Review: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Blurb:
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.
Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.
Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
Speak again the ancient oaths:
Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.
Review:
Yeah yeah yeah, I’m late to the game, blah blah blah. I read Mistborn ages ago, that and Skyward (which is arguably my fav sci-fi series) and so it was only fair I give Stormlight Archives a shot. To those of you out there that swear by certain books, shows, movies, artists (no I will not be becoming a Sleep Token fan anytime soon, thank you very much), I believe I am finally in on it in terms of Stormlight, at least partially. It's only book one, after all.
Now uhhh, where do I even begin? This is a series that I will be listening to purely through audiobook. If I were to read it, it would take me AGES. This first book is what, 1000 pages? And the next ones are longer? Yeah, pass. That said, the audiobook was FORTY-FIVE HOURS LONG. WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Banger though.
We start as most Sanderson books do, I’ve found, with a lot of information to take in all at once. Not too much, but a lot, and it took a good deal of time to digest. Now, look. I know everyone loves “Szeth son son Vallano” and the opening and all, it was cool, but there were so many characters to get acquainted with at first that I was kind of just looking around lost every time we hopped around the world. Was that partially because I need to pay more attention when listening to audiobooks? Sure. Maybe. Who knows.
We have a story following, largely, a family; Dalinar and Adolin as POVs, and also Jasnah halfway across the world, with her ward-to-be, Shallan. Mixed in are A LOT of interludes or one-off POV characters, and also Kaladin, my favorite character. To remain unbroken amidst all he faced was truly something. Now, Dalinar and Adolin are at war over the assassination of their previou king, at the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin is a bridgeman, essentially a slave forced to carry bridges across the plateaus. While Shallan is meant to steal from Jasnah to save her family.
The worldbuilding is, as expected, masterful, though bordering on excessive, at points. I, personally, did not care for Kaladin's backstory chapters like at all, save maybe to hate on Roshan or however you spell his name (‘o, the woes of audiobooks). There is so much to take in here, so much culture, so much lore and history, so much that has been thought out with amazing attention to detail. Is all of it necessary? Probably not, and while people say writers should avoid fluff, fluff is often what readers can connect with the most.
The writing is everything you would want from a sanderson story. We’re sucked into the story, and the pages (minutes?) go by quickly, and before long you’re finished. Well, before VERY long. That is one thing I find myself battling here. The pacing was great. But the story was simply too long. I think I will probably wind up saying that same thing about all of Stormlight when I inevitably move up on my library’s 100 person wait list for book two…
I love Sanderlanches as much as the next guy, honest, but I don’t think I’ll be the first to say that they only feel so epic because so little happens before them. This book could have been two thirds the length and might have ended up a whole lot better. Who knows.
And now, the reader of this review probably just thinks I’m some massive hater. And I am, just not for this book. I loved Way of Kings, and eagerly await my loan for book two, but this is a book that has been praised for so long, and by so many people, that I simply want people to know what they’re getting into. Would I recommend it? 100%, make no mistake.
This is one of my favorite books this year, but I think I would place Skyward and Mistborn (both eras) above it. Fight me. Or don’t. It’s just a book, really.
Perfect for fans of epic fantasy as a genre, looking for something as long and as legendary as the Wheel of Time, among other exceptionally long series, give the Stormlight a shot if you’ve read Mistborn and want to know more about the Cosmere. Or if you’ve just got boat loads of time on your hands. Storms know you’re going to need it.
