A review by katrinarose
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

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

4.0

I really enjoyed the action we got in this book, as well as the character development from Shallan and Kaladin. I do feel like there were parts that dragged, and while I’m happy some information/answers were revealed, I still feel like there’s a lot of lore that still hasn’t been explained which can be frustrating. As always, the action-packed ending was great.

One thing I keep thinking about is the Parshendi people - I get racist vibes from the portrayal of a mostly dark-skinned subservient species who are secretly savage villains, and I’m wondering if this will be directly or indirectly addressed at some point. The whole lighteyes vs darkeyes dichotomy in humans seems like a pretty clear metaphor to me for skin color stratifications in our society and this is mostly shown as bad - until it’s shown darkeyes actually turn into lighteyes when they bond with a shard blade. So I don’t know, I guess the next books will ultimately reveal how it’s all meant to be taken.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and have high expectations for the next ones.
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