Book Review: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Book Title: The Way of Kings
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Rating: ★★★★★
Link to Book: [AMAZON]

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

I attempted to read Mistborn and couldn't get into it as well as I wanted, it was a good read - but every time I picked it up I put it down around the halfway mark. It didn't hold my attention that well, and it was my first Brandon Sanderson book. Robert Jordan is one of my favorite authors (I haven't finished The Wheel of Time, so I haven't hit the books by Brandon Sanderson just yet). Another friend of mine recommended I try The Stormlight Archive series and so I picked up this book - and I am so glad I did!

This book is a commitment! I picked it up, I started reading, I could not put it down! It isn't something I could do casually, this wasn't a 'few chapters before bed' kind of book. This was a sit down, focus, and accept that you're going to be here for a while. It's long, it's dense, it's heavy, it does not hand hold at all, but I enjoyed every moment of the journey through the story.

I did not understand everything right away, and let's face it, I still don't. This is book one of an amazing series (I am currently reading my way through book two as I write this). There is a lot happening, multiple story-lines and shifting points of view, and a lot of story building, world building, names, magic systems that you're expected to roll with until it clicks (and yet it works!). The beginning felt a lot like being thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool to learn how to swim, but you eventually figure it out and man, it's beautiful!

Even before things started to come together, I was completely hooked. This was one of the books where the confusion at the start is solved by recognizing patterns and understanding the world that you were thrust into. You start to get attached to the characters on a level you weren't expecting and goodness.

Speaking of characters, I think Shallan, Kaladin, Syl and Jasnah are some of my favorites. I love the backstories for both Kaladin and Shallan, and I cannot wait to learn more about Shallan's because a bit of it is still cloaked in mystery. You can feel the weight of everything they’ve been through, and it makes every decision they make hit harder. Kaladin’s story is just pain layered on pain, but in a way that makes you root for him even more. And Shallan… there’s still so much we don’t know, and I’m honestly a little obsessed with that. You get glimpses, just enough to realize there’s something deeper going on, and now I need answers.

Syl has been amazing since the moment she came into the story. She brings this lightness to the story that it really needs. So many of these characters are struggling, the world is heavy, everything feels like it’s constantly on the edge of falling apart and then Syl is just there: Curious, funny, quietly supportive. She had me smiling more times than I expected in a book like this. Jasnah is a mystery to me still, I want to know more about where she came from and where she's going to go. So many of these characters are going through it. Life is hard, the story is heavy, and yet the story carries itself so well.

There is something amazing about this book and how it flows, everything builds over time. Honor, leadership, broken people trying to do the right things (for the most part) even when it's hard. Yes, it's a little heavy, but is done in such a well written, meaningful way instead of an overwhelming way. This isn't a fast read, it takes take (I devoured this book in a week!), but it's worth the rewards if you stick through it. By the end of this book, I wasn't just interested, I was attached and that's a problem for me. Why? Because I live my life on a tight budget at the moment and I need to keep reading!

While this book was intimidating at first, it's worth picking it up despite the page count. It's worth it, it takes your curiosity and it leaves you emotionally invested which means I'm devoted to seeing this series through and I am also going to check out the rest of what Sanderson has to offer. This one has made the favorites shelf, I absolutely adored this story.

I almost forgot to add my favorite quote from this book: "I'm sorry I drove you to suicide. Here's some bread." - this line will forever live rent free in my head and it left me laughing like a mad woman alone in my office at work.