The Way Of Shadows: Book 1 of the Night Angel

The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city's most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned the hard way to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint. But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

Brent Weeks studied at Hillsdale College, before brief stints walking the earth like Caine from Kung-Fu, also tending bar, and corrupting the youth. (Not at the same time.) He started writing on napkins and, eventually, someone paid him for it. Brent doesn't own cats or wear a ponytail.