I think this has been one of the most interesting beginnings to a fantasy trilogy I’ve read in a while. It mixes up one of my top ten favorite jobs for a lead character, which is, the Assassin, with a cynical yet somewhat sweet view on life, and a heck of a lot of magic.
Kylar Stern, is actually Azoth, an orphan from the Warrens. The picture he brings to mind is one of those street kids you find living in the most dangerous neighborhoods around the Philippines. Nothing is too cruel or too low that they can’t do it, because the goal is…Survival. Azoth gets himself apprenticed to Durzo Blint, a wetboy, expert poisoner and magic user.
Apparently, there are distinctions between a wetboy and an assassin. An assassin is called an assassin because sometimes he misses, all a wetboy’s got are deaders because they always die.
Pretty arrogant, but I like the pictures it brings to mind. Azoth lives in the Warrens, the place where all losers, prostitutes, thieves, etc…end up, and it’s where they never leave.
I love dark gritty tales, and call me corny, but I also love happy endings. Combine a somewhat cynical-somewhat sympathetic tale and write it well, and I’m sold. Especially where, in here, Azoth is placed in situations where he is forced to choose between his own views on morality, and the views of his master, Durzo Blint, which are completely devoid of selflessness, or even an expectancy on the goodness of people. For Durzo, it’s each man for himself, however, Azoth shows himself to be different from his master and he makes decisions which can only be described as heroic. He tries to save Logan, Durzo, the nobles, and sometimes succeeds. By taking care of Elene, a girl-child he saves from the Warrens, he shows a side of himself that hungers for love.
Azoth. He may be a wetboy, but he hasn’t been swallowed whole by the Warrens just yet.
