The Way of Shadows

How it reads

The Way of Shadows is fantasy (epic assassin fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are power and politics, identity and redemption. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. It ends on a cliffhanger, so have the next book ready. At 645 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.