Hardcover, 1008 pages
English language
Published Aug. 31, 2010 by Tor.
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 …
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.
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.
-From Cover Flap
I can understand why this is one of the most popular fantasy series in the world.
But I still hated it... The so praised world building has a lot of parts that didn't make any sense. At least to me. I understand the ideas that went into it but I think it has some logical flaws. (Eg men rule but don't know how to read?) Also the fighting scenes, how do you fight an enemy for years and years without ever capturing and questioning one? Nothing is known at all about the mysterious enemy at all after all these years? And they haven't adapted their strategy all this time to actually try and win in a greater scale? The hero is so concerned about honor, but the way he acts, especially regarding the enemy I found horrible. Don't want to spoiler anything but the armour - wtf? And then, its so long without much happening at all. Yes some character development I guess but kaladins story …
But I still hated it... The so praised world building has a lot of parts that didn't make any sense. At least to me. I understand the ideas that went into it but I think it has some logical flaws. (Eg men rule but don't know how to read?) Also the fighting scenes, how do you fight an enemy for years and years without ever capturing and questioning one? Nothing is known at all about the mysterious enemy at all after all these years? And they haven't adapted their strategy all this time to actually try and win in a greater scale? The hero is so concerned about honor, but the way he acts, especially regarding the enemy I found horrible. Don't want to spoiler anything but the armour - wtf? And then, its so long without much happening at all. Yes some character development I guess but kaladins story just goes on and on and on and on. I didn't like he female characters at all and found them quite unrelatable. Won't be reading book 2 I guess.
This was a thick pocket book. Over 1250 pages of fantasy and adventure with a fair bit of violence, deception, magic and conflict. This book, or was it series of books has been compared to those by Tolkien although I would not go that far.
I found the story a bit confusing as it consists of many different threads, that only at the end of the book starts to come together.
I would recommend the book to anyone who is not intimidated by its thickness and weight, and likes good fantasy world building.
The Way of Kings is a worldbuilding masterpiece. Its characters are rich and internally complex, their stories are fascinating, and their motivations compelling (even when you disagree with them). The single exception to this is the Shallan arc.
This is not because Shallan is a bad character, but because she's a decent character surrounded by great ones, and because it takes too long for her arc to connect to the main story.
I highly, highly recommend reading this book, and most of this author's other works.
