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A review by readwithbells
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
2.5
I fucking did it. Finally.
I wish this book hadn’t ended well because then I could leave well enough alone and move on. But it did end well. The most boring character of the whole thing, Dalinar, who I had to force myself to read the chapters of, became the character that made me cry. That I am rooting for. Shallan and Jasnah Kholin are great characters, and they were consistently the most interesting throughout. Why Sanderson spent so much time on his boring characters and so little time on the most interesting people he created is beyond me.
Then there’s Kalidan who is an annoying little shit and I don’t like him as a hero. He’s mopey and moody and so full of testosterone it makes my head hurt. He is Fitz without the charm. And he also does something that is completely and totally irredeemable for me. How am I supposed to root for someone who uses a *person’s* skin as armor? After knowing the emotional torment it causes one of his supposed men who he is supposed to care about and protect? Like what the fuck.
I also don’t understand why this book is written so poorly - the pacing is horrible, most of the dialogue is clunky and awkward, and there are hundreds of useless pages. If this book was 600 pages, it would be fantastic. But it’s more than double that and it feels like it. This was not fun to read. I can’t in good conscience recommend this book to anyone, even though I think I’ll likely read the next one.
Beyond that, I have a serious issue with the presentation of the parshmen. It’s borderline pretty racist, and with the reveal at the end of the book, it implies something pretty gross that made me feel actually nauseous. At it’s worst, the position is appalling. At its best, it is not even the bar. At its best it is a white man discussing slavery and colonialism with a comfortability that is absolutely not deserved.
I imagine this series will fall into my category with Outlander. In that series, I disagree with a lot of the representations of relationships and consent, but I care enough about the story to keep reading. I feel similarly here, but I doubt I will talk about it often or recommend it. It reads like 80s fantasy, and that’s not a compliment. It actually reminds me heavily of how I felt reading Dune (except Dune is paced gorgeously, with politicking that actually feels well thought out) in its presentation of women and minority groups, even though I enjoyed the story.
This book is bad. I doubt anyone could get away with something this shoddily put together if they weren’t Brando Sando. Yeah it all came together, but I hated reading close to 900 pages of this book. Two thirds of this book were a terrible chore. The ending does not make it ok and the supposed endless pages of world-building did not fucking exist. It wasn’t world descriptions or understanding of anything that padded those hundreds upon hundreds of pages. It wasn’t even really exposition. It was mostly useless, long-winded explanations of events, boring (and pretty lame) politicking, and incredibly basic fight sequences. After the gorgeous fight choreo in Mistborn, this whole thing was a huge disappointment.
But will I continue the story? Yeah probably. But only if the next book is written with actual events in mind.
I wish this book hadn’t ended well because then I could leave well enough alone and move on. But it did end well. The most boring character of the whole thing, Dalinar, who I had to force myself to read the chapters of, became the character that made me cry. That I am rooting for. Shallan and Jasnah Kholin are great characters, and they were consistently the most interesting throughout. Why Sanderson spent so much time on his boring characters and so little time on the most interesting people he created is beyond me.
Then there’s Kalidan who is an annoying little shit and I don’t like him as a hero. He’s mopey and moody and so full of testosterone it makes my head hurt. He is Fitz without the charm. And he also does something that is completely and totally irredeemable for me.
I also don’t understand why this book is written so poorly - the pacing is horrible, most of the dialogue is clunky and awkward, and there are hundreds of useless pages. If this book was 600 pages, it would be fantastic. But it’s more than double that and it feels like it. This was not fun to read. I can’t in good conscience recommend this book to anyone, even though I think I’ll likely read the next one.
Beyond that, I have a serious issue with the presentation of the parshmen. It’s borderline pretty racist, and with the reveal at the end of the book, it implies something pretty gross that made me feel actually nauseous. At it’s worst, the position is appalling. At its best, it is not even the bar. At its best it is a white man discussing slavery and colonialism with a comfortability that is absolutely not deserved.
I imagine this series will fall into my category with Outlander. In that series, I disagree with a lot of the representations of relationships and consent, but I care enough about the story to keep reading. I feel similarly here, but I doubt I will talk about it often or recommend it. It reads like 80s fantasy, and that’s not a compliment. It actually reminds me heavily of how I felt reading Dune (except Dune is paced gorgeously, with politicking that actually feels well thought out) in its presentation of women and minority groups, even though I enjoyed the story.
This book is bad. I doubt anyone could get away with something this shoddily put together if they weren’t Brando Sando. Yeah it all came together, but I hated reading close to 900 pages of this book. Two thirds of this book were a terrible chore. The ending does not make it ok and the supposed endless pages of world-building did not fucking exist. It wasn’t world descriptions or understanding of anything that padded those hundreds upon hundreds of pages. It wasn’t even really exposition. It was mostly useless, long-winded explanations of events, boring (and pretty lame) politicking, and incredibly basic fight sequences. After the gorgeous fight choreo in Mistborn, this whole thing was a huge disappointment.
But will I continue the story? Yeah probably. But only if the next book is written with actual events in mind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Slavery, War, Xenophobia, and Death