The Way of Kings
Ratings1,614
Average rating4.6
I read the last 250 pages of the book in one day. But I can't bring myself to give it 5 stars. It's remarkably entertaining and gripping. I love all the tangential philosophical questions the book poses. The characters are well-developed and dynamic.
One of my favorite lessons from the book is in the final pages (no plot spoilers, don't worry). What is it that humans value most? The character posing this question finds an answer: novelty. Both Newton and Leibniz discovered calculus independently, but we credit Newton because he did it first. If I had read The Way of Kings before I read The Lord of the Rings, I'd have eagerly given it 5 stars. But it lacks novelty. It feels so cliché sometimes. It feels repetitive.
The Way of Kings is a fantastic book. Thought-provoking, engaging, enjoyable. I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series. But I do not believe this book will stand the test of time as The Lord of the Rings has. 4 stars!
Definitely a love hate relationship with this book.
It is not the best, not the worst. It is just some where in between.
It was boring in many parts and amazing in others.
The first half was a little slow but once it picked up I couldn't keep it down. I was even sometimes jumping in excitement as I was reading.
It's been a while since I had a book keep me up until 6AM so I could finish it. Can't wait for the next books!
I am a little speechless about how much I loved this book, which makes writing a review consisting of intelligible words a little hard, but I will make an attempt.Things I Knew About This Book Before Reading It: that it was a highly recommended fantasy series that was still in progress (but with an author that is good at keeping to a schedule), and that the only nitpick-y negative said-recommendations mentioned was that the prose isn't great. That's all I knew. I didn't read a summary, or even a single sentence description, I just knew I wanted to try out fantasy for the first time since I was in High School, and this was what I landed on.Things I Discovered After Like Three or Four Chapters: I really love the prose, so that negative was non-existent for me pretty much immediately. I clicked with it so quickly, and I honestly said “Ah, this is so well written!” out loud quite a few times throughout the book. But here is the meat and potatoes to my voracious enjoyment of this book: the characters. The characters! I am definitely a character-focused person, so if I connect with the characters I could easily read a thousand pages of them just sitting around a fire talking to each other, and these characters are so real, sympathetic (in the “I care for them so much” kind of definition), and delightfully intriguing. I literally love everyone. Shallan was definitely an early favorite, and I look forward to diving deeper into her character in the future, but the stars in my eyes by the end of this book were definitely for Kaladin and Dalinar. Their character arcs were so strong, I absolutely loved reading the intricacies of their experiences and feelings, and I think (with no knowledge of their journeys in future books) they are the best Good Guy characters I've ever read. They are both just so excellent, and I don't think I've ever been so excited to read about two characters meeting for the first time. The Fantasy Stuff: You know, the magic, and the maps, and the new words, and the history lessons. I ate it UP. There were dreams-that-weren't-dreams, and intense time-travel visions, and potentially-friendly invisible hooded figures, and powers, and storms, and lots and lots of gems. And honestly I could have read way more of Shallan just sitting in the library reading history books, so that I could also read them. Mainly, I am a total sucker for people unearthing some deep ancient power within themselves while having creepy but intensely profound imaginings, so this was all right up my alley. The Plot: This book is definitely more character focused, partially as at the beginning a lot of the characters barely know more about what is happening than the readers do, so there isn't some change in setting, or dramatic event, happening every other chapter. Personally I loved the pacing of that, because I was so into the characters that even little hurdles and triumphs in their stories felt impactful – and by the time huge blows or major victories were occurring, I was so into it that I was pacing around my living room in my anxiety and excitement while holding up this 1000 page hardcover book. And the closing chapters really blew my mind with connecting a bunch of little details I had been ruminating on throughout the entire book, and supplying me with the best kind of reveals: somehow it never occurred to me that this was the answer even though everything make SO MUCH SENSE now. So in conclusion: I literally made myself read a book I didn't like in the middle of reading this book, for the express purpose of slowing me down because I just didn't want this book to end. And even though I finished it, thankfully it kind of won't end because I am picking up [b:Words of Radiance 17332218 Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2) Brandon Sanderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507307927l/17332218.SY75.jpg 16482835] from the library tomorrow. I am also already excited for the day that I've made my way through the available books in the series and I can come back and re-read this book to (I'm sure) appreciate it in a totally different way. Onward!
Prelude.
Ok... interesting.
Prologue
Ok... so... nothing to do with the prelude. Ok... Interesting, though.
Part I
Something different, again.
next chapter, something different, again.
and it goes on like that.
It takes quite a lot of time for me to realize that Cenn is pretty much irrelevant. He's just a young boy who gets killed on his first battle. Yeah, he dies.
We are introduced to a lot of people, and half of them are irrelevant. As much care is taken to present even the irrelevant characters, so I forget all of them.
It took me quite a time to realize who Jasnah was.
And then the flashbacks. And dreams and visions and what nots.
But Brandon Sanderson is a masterly storyteller... he keeps me captivated IN SPITE of all this.
Then, suddenly, with 10% of the book left, chapter 66 of 75 (+ epilogue, end note and appendix, and a lot of interludes) he writes a scene that changes everything. NOW I understand why this book is The Best Fantasy Ever Written for so many people. I was crying. Loudly.
The end was kind of downward from that point, but on the other hand, that scene was so magnificent that I don't care :-D. (Well... I do care. All the rest cost this book one star.)
And I don't like the assassin. He whines too much. He never says anything, but he thinks and it's all whining.
I liked it but I got extremely fatigued 35% of the way through with all the detail that was in this one. I loved the world, the magic system and Shallan's character but the other parts I was starting to get bored with this audiobook. I think for the future books in this series I will read along. I'm definitely on board for this series but I'm not eager to pick up the next as that 48hr audiobook was a doozy... I felt the same way about Game of Thrones and it gave me similar vibes of the first in the game of thrones series but the magic and world was more interesting to me.
Amazing good with deep characters and a unique and vast world. Cannot wait to dig deeper into the series.
Truly one of the finest pieces of fiction that i've ever had the pleasure of reading. Brandon Sanderson is a world building genius. I blasted through the first 3 books of this series to get ready for rhythm of war and I can't wait to read it.
5/5 - my favourite this year..please read this book!
Character building was great - not one character i was bored with, everyone had their own mind and felt separate from the rest. I particularly enjoyed reading about Shallan.
The magic system was very flushed out, as expected from Brandon Sanderson. You learn so much more towards the end of the book, opens it up for next episode.
World building was brilliant, so many different animals, fauna and races. This is what I enjoyed most.
Please read!
Its been a long while since I shed a tear while reading a book and Brandon deserves all the credit for this. While the plot is more complicated than his “Mistborn” trilogy, it is built on a much larger canvas and have many more threads. Bridge 4 is and inspiration and some of the character sketches are mind blowing. These ingredients keep building towards a fantastic climax which is delivered with even more finesse than I thought possible.
Now as usual, the wait for the next book begins
Wow... just wow. Sanderson has created this sprawling world with racial and class politics, an amazing magic system, and such rich lore.
Speak again the ancient oaths and return to men the Shards they once bore. The Knights Radiant must stand again.
important
young Kaladin's chapters
Adolin , kaladin , jasnah, shallan and Dalinar, i love you. This world and the characters mean the world to me and this has solidified Sanderson as a top author for me. I couldn???t be happier and feel more at home when jumping into this world alongside them, fighting with them in battles and feeling what they feel because of whats happening. Thank you Bridge Four and co.
This book was around 600 pages too long and tried to do way too much. In the end, the only real payoff was actually just more setup.
There's probably something pretty good down the line in a book or two more. But I'm probably not going to get there.
Slow getting started. Lots of world building setting up the rest of the books in the series.
10/10
A masterpiece. There are a lot of great reviews written about this book so I'll leave it at that.
(10/07/2020) So, the fourth Stormlight book is due, making this the fourth reread. I wasn't planning on starting so early (November is a long time away after all) but I'm so excited I couldn't help myself!
Unsurprisingly, it's still phenomenal. The characters are fantastically human, the world and worldbuilding immense and vivid. The writing, while relatively simple, gets the job done and although this is a relatively slow paced book it never once feels like it's stalling. There are four main point of view characters: Kaladin, a slave, Shallan, a scholar, Dalinar, a lord, and Adolin, Dalinar's son. I'm never disappointed turning to the next chapter and seeing which character I'm reading about next, which is more than can be said for other books in the genre. There are also brief interludes from the point of view of (seemingly random) characters which display cultures and events from all over, leaving the world feeling alive.
While I've seen some complain about the use of flashbacks, I strongly disagree. Maybe it's something to do with Kaladin being my favourite character in the series, but I love the way the things we learn through his flashbacks expand our understanding of his character and his response to present day events. And like I said, I'm biased. I love him to bits. The other POV characters are pretty great too, and I'm so glad the flashbacks continue into the next books focusing on a different character each time, but the fact we started with Kaladin definitely made me immediately invested.
This is everything I love about fantasy. The ultimate 1100 page doorstopper. And it blows me away on a reread knowing that it only gets better. Now I have to go and start book two right away and ignore the other 100s of books on my TBR list
You read a book and hope the end payoff will be worth it. This book, with its 1000 pages, did not disappoint with that payoff. I really enjoyed it. Can not wait to start Words of Radiance.
I regret it took me so long to read this book. I did struggle to connect with the story in the beginning, but once I got attached to the characters I was hooked. The wold-building is amazing and the complex magic is so interesting. I'm excited about starting the next book...hopefully it arrives tomorrow.
This book is the first book written by Brandon Sanderson I have read/listened to. This is a great story that is easily listened to via audible and also enjoyably read. The characters are very developed and their story lines are very intriguing. I found myself always wanting to know more. Recommended to anyone who likes reading fantasy.
The beginning of the book was super slow and confusing to me because of all the characters and the different stories. But the last part of the book was almost enough to make up for all the front loading in the beginning.