by Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Adult high fantasy
My Rating: ★★★★★
Description:
Kaladin was once called Stormblessed. Once a soldier, now sold as a slave, he is forced to fight in one of the most horrendous wars of the age.
Shallan only wants to save her family's house from destruction. After the death of her father, she leaves home in the hope of gaining a wardship with Jasnah Kholin, one of the most brilliant scholars in Alethkar.
Dalinar has always been first and foremost a warrior. But strange visions have begun to plague him during the Highstorms, visions that foretell of an impending danger that will shake the foundations of the world.
Szeth is Truthless, an assassin who weeps as he kills. He has destroyed before. And now, he will destroy again.
Overall Thoughts
If you're still reading after that terrible, terrible book description -- I loved everything about The Way of Kings. The characters are vivid and lifelike. The worldbuilding is complex and interesting. The plot is edge-of-your-seat, with some truly mindblowing twists. The themes are intricate and beautiful, and the character arcs are phenomenal. This series is definitely a new favorite of mine.
Now how to talk about this book without spoiling everything...? You guys know I've loved 99% of all of Brandon Sanderson's books (that I've read, at least), but let me tell you. This one is the best one I've read so far. I love everything about it, and I couldn't think of a thing that I actually would like to see changed, because everything worked so perfectly in the story, and it was an absolute pleasure to read. Now, these books are 1000+ pages, and normally, that would be daunting. But with this book, it was 1007 pages of pure awesome, so I didn't care.
The Characters
The characters were incredible. I love how complex Kaladin is, and his determination to fight against the injustice that life has thrown at him and the other bridgemen.
Shallan is smart and resourceful, with some of the best comebacks I've ever read coming out of a fictional character's mouth.
Dalinar was probably my favorite character out of all of them (though it's really, really hard to choose!) I just love his sense of honor and justice, and how he stays true to his ideals even under a lot of pressure. Some of the decisions he made would have been so difficult, but he stuck with them. Once he committed to a course of action, he followed it through. Alright, that's enough about Dalinar, I'm going to bore you guys. ;)
Szeth is such a layered character as well. He's an assassin, but he doesn't want to be. If that sounds really stereotypical, let me tell you, the way Brandon Sanderson did it was not. Szeth is the reluctant assassin done right.
The side characters were awesome, too, but I feel like I've spent way too much time talking about the characters already. :P
Plot/Pacing
The plot is super complicated, drawing on each character's unique perspective and weaving them together into one overarching narrative. Because the plot of this book is just part of the overarching series plot, I won't get into a lot of depth about it. It's hard to without revealing spoilers! But do know that there are some stellar twists in this book, and the ending is tense, perfectly setting up even greater conflict in book two.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding was incredible. I could imagine the settings so well while I was reading. Roshar is such a different world from ours. There's no soil, the plants have adapted to surviving the unpredictable environment, Highstorms (like normal storms but 400 times worse) regularly sweep across the land, and most of the animals are crustaceans (the main beasts of burden, chulls, are like giant crabs.) I loved how the differences in the environment and the weather impacted every aspect of the characters' day to day lives. (Towns and cities are built with roofs sloping towards the direction of Highstorm winds, for instance.)
The magic system is super cool as well, but I don't want to spoil anything. Just read the prologue. It's awesome. (Though me and my brother have a joke about it -- that it's Szeth's "tutorial level" where you get to see every different aspect of the magic system.)
In summary: I have a new favorite series, guys, and that series is The Stormlight Archive.
Content
Recommended for ages 16 and up.
The Characters
The characters were incredible. I love how complex Kaladin is, and his determination to fight against the injustice that life has thrown at him and the other bridgemen.
Shallan is smart and resourceful, with some of the best comebacks I've ever read coming out of a fictional character's mouth.
Dalinar was probably my favorite character out of all of them (though it's really, really hard to choose!) I just love his sense of honor and justice, and how he stays true to his ideals even under a lot of pressure. Some of the decisions he made would have been so difficult, but he stuck with them. Once he committed to a course of action, he followed it through. Alright, that's enough about Dalinar, I'm going to bore you guys. ;)
Szeth is such a layered character as well. He's an assassin, but he doesn't want to be. If that sounds really stereotypical, let me tell you, the way Brandon Sanderson did it was not. Szeth is the reluctant assassin done right.
The side characters were awesome, too, but I feel like I've spent way too much time talking about the characters already. :P
Plot/Pacing
The plot is super complicated, drawing on each character's unique perspective and weaving them together into one overarching narrative. Because the plot of this book is just part of the overarching series plot, I won't get into a lot of depth about it. It's hard to without revealing spoilers! But do know that there are some stellar twists in this book, and the ending is tense, perfectly setting up even greater conflict in book two.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding was incredible. I could imagine the settings so well while I was reading. Roshar is such a different world from ours. There's no soil, the plants have adapted to surviving the unpredictable environment, Highstorms (like normal storms but 400 times worse) regularly sweep across the land, and most of the animals are crustaceans (the main beasts of burden, chulls, are like giant crabs.) I loved how the differences in the environment and the weather impacted every aspect of the characters' day to day lives. (Towns and cities are built with roofs sloping towards the direction of Highstorm winds, for instance.)
The magic system is super cool as well, but I don't want to spoil anything. Just read the prologue. It's awesome. (Though me and my brother have a joke about it -- that it's Szeth's "tutorial level" where you get to see every different aspect of the magic system.)
In summary: I have a new favorite series, guys, and that series is The Stormlight Archive.
Content
Recommended for ages 16 and up.
Most swearing is made up ("storms!") There are a few (very rare) instances of real-world swearing, though. Most is fairly mild.
A few references to sex. Some crude jokes. Kissing between two characters; some tense situations between said characters as well, with romantic undertones. Mentions of prostitution.
Violence is definitely heavy in this one. There's a high body count, and numerous descriptions of blood, along with some disturbing descriptions of people being killed in battle. Several characters experience profound joy when killing -- though the outcome of this is handled very well and I feel will continue to be addressed in subsequent books. The violence is not glorified, and characters face tough moral dilemmas about war and killing during the course of the book. Descriptions of poisoning. Many characters are slaves and are killed in some truly brutal ways. Several scenes describing surgeries in detail. One scene, in particular, is not for the squeamish.
One character attempts suicide.
Characters drink alcohol. Drugs are used medicinally.
One character attempts suicide.
Characters drink alcohol. Drugs are used medicinally.
No comments:
Post a Comment