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adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I just immediately want to read the rest of the series. The world and characters really sucked me in from the very beginning, even if I was a little confused and overwhelmed. I love Kaladin...... that's it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcohol
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, War
Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
i cried
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Medical content, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol
Minor: Child death, Incest, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Classism
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
Here I am, reviewing The Way of Kings.
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 when he volunteers to join the army with his brother Tien.
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 until the end obviously yet we see Kaladin's men constantly shot down by Parshendi. I feel like a lot of time is spent showing us how wonderful Shardplate / blades are and I cared more about Kaladin's stormlight magic. I hated Elhokar so much as well, he is so stupid and annoying, honestly I'm hoping someone assassinates this dude. Not a huge fan of Adolin either.
Some of the plot twists were a bit obvious like the realisation that Kaladin is unintentionally using stormlight but I kind of feel like this was a bit intentional. Some of the twists like Amaram having betrayed and stolen Kaladin's Shardblade, Dalinar buying the bridgemen by giving Oathbringer to Sadeas, Sadeas betraying Dalinar (I loudly said, 'You dick Sadeas' but also I feel like this wasn't that surprising because I don't think you really trust Sadeas right from the start) and Tien being conscripted into the war by Roshone and Kaladin following.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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:
Yes
My first re-read of this series, and it was well worth the wait and time it took to read.
The world building is so detailed and fully realised, from the terrain, to cultures, legends, history, religion and beyond. The magic we discover together alongside the characters, that what was the stuff of Myth is now present and here in the flesh.
And all of it is interwoveninks together and compliments each other.
Our 3 main protagonists I find engaging and become emotionally attached to. Even within the re-read I felt the tension and the emotional pain and eleation was as intense.
Kaladin the soldier come slave, we not only wonder and fund out how he became a slave and so beaten down by the world, we watch him constantly battle mental health and not give into despair. We see him try and salvage something worthwhile despite being constantly beaten back and we see the human life and soul being with every drop of sweat abd blood he gives.
Shallon the young artist of scholarly ambition, attempting to help and restore her family whilst keeping so many secrets. She is alone in a strange new city and must relie on her self and wits alone.
Dalinar a legend of battle and warfare, now must play court politics fighting against petty power squabbles of his supposed high-princes in arms. He must protect his nephew the King, win the war to avenge his brother and try and keep together the Kingdom he helped conquer. All whilst suffering visions, which cause him to question himself. What do they mean? What must he do about them? Or has his mind broken at last?
I loved being right at the start of this incredible journey, where the plot interweave everything in a typical Sanderson way of twists turns and satisfactory highly pay off.
The world building is so detailed and fully realised, from the terrain, to cultures, legends, history, religion and beyond. The magic we discover together alongside the characters, that what was the stuff of Myth is now present and here in the flesh.
And all of it is interwoveninks together and compliments each other.
Our 3 main protagonists I find engaging and become emotionally attached to. Even within the re-read I felt the tension and the emotional pain and eleation was as intense.
Kaladin the soldier come slave, we not only wonder and fund out how he became a slave and so beaten down by the world, we watch him constantly battle mental health and not give into despair. We see him try and salvage something worthwhile despite being constantly beaten back and we see the human life and soul being with every drop of sweat abd blood he gives.
Shallon the young artist of scholarly ambition, attempting to help and restore her family whilst keeping so many secrets. She is alone in a strange new city and must relie on her self and wits alone.
Dalinar a legend of battle and warfare, now must play court politics fighting against petty power squabbles of his supposed high-princes in arms. He must protect his nephew the King, win the war to avenge his brother and try and keep together the Kingdom he helped conquer. All whilst suffering visions, which cause him to question himself. What do they mean? What must he do about them? Or has his mind broken at last?
I loved being right at the start of this incredible journey, where the plot interweave everything in a typical Sanderson way of twists turns and satisfactory highly pay off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
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
Content Warnings
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
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
Content Warnings
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
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
The Stormlight Archive is a modern masterpiece. This first novel is over 1200 pages long, but each and every word counts. Sanderson is a master of careful plotting, intricately detailed world-building, and fully realized characters. We meet Kaladin, a slave who is and becomes so much more. Dalinar, a privileged high prince who appears to be losing his mind in the midst of an interminable war. Shallan, a daughter of an unimportant noble house on a mission of thievery who may also be losing her mind. And Szeth, an assassin who weeps as he harnesses magical power to wipe out his master's enemies. We also meet many other characters along the way, and Sanderson seamlessly switches perspectives and narratives with such an ease that we know these primary four will be brought together at some point.
If you're a fan of intricately written high fantasy, and you haven't picked up Brandon Sanderson yet, you are missing out. His books take a lot of time and commitment, but they are completely worth it. The Stormlight Archive is a planned long-term series and only 4 books have been released thus far. If you prefer completed series, check out "Mistborn." But seriously, don't sleep on this series. It is epic fantasy and totally delivers.
If you're a fan of intricately written high fantasy, and you haven't picked up Brandon Sanderson yet, you are missing out. His books take a lot of time and commitment, but they are completely worth it. The Stormlight Archive is a planned long-term series and only 4 books have been released thus far. If you prefer completed series, check out "Mistborn." But seriously, don't sleep on this series. It is epic fantasy and totally delivers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Mental illness