Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

56 reviews

drbealstod's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Slavery, Trafficking, and War

Minor: Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Child death

b_silver's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Reviewing this book is so hard. I want to give it a 5 star. But I can’t. Because the first 500 pages of this book were such a slog to get through.

I was bored by Dalinar’s and Shallan’s chapters. I thought the whole war plot with the Parshendi felt generic and boring. I was so tempted to put the book down and move on. But the one thing that kept me going was Kaladin.

Kaladin is one of the most compelling fantasy characters I’ve ever seen. His backstory is heartbreaking. He has so much depth. He’s just so likable. I had to know where his story ended up. And thats what kept me going.

By the time I got to the end of Part 3 (which is around the 700 page mark), I was hooked. My opinion on Dalinar and Shallan flipped. And I binge read to the end.

I know people say you have to give this book a chance to hook you in, and it takes time to get into. But it shouldn’t take 700 pages to do so. That’s why I can’t give this book a perfect score. But it was still incredible, and I’m fully invested in the story now. Can’t wait to dive into book 2. 4/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

dailbrae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Death, Violence, War, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, and Slavery

Minor: Child death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, and Medical content

mattiedancer's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Writing: 5⭐️/5 

I think Sanderson’s writing is outstanding. Rich descriptions, beautiful dialogue, and stunningly crafted characters all twine together in this novel to create some truly decadent writing. Even the fight scenes were wonderfully written, as Sanderson has a way of describing the action without the details becoming tangled in the movement. 

Characters: 5⭐️/5

Sanderson could write a spin-off about probably any character in this series, and I would care enough to read it. Every character feels real in this book. 

Plot: 5⭐️/5 

The plot and the world in this novel are stunning. I loved learning about the world, and I loved the stories that were explored throughout. It’s a long novel, and yet the pacing is perfect, taking the time to explain each moment that needs explaining. Ugh, I just want to dive into it again.

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Someone looking for a remarkable high-fantasy series
• Someone who likes Brandon Sanderson
• Readers looking for a fantasy series with stunning writing

Content Warnings? 

• War, violence, blood, slavery, mental illness, suicide, suicidal thoughts, classism, grief, murder, injury, injury detail, vomit

Post-Reading Rating:  5⭐️/5

Love, love, love. Where has Sanderson been all this time? 

Final Rating: 5⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child abuse, Violence, Suicide, Death, War, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Physical abuse, Stalking, Blood, Slavery, Gore, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, Vomit, Colonisation, and Emotional abuse

jeffjk's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A solid fantasy epic that feels like a puzzle box you can untangle with enough careful attention. The characters are people I want to know or be, just exceptionally well-made lil people.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Violence, Suicide, War, Death, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Slavery, Colonisation, Alcohol, Trafficking, Mental illness, Blood, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Genocide

mads_reads_books's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Murder, Death, Colonisation, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Genocide, Child death, War, Violence, Slavery, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Genocide, Ableism, Dementia, Deportation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Chronic illness, and Gaslighting

Minor: Slavery, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Police brutality

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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Content Warnings

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

sammyy_3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Slavery, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt

wardenred's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Medical content

thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Murder, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, War, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death and Cursing