Review by shiromar - The Way of Kings

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shiromar 's review for:

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

3.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this is one of those books that i can acknowledge is well-written, but didn't really work for me. the characters felt flat, there's a huge amount of unnecessary padding, and the majority of the worldbuilding is done in giant out-of-character monologues that feel more like reading a textbook about the world instead of organically fitting into the story.

the length of this text tries to justify itself by having some very abrupt "reveals" in the last few pages. it almost feels like it's trying to pretend that it was building to these huge unveilings the whole time instead of slapping them on at the end after alluding to "mysteries" only vaguely throughout the rest of the novel. the payoff doesn't really feel justified.

racism is a very common "trope" in fantasy novels like this and it tends to be mismanaged. this is no exception - you're treated repeatedly to fantasy racism with calling the vaguely-human race barbarians, savages, and you're constantly reminded that they are considered "lesser" and have been enslaved by the "more human" race. again, this is very common in fantasy. what's strange here is that

the text justifies this by saying that this race is actually evil and part of a dark force that has been haunting the main characters since the start

.

there's a reason brandon sanderson is very well respected in the fantasy community, but this one isn't for me and likely won't be for other people who prefer character-driven stories.

Content Warnings