Reviews with content warning for Medical content - The Way of Kings

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

53 reviews

bohboh's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

Where to start? Incredible worldbuilding, intriguing characters, beautifully written action sequences, and a good medium-pacing but fast when it needs to be. There some of every fantasy book subgenre crammed in here, I think, and every bit of it works together to make a symphony.

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travisdabis's review

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adventurous challenging tense

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

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wardenred's review

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take?

I... kind of feel like I've read a lightly novellized non-fiction book on natural history, except it's the natural history of a made-up world. The worldbuilding here is amazing, that's for sure. Everything is so original and vivid and beautifully detailed. The magic, the way the world works, the politics and societal structure, there's so much, and it fits together beautifully. Unfortunately, the story itself never made me have any particularly strong feelings. I would have preferred to hang out in this awesome world by myself, whether via a videogame or a TTRPG medium, instead of getting to know it via this book.

Up until the very last part, everything is just so slow-paced. It took me about 100 pages to get invested enough into at least a couple of characters (Kaladin and then Shallan) that I decided I wasn't going to DNF, after all. On one hand, it's basically the 10% mark, which is a reasonable place to go from undecided to hooked. On the other hand, um, 100 pages. :D

And those two characters for the most part remained the only ones I truly cared for throughout the whole book. A number of others were intriguing, but I never quite clicked with them. I'm still trying to figure out what made me so hard to be invested in most of the cast, since plenty of characters had the type of personalities and conflicts that I usually enjoy reading about. I think it has something to do with the style of writing. Most of the character arcs were on the flat side, with the characters stuck in the same personal crises for pages and pages on end. And the characters and their problems were so obviously used as lenses for studying the world. And then there was the slow pacing and the fact that nothing really happened for over 2/3 of the huge book. All of that created the impression like I was reading the backstories, not witnessing the real action.

Actually, once I look back at the experience, I think this is exactly how I perceive it: there were 700-750 pages of backstory, and then 250-300 pages of gradually increasing stakes, tension, and action. And yeah, I guess plenty of details I learned while getting immersed in that backstory helped make the actual plot hit harder, once the story got that far. But was there truly no other way to tell this story?

(The question is rhetorical; I'm pretty sure there was, but all those alternate ways would have involved less focus on worldbuilding, and I could feel in every word how much the author loves the world he created and wants others to be fascinated with it, too. And, hey, it worked! I was pretty fascinated! And now I kind of want to witness more involved and dynamic plots set against the same backdrop...)

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obtoosegoose's review

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adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

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angelicwraith's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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cinhein's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Good. No notes.

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bookishhaunt's review

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challenging emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this book. Some POVs felt a bit boring until it got to the end, but one POV in particular has me speeding through it. That one POV was 5 stars for me, because it made me feel so many things. I'd give it 4.5 overall. I got through it way faster than I thought I would.

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