Tobin Brown
Written on Feb 13, 2021
Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive.
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 are 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, 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 overpowering 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 the eminent scholar and notorious heretic Jasnah Kholin, Dalinar’s niece. 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 more than ten years of planning, writing, and worldbuilding, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.
- ISBN10 0765326353
- ISBN13 9780765326355
- Publish Date 31 August 2010
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Tor Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 1008
- Language English
Reviews
Mercy
Written on Sep 11, 2020
Sanderson is a master of his craft and the Cosmere is full of wonder. I feel so much joy discovering new clues and the foreshadowing in this reread and I'm in awe at how much thought Brandon has put in this series.
maggiefan
Written on Aug 20, 2020
moraa
Written on Jul 23, 2020
Life before Death.
Strength before Weakness.
Journey before Destination.
4.5 stars
There’s so much to this – too much for me to unpack in a single review. This book has been talked about, ripped apart, put back together, carefully dissected, prodded at and left to the Stormfather’s mercy – not necessarily in that order.
And so, I’m only going to mention specifics in my review, my mind is still reeling from finishing this in any case – no spoilers of course.
1. World-building
-It’s vast, it’s detailed (I can tell this even without having read the other two books) and it’s downright fascinating.
-I suppose it makes sense that the Alethi are the lens from which we see things but not much about them interests me (yikes! controversial opinion? not to me). On the other hand, I am without a doubt twice (maybe even thrice) as interested in: the Makabaki, the Parshendi/Parshmen, the Unkalaki and the Herdazians.
-Don’t get me wrong, I like the current main characters well enough but I’ve been in their heads for 1000+ pages so that's different.
-Nonetheless, since this is supposed to be a ten-book series (with books 2 and 3 already published and book 4 on the way later this year) I have hope.
Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.
2. Writing
-whew!
-I don’t want to say too much but I will say this, you surprise me every time, Sanderson.
Too many of us take great pains with what we ingest through our mouths, and far less with what we partake of through our ears and eyes.
3. Magic System
-I definitely knew enough to understand the book but I still find myself hungering for more. Shardplates, shardblades, soulcasters, stormlight… l can’t wait to sink my teeth into it all.
We remember the good times and the bad ones, forgetting that most times are neither good nor bad. They just are.
Renee
Written on Oct 19, 2019
Besides the complaining about how long nothing happened in the book, I do think that when you reread it, you can see a lot of little hints that point to specific events that will happen later on, which would probably make a reread more enjoyable than a first read.
As for the characters, for me, it felt as if every character was well fleshed out and had a real personality, except for Shallan. I loved her the most, but I am still not really sure if I know her that well. Which is understandable, since she had almost no chapters dedicated to her. I would have liked to see a bit more of her story, especially since that was the only one that was actually progressing during the whole book.
As usual, the ending made everything so much better. I am sure I don't even have to explain, just read a Sanderson book and you will get it.
adamfortuna
Written on Sep 30, 2017
Briana @ Pages Unbound
Written on Jun 20, 2015
The book is complex, divided into multiple points of view. There are, of course, the four main characters, but intermittent chapters are also narrated by other characters, some of whose perspectives obviously are not going to be of primary importance until later in the series. Personally, I did not find the number of points of view overwhelming; however, the book does suffer from the usual annoyance that as soon as I would get into one character’s story, the book would be off to another. The perspectives switch chapter by chapter and it is rare to stick with any one character for any length. Also, I enjoyed some characters more than others; it was not until nearly the end of the book that I was particularly interested in Shallan’s chapters, though she did grow on me and I would like to see more of her in Words of Radiance.
The sheer number of characters and plot lines, which begin to converge only in the final chapters, also mean the pacing is slow. Again, however, I have no issue with this. I am deeply invested in most of the characters, their stories, and their struggles. Sanderson does a masterful job of creating characters of great nobility and great potential who still have fears and flaws. So while the overarching plot progressed somewhat, the main attraction of this series is going to be watching it unfold slowly from many perspectives. As the saying goes, journey before destination.
The pacing also means that there are not quite as many wild plot twists in this particular novel, something I have come to expect from Sanderson’s books. There are a couple unexpected turns—again, near the end of the book—but I suspect the series will have to get a bit further before Sanderson really throws my predictions on their heads. Right now, I know some things are not quite what they have seemed, but do not really know what the implications of these revelations are. Of course, this is not a bad place to leave readers at all, if an author wants readers to keep reading the series!
Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors, and The Way of Kings does not disappoint. Vivid, imaginative, wild, and wise, it is all the things I could hope for from an epic fantasy—or just a good book. Highly recommended.
Kate (Blogging with Dragons)
Written on Aug 24, 2014
An assassin stormed down the hallways of a palace with orders to murder the king in the most noticeable way possible. With a rare and legendary sword called a Shardblade in his hand, the assassin—cutting through both walls and men alike—made quite the statement. To his astonishment, what he found when he reached the king was no simpering noble, but a man ensconced in Shardplate, wielding a Shardblade of his own, and ready to fight for his life.
The ensuing battle between two characters that I hardly knew—complete with powers only hinted at by the author—was my first clue that this book would be extraordinary. My realization was confirmed moments later when the assassin succeeded in mortally wounding the king—and then to my shock—nobly carried out the king’s dying request. I hadn’t even gotten past the prologue and I was completely hooked.
However, there were times in the massive tome that I wasn’t quite as captivated. The fact that I only had to muddle through a few parts in a book over 1,000 pages was quite the feat. Sanderson did a good job of making sure that there was always something in his sprawling universe to keep his readers interested. And with his technique of changing character perspectives, there was a certain element of suspense involved—when I visited one character, I instantly wondered what was going on with others.
Though for me, a large part of this tension mainly involved, not my anticipation of finding out what was happening to certain characters, but my dread of returning to the narration of my least favorite character, Kaladin. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, I was unable to like this one character in what was ultimately a cast of very interesting and complex characters with unique backgrounds.
This was not to say that Kaladin wasn’t a multifaceted character—just that what little interest I could muster for Kaladin was reserved to flashbacks to his childhood. One would think that I found this boy’s development from a reluctant surgeon-to-be into a revered soldier who was then reduced to a slave, and then into a bridgeman, only to transform into a revolutionary leader referred to as Kaladin Stormblessed interesting, right? Wrong.
I couldn’t even pinpoint an exact reason or instance where my dislike for Kaladin originated, which is another reason why he bothered me. In fact, I knew that I had every reason to like the character and had the unnerving feeling that I should like him, but I couldn’t. Perhaps it had something to do with the old adage, “It is not about the destination, but the journey.” Maybe I felt that I had already reached Kaladin’s dismal destination and was unable to show any attachment to his present, where it seemed like his life was already over. Or possibly my love for the other main narrators—Shallan, a poor girl who sought to become an apprentice to a heretic scholar, and Dalinor, a solider and the king’s surviving brother who strove to uphold and instill a set of honor codes— made it that much harder for me to form an attachment to a pitiful man who seemed to have so much at ease at both giving up and getting back up. Whatever the cause, I remained indifferent to Kaladin and his many reoccurring struggles and anxiously awaited the shifting of perspectives so I could read about Shallan’s studies or Dalinar’s strange visions.
In the end, it was because of my frustrating and insurmountable dislike of Kaladin that I had to downgrade my rating of the novel to a 4 out of 5 stars. But even though I struggled to get through the parts of the book that focused on this character, I would still highly recommend this spellbinding tale to anyone—not just fantasy fans. With political intrigue, magic swords, warring races, mysterious visions, and a foreboding sense that disaster was looming—Sanderson’s book easily had something for all readers. Despite the sheer size of the novel, I flew through the book and as soon as I had finished “Way of Kings” I determined that I would not only read its sequel, but other books by the author.
KitsuneBae
Written on Jan 4, 2014
The Way of The Kings is one of those few books that has every right to be lengthy, a bit draggy and verbose. And yet, you find yourself slowly falling in love with it. It is the type of book that you want to read before you go to sleep and the one you wanna hold right after you wake up. I was supposed to finish The Way of Kings on March as part of a read-a-long event wherein the organizers controlled the number of pages that we should read every week…~100 pages/week. But I broke that rule… I finished this 1000-page tome within 2 days. It’s lucky that the organizers aren’t from a dystopian world where I would be punished for my gluttony. But who could blame me? The Way of Kings is just so awesome…
The Way Of Kings consists of four seemingly unrelated storylines but as you go deeper into the book, they gradually converge… each story perfectly complementing the other one. It’s like seeing the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into their right places. There’s no other word for TWOK but it’s a kicking masterpiece of amazeballs. Sorry if I am not making sense anymore. But really, words are inadequate to describe it.
The Way of Kings started with a perplexing air especially with the infodump that was immediately thrown my way. But worry not, it’s tolerable and something really necessary for the readers to grasp its complexity. The world Brandon created is exceptional and almost palpable. The flora and fauna is definitely creative and vibrant. And the community and their way of life particularly the religion are masterfully done. But Sanderson didn’t stop there, the magic system that he created here isn’t anything you’ve seen before. Everything about the world of Roshar provides a feeling that you’re watching poetry coming into life.
In Sanderson’s book, there’s no such thing as 1 dimensional characters. The Way of Kings is another proof of that. Being a 10-volume book and an epic fantasy at that, it is expected that it’s going to host a lot of characters which could potentially confuse readers. Gratefully, that is not the case with The Way Of Kings. All the characters, if not worth rooting for, are a bunch of interesting role players. Please note that there are four MCs here and I just love all of them. Even the secondary characters are worthy of my attention particularly Jasnah Kholin. She’s a princess, an atheist, a scholar and in my eyes, she just created a new meaning for badassery.
The plot was a thing of perfection. Sanderson seamlessly intertwined flashbacks, 4 different sets of sub stories into something grand. As with Mistborn, The Way of Kings brimmed with treachery, desolation, intrigue, drama, and vivid action scenes. Yes, the journey was slow but it was worth it. I adore everything about it…how Sanderson managed to make everything connect in this very grand story is already beyond me. May the Almighty bless him.
The Way of Kings is a book one shouldn’t take lightly. It is tough and yet, you will find yourself tearing up during the onslaught of revelations and new discoveries. It is a book that will make or break you. It’s an epitome of bookish perfection. Sanderson is a King in his own way.
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
Lianne
Written on Jun 1, 2012
Wow, the scope of this novel is quite impressive, it definitely highlights Brandon Sanderson's ability of creating a unique world complete with an intriguing landscape, an intricate history and complex religious and social hierarchies and structures. The characters were also well-developed and with the length of the novel and from the possibilities of where the story will head, it was good there was time taken for the characters to develop and for the reader to truly understand their motivations and desires. In the same vein, there were a couple of instances when I was reading where it felt like the story dragged and my mind started wandering a little, something that never happens to me when reading any of Sanderson's works. Overall, it's a colossal and impressive start to his new epic series, the last two hundred pages were certainly quite exciting.
You could read my full review of the novel over at my blog: http://www.rulethewaves.net/blog/?p=4751