Azoth is just another guild rat living in the Warrens of Cenaria. Being an orphan has taught Azoth how to survive. He has a knack for reading people and disappearing into cracks and corners. But he is nowhere near as good as Durzo Blint.
Durzo is the city's most accomplished, and most feared assassin.
After an extremely cruel boy takes over the guild, Azoth decides to become Durzo’s apprentice. For Azoth, it is the only way out of his currently miserable life. But before Durzo considers taking on Azoth, he must prove himself capable. As well as being willing to completely discard his old life. Can Azoth turn away from the only life he has ever known to become a killer for hire? How will his decisions affect the Empire?
I was excited to read this book when I first heard of it when I was still in high school. I wasn’t able to read it back then, but I am glad I did now.
I will admit, I had no preemptive warning of how dark this book is in places. This book obviously had murder, vicious murder, but it also deals with child rape and mutilations, as well as adult rape. Because of these elements, I quit reading this book twice. However, another reader convinced me that these moments were important to the plot and character development. So, I agreed to give the book one more try.
The world-building was great. I had no trouble envisioning the Warrens or the castle. A few of the other locations were vaguer, but that didn’t interfere with my ability to understand the plot line.
As for the plot itself, the violence, especially toward the children, was a deterrent for me, but as my fellow reader pointed out, it was important for character formation and understanding of different moral stances between the characters. The progression of the storyline was well paced where there was enough occurring so that it was neither too slow nor too fast.
This novel is definitely an adult, dark fantasy with a unique world and group of characters. I would recommend this novel to fans of fantasy who can handle the darker material.
I bought my copy of this novel from Second Sale on eBay.com and the picture featured above is my own.
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