I think the real problem is that we've all read Radiance and you haven't. In WoK, Shallan is very much a background character, despite having POV chapters.

Radiance is Shallan's book the way WoK is Kaladin's. In it, she evolves into a fully-realised character and most of her traits are given context.

So yeah, let's postpone this discussion for a later date.

 

I'm just gonna leave this here.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/09/brandon-sanderson-stormlight-archive-book-3-first-chapter

 

Guess it was a nice chapter but truth to be told, I am quite sick of Kaladin angsting, worrying and berating himself for not being better or faster. It made me wary in the first book and I was sick of it in the second book and I don't think I can stomach that for seven more books, each the size of four of five Dresden Files novels.

On the other hand, am a bit interested in Kaladin's parents but not enough to truly think about them. Never wasted a second thinking about them, if I'm being honest.

Huh, it's odd, really. Maybe that's just me but while I really enjoy reading the Stormlight Archive books, I have to say, after a few days of having read them, I really don't think about them any more, not as I do with other books I really enjoy. I am not hunting for fanfiction or fanart or anything, nor am I all that interested in theories or debates. If you hadn't posted this, I probably wouldn't even have thought about this until someone else brought it up or it was time for the new book.

That's the case with all of Sanderson's works, really. I loved the Mistborn, I loved Vin and I truly love the ambitious and awesome concept of the Cosmere but honestly, I don't really think about them afterwards. Dresden Files (even though my enthusiasm for that has cooled down significantly), ASoIaF, and others do.

Similarly, I forgot a lot about the magic system and stuff here. I honestly only remember the Shardblades and plates and Shallan's stuff, I pretty much forgot what Kaladin could do, only that he could fly or something. Something about this magic system seems lacklustre in hindsight, at least to me. I loved allomancy in the Mistborn but I having read two 1000 page tomes of this and I have forgotten a rather integral part, or rather parts of the story.

Is it just me or do you guys share that with the Stormlight Archive?

Still, thanks for the notice.

 

I don't 'live and breathe' the books I like, so I don't go hunting for fanworks. DF was the only time that's ever happened to me, and even I seem to have settled down into a comfy 'mature' relationship with the series; the honeymoon is long over.

So I guess I consider Stormlight in the same way I do other books.

As to Kaladin's parents... I skipped the flashback chapters in WoK. Simply did not give a shit. I hate childhood flashbacks in general, as they usually end up reading the same as every other childhood flashback. The flashes to his service I enjoyed; his childhood could have been left nebulous and had just as much impact.

 

I don't like flashbacks in general, in all fiction. I much prefer it when the author is more subtle with the exposition and doesn't disrupt the flow of the narrative with 'breaks'.

I actually like Kaladin, even with all the angsting. Mostly because that's how I imagine all great 'amongst their soldiers' kind of leaders to be. Constantly berating themselves and their own harshest critic- though he's definitely not without fault.

I really don't like whatsherface though (says a lot that I struggle with all the characters' names in this series).

I do like the magic system though. I even remember toying with the idea of a Bleach/WoK crossover where Ichigo and his sisters are surgebinders due to their unique lineage, then later on tying that into Quincy massacre. I shelved it because there's still so much I don't know about surgebinding though.