Rainer reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
Very long, but also very good
5 stars
I can understand why this is one of the most popular fantasy series in the world.
Published Aug. 3, 2010 by Tor.
The Way of Kings
4 stars
(10 reviews)
velvet_shrimp@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
So much effort was put into this
2 stars
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.
Gabe Appleton reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
Fantastic book with only one major flaw
4 stars
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.
Strakul reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
Review of 'The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Wow! What an awesome book! I finished it and wanted to immediately re-read it.
Kadomi reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)
Review of 'The Way of Kings' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is the kind of high fantasy I love best: epic scope, fantastic world-building, interesting characters. My favorite Sanderson for sure. Just as in Mistborn, the first book of the Stormlight Archive shines when it comes to the development of a magic system. The use of Stormlight is just as interesting as Mistborn's Allomancy.
The three main characters of the story couldn't be any more diverse: we have Kaladin, dark-eyed soldier and slave, Dalinar Kholin, highprince and uncle of the king of Alethkar, and the one female main protagonist, Shallan, who apprentices as ward to Jasnah, sister of the king of Alethkar and renowned heretic scholar. The world is set up in an interesting fashion. Women are the learned ones, the scholars, the ones who can read and write, as opposed to men who mostly seem to focus on warfare and trade, assisted by the women. The eye color seems …
This is the kind of high fantasy I love best: epic scope, fantastic world-building, interesting characters. My favorite Sanderson for sure. Just as in Mistborn, the first book of the Stormlight Archive shines when it comes to the development of a magic system. The use of Stormlight is just as interesting as Mistborn's Allomancy.
The three main characters of the story couldn't be any more diverse: we have Kaladin, dark-eyed soldier and slave, Dalinar Kholin, highprince and uncle of the king of Alethkar, and the one female main protagonist, Shallan, who apprentices as ward to Jasnah, sister of the king of Alethkar and renowned heretic scholar. The world is set up in an interesting fashion. Women are the learned ones, the scholars, the ones who can read and write, as opposed to men who mostly seem to focus on warfare and trade, assisted by the women. The eye color seems to determine the leaders, and lighteyes are supposed to be men full of honor. Only it isn't so, as especially Kaladin who really appears to be the hero of the story has to find out. We learn a lot of his personal history through flashbacks as his story progresses.
I know that all of Sanderson's stories share one universe, the Cosmere, and it's mentioned in the story, but I can't grasp the bigger picture yet. All I know is that The Way of Kings is a huge book and still only scratched at the surface of all the things I want to know. Who were the Heralds? What caused the fall of the Radiants? What are spren? What's the real story behind the Parshendi? What is Szeth's backstory? I want moooooore.
Waiting for book 2 to actually be written will suck. I hate starting new series that get you hooked and then you wait forever, and fear it will never be finished. Yup, I am looking at you, Melanie Rawn.
Highly recommended!
