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kaylatibbs's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Racism, Death, Physical abuse, War, Violence, Murder, Classism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm
Moderate: Confinement, Bullying, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Hate crime, Cursing, Ableism, Excrement, Medical content, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
jaedia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny, War, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Physical abuse, Medical content, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Racism
scifi_rat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Slavery, War, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Classism, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
ashley_mrose530's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved all of the characters even the more minor ones. They were all so well developed and had such distinct personalities. I even loved the one who was killing everyone and will be seen as the "bad guy". They all had a lot of depth throughout the book and stood out as individuals. I rooted for every single one of them to get what they wanted.
I also really liked the pacing of this book. Like I said, it does drop you in like right away with a character who is killing people as he's trying to kill a king, so it starts off on a high note which I think was a great way to start because when that was over you were completely ready to slow down and get a deeper sense of the world that you needed in order to move on. But the book itself was also separated into parts with interludes in between. I really enjoyed that it took a step back from the main story with those and added a side story to give you more information about the world and how it works without inundating you with exposition. It really worked with the pacing of the novel as a whole.
So yeah this was definitely a 10/10 read and I will be recommending it to anyone who is interested in high fantasy.
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Misogyny, Slavery, Self harm, Violence, Blood, and Classism
bohboh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Slavery, Classism, Racism, Murder, Medical content, Death, War, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Blood, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Gore, and Misogyny
Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, and Torture
violeteel's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Slavery, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia
iono's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Murder, Child death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Slavery, War, Classism, Death of parent, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexism
Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, and Xenophobia
bnsfly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Misogyny
Sanderson is a mormon who has, as I understand, grappled with how his faith approaches the "modern" world. His books aren't generally the worst offenders of misogyny etc, but there's definitely an underlying (and sometimes overt) thread of "traditional gender roles" etc.leona's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There you are, reading this review. Now, I urge you to read The Way of Kings, or re-read it if you haven't already.
This is the longest book I have ever read, but I'm not the type to get easily intimidated by a book's size so I saw this as a bit of a challenge. It's also my 7th Sanderson book. I loved this book.
I think the strongest aspect of this 1100 page behemoth is the character work. This book mainly looks at Kaladin, a young man turned slave, turned bridgeman. It sounds kind of boring or stupid at first but Kaladin's job (minor spoiler) is basically to carry a huge bridge, with the rest of his bridge crew, and haul it over plateaus / chasms in a landscape known as the shattered plains. These bridges allow the armies and cavalry to travel between plains. Not only this, the bridgemen are expected to run headlong at severe arrow-fire, unshielded and unprotected - it's a bloodbath, but the men are treated as disposable.
Through Kaladin's job, he experiences some sever trauma and suffers with depression and suicidal thoughts. His character was so compelling and the struggle of the bridgemen to just stay alive when everyone wants them dead is so heartbreaking. I found myself shedding a tear at one point in Kaladin's backstory
Syl is also incredibly fascinating and I love her relationship with Kaladin, almost like his mini therapist. Bridge Four is amazing. (Honestly I need to come up with some more adjectives and ways to describe books.)
The magic system is expansive and epic (although a bit confusing - I think so far I still prefer allomancy) and some of the concepts are so strange and original. For example, grass and plants in Roshar kind of shrink into the ground when they are stepped on - it's very weird. It's also weird that class is basically defined by the colour of your eyes, it's quite a prevalent theme in the book is that people will discriminate people for all sorts of stupid reasons if possible.
I enjoyed Shallan's chapters, although I wasn't a huge fan of her at first.
I didn't really like Dalinar though. I find him so boring for most of the book until the Sanderlanche of the last 10% of the book. His chapters are just dull and tedious, and it took me ages to get through Part 2, whereas the Parts with just Kaladin and Shallan didn't take me long at all. I think I disliked Dalinar potentially because of how we see Kaladin struggling and Dalinar's high society is basically the cause of Kaladin's suffering. I also feel like the battle scenes with the Parshendi in Dalinar's perspective are just boring because with Shardplate Dalinar can basically just mow them down with a single sweep, they don't really provide much of a threat
Some of the plot twists were a bit obvious
I enjoyed the Interludes quite a lot, as well as the humour from Wit. I enjoyed the pervasive theme of wit, and what makes someone witty or intelligent. Also Hoid is just so confusing like who's side is he on? Is he even on a side?
I kind of feel like not much actually happened for a book that is so long in some ways, but I still really enjoyed it. Maybe I didn't feel as surprised by things because of all the damn spoilers I'm always seeing in like memes and shit. Anyways, 4 stars because I can't get over how bored I was with some of Dalinar's chapters.
Graphic: War, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Slavery
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Classism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Misogyny, Gore, Rape, and Cursing
runitsthepopo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Colonisation, Animal death, Classism, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Child death, Murder, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Hate crime, Sexism, Dementia, Genocide, Emotional abuse, and Vomit
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Excrement, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry