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The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

Brandon Sanderson

Start date: February 1, 2013

Finish date: February 28, 2013

Discussion: Book Discussions

Why we're reading this: This is our February, 2013, Contemporary Novel choice for group read & discussion
#71 on NPR's Top 100 SF/…more
[close] This is our February, 2013, Contemporary Novel choice for group read & discussion
#71 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...
#20 on Locus Magazines Best Fantasy novels of the 21st century http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCentu...

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Jun 20, 2021 Scott Firestone rated it really liked it · review of another edition

UPDATE:
Okay, I've now read this twice and it solidifies things.
First, Kaladin is one of my favorite characters ever. I would have read a whole book about him, because he's awesome. The second POV, Dalinar, is pretty dang cool, too. But Shallan? It's not that she wasn't an interesting character. It's that the things Sanderson gave her to do in this book are SO DANG BORING. I dreaded getting to sections from her POV. I couldn't wait for them to be over. It's possible her sections seemed so boring UPDATE:
Okay, I've now read this twice and it solidifies things.
First, Kaladin is one of my favorite characters ever. I would have read a whole book about him, because he's awesome. The second POV, Dalinar, is pretty dang cool, too. But Shallan? It's not that she wasn't an interesting character. It's that the things Sanderson gave her to do in this book are SO DANG BORING. I dreaded getting to sections from her POV. I couldn't wait for them to be over. It's possible her sections seemed so boring because Kaladin's bits are so freaking cool and compelling, so they paled in comparison.
Anyway, still loses a star because it didn't need to be 1000 pages.
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For my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge I purposely cut my arbitrary goal way back, because I found myself not reading certain books because the page count was too high and I didn't want to risk missing that mark. So the first thing I did after setting that new goal was to dive into this behemoth. Again. Because I've tried and failed to read it a number of times, which seems to be a pattern with me and Sanderson. This took me less time to read than The Final Empire did, even though it's hundreds of pages longer.
So let's talk about that length. There's just no way this needed to be 1000 pages. "But it's world-building!" you say. Well having read books with twice the world-building at half the length, I respectfully disagree.
That's not to say the world isn't great. It is. Most of the action occurs around a place called The Shattered Plains, which is a cool concept of high plateaus separated by gaps that require portable bridges to traverse. One of the three main narratives we follow involves the lowly crew tasked with carrying one of these bridges, and their incredible leader Kaladin. His is easily the most compelling of those narratives. Another involves a young woman trying to steal an item that can bring her family back to the status they once held. And the third involves a great warrior--uncle to the king--who is navigating the politics of the elite class, while also trying to discern the meaning behind the visions he's increasingly having.
It takes 700 or 800 pages to really get going, and once it does, it flies toward the ending. I really can't wait to see where this goes, and I'm enjoying it much more than I am the Mistborn series. The characters are compelling. The world is vibrant and alive. I just hope the next books don't take 700 pages to get their feet under them. ...more

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