed" on Amazon.

The Beginning

I've been reviewing books longer than I knew what reviewing books really was. Does that make sense? Sure it does.

Whatever. I read a lot. Collecting my thoughts right here. Maybe it'll help you decide if you wanna read stuff too. I dunno. I wouldn't place that much faith in me. You probably shouldn't either. Reviews, like much else in life, are subjective.

That being said, I'm fair if tough. I have to be when I have a toddler and limited time. If I can't get into your book by the end of the first chapter, chances are I'm going to quietly delete it from my device and never speak of it again.

Or maybe not so much anymore. As I said, I'm collecting.

This is getting boring. You get the picture. It's another freaking review blog. Read on.