I took a quick look through the forum and found we lacked a tread specifically on Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. I have taken it upon myself to rectify this.

*edit for the linguistic purity of the fatherland*

It's a pretty solid book. Possibly the best worldbuilding I have ever seen, par none. Sanderson has made some bad ass magical theory stuff before, and this book is no exception. His characterizations have improved from his earlier stuff, although he still relies a bit too heavily on precociousness in female characters. However, he seems to have made headway on his problem on the sexlessness of his protagonists. His narrative progression is like buttermilk, considering he has more than a thousand pages to lose his way. It has its ups and downs, but I didn't really find any parts that bored me enough to put the book down. And that climax at page 1050... Better than sex, my friends. Mmmm.

A last note: This is book 1 of a projected 10 book series. The fact that he knows the series is going to be crazy long means (I hope) that he knows where the story is headed. And in a few decades, god-willing, we might just have ourselves a 10000 page series that drips epic.

TL;DR 1300 pages of awesome at $8.99, come on.

 

1. You failed earlier on, but made a good enough recovery after clearing your throat.

2. Haven't read it simply because of the sheer size of the book. This thing is massive. I'll probably read it during winter holidays or something. I've only read Sanderson in the Wheel of Time books, but he seems a decent enough writer.

 

Your summary is...lacking, shall we say. That said, I'd agree with your assessment. It's a fucking amazing book, and I can't wait for the next installment. Probably the best book I've read this year (better, imo, than Wise Man's Fear).

Could it be shorter? Maybe. There are a couple of interludes that seem to have no relevance to the book, but will probably have more importance to later installments. If so, fair enough, but this book wouldn't suffer for their absence. It's a small niggle though.

 

Yeah, really good book. Loved the worldbuilding, the story is interesting, the characters are likable and I absolutely love the Shardblades, even if they seem to be way overpowered but then again, that was the point of them.

Anyone knows when the second one is coming out?

 

Late 2012/early 2013 is the plan, apparently - he's finishing Wheel of Time first. He's also said the Way of Kings will probably be the longest in the series, so it might be more feasible to carry the next installments around.

 

OP: *bar none.

Nemrut: *then again.

Nothing personal, but I fear for the future of the English language. It may be worse for me because my current job involves reading poorly written letters (complaints, one and all) from sub-literate morons who are pissed that their ex got the house or they got caught when they were beating someone up and their lawyer couldn't get them out of it or some other bullshit.

That out of the way, I really enjoyed Mistborn and I've heard that Sanderson actually saved Wheel (still won't read that series, though). I'll have to check this out.

 

Please forgive my brief spat of mania. Buried deep inside my chest is a 12 year old who shudders orgasmically every time he hears the word 'shit'.

On that note: the 'Storming' thing pissed me off. The idea of new vulgarities has worked well for... Frack, I suppose, and it was interesting and funny and new. But throughout Way of Kings it felt like an absurd censorship. It makes the book feel uncomfortably... PG-13.

 

I'm up and down on Sanderson -- a good writer but not a great one, sometimes writes brilliantly and sometimes not so much. However, I liked The Way of Kings enough to invest myself in the series. It really pulls off the feel of epic high fantasy while being original.

That said, he padded the first book with an awful lot of minor characters who seemed to serve little purpose. I assume they will become relevant later, but who's going to remember that character who showed up for six pages three books ago? I'm not one of those people who rereads an entire series every time the latest book comes out.

 

The writing style surprised me with how boring and dry it was. I remember caustically thinking he used up all the good writing he had in him for the Wheel of Time story.

Giving this a pass.

 

I have to say that it is the best series start that I've seen in a while.The world building is massive to say the least,but Sanderson seems a bit...limited in his writing.The concepts and back stories are handled very well,it is the writing that a bit dry.

He has,if I'm not mistaken, shown the overarching plot i.e. what the hero's are supposed to do.The rest of the nine or so books are going to the various obstacles they will face.

The greatest drawback of the series is one that I faced with Jordan and WOT as well:Too many characters moving in too many ways each with their own dilemma's of good/bad etc.I found myself skipping chapters to get to the main hero's plotline (Kaladin).

His Mistborn Trilogy was far too dry and as disposablehead posted "....relies a bit too heavily on precociousness in female characters".He seems to be doing alright with WOT;with the way Jordan left it there are only so many ways you can go.

Still,will continue to read the sequel's.

 

Oh man, I read this ages ago when it first came out, but I recall liking it.

The constant switching back and forth was jarring at first, especially since we don't know the characters yet, and there's always that 5 second "okay who's this guy and what's he doing" lag. I had that problem back when I was just starting Wheel of Time too, so I guess it's just a matter of reading more and more about them.

I like the general/commander character, Dalinar, his sense of nobility and duty was well done. The assassin dude really pissed me off, so far we have no idea what's forcing him to stick to something he so obviously hates and it's just agitating.

The climax at the end was indeed well done, I remember being stunned when

Spoiler

Dalinar gave up his sword. But then again, didn't Shallan, the scholar thief girl, uncover some research implying something was wrong/evil about the Shardblades/Shardplate?

Aargh, can't remember the details, guess I'm overdue for a re-read.

Anyway, it'll be forever til the next one comes out, Sanderson still has to finish A Memory of Light and then I think he's writing a follow-up to Mistborn? He's got a lot on his plate.

EDIT: Oh and the illustrations were really neat too, wish there was more of that in epic fantasy stuff. The cover art was beautiful, nothing like the embarrassments that are the American Wheel of Time covers :facepalm

 

@Lightfighter - I really dug Dalinar too. His character arc, from self-revulsion to confidence, was really meaty. My worry is that Sanderson is going to run into the same problem Robert Jordan and others have had with long series: he is going to fix all the character flaws well before reaching book 10. His only way out of this is by either killing off or abandoning these 'competed' characters, which of course creates it's own problems.

@ Inverarity - The interludes with minor characters seemed to do three things: they showed off the worldbuilding(Shin, the Purelake, Axehounds), gave exposition(Old Magic, spren), and introduced characters that Sanderson will play with in later books. I don't think you will have to reread everything to get the new characters, only that, from a continuity perspective, Sanderson won't be introducing major characters halfway through the series.

I thought Sadeas was the most interesting character in the book. Or, I should say, that he was shown in an interesting way. Dalimar's trust in a shared purpose, against his son's hate, with a healthy dollop of dramatic irony thanks to Kaladin's story line.

 

I don't know - I tried reading the Way of Kings last year but it never quite managed to hook me up, even after something like a quarter of the book - perhaps I'll try reading it again in a couple of months.

Actually, it's one of the things that put me off.

 

Spoiler

Looks surprising at first but then you have to remember, there are nine dawnblades still existing and I would be very surprised if he doesn't get one of those

 

Had to actually sit and think about what you were referring to...but yeah. Dawnshards, belonged to the Heralds, right? Only, we don't know where they are right now, but I could see what you suggest happening in one of the later books.

 

Ah, Dawnshards it was. I thought that was the only reason he did what he did what he did.

 

When someone asked him about the problems that Jordan and Martin have experienced with their epics, he claimed to have Stormlight Archive already planned out from beginning to end so he could avoid the pitfalls that they ran into. Of course, best laid plans and all, but he's done a pretty good job with planning ahead in the past.

 

Holy. Fucking. Shit, you guys. I am pumped up past the point of rational thought.

 

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You have no idea how awesome this is to me.

 

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0765326361

PRE-ORDER! PRE-ORDER NOW YOU FOOL!

Double holy shit.

>Words of Radiance on November 12
>Skin Game December 3