Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Religious bigotry
I don't need a lot of action to be entertained, but I do need to be engaged and this book did engage, 30% of the time. The rest of the time I was either bored or watching the same things happen to Kaladin for the third time.
I really wanted to love this book. But it was so overhyped, and not at all subtle with any of the elements. I feel bad saying this and thinking this way becasue I love Mistborn, but I can't deny this was not for me.
Before you come with pitchforks remember this is my opinion and I don't fault you for liking this book, but I personally will not be returning to this series. It's too redundant and slow for me, especially because hardly anything happened and the characters were essentially the same people that they started as. And after 1000+ pages I can't justify that.
Graphic: Death, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, War
Moderate: Blood, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Classism
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: Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, War
Moderate: Child death, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Rape
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexism, Vomit, Dementia
Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Murder
Minor: Sexism, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Alcohol
Graphic: Gore, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Child death, Violence, Religious bigotry
Minor: Medical content