Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

The Way Of Kings from The Stormlight Archive is Brandon Sanderson's latest Door Stopper. Just finished reading it yesterday. Who else has read it, and how do you feel?

edited 19th Jun '11 9:01:51 AM by ryzvonusef

It's out?

Heh, shows how much I've been paying attention.

From the Brandon Sanderson It Just Awes Me thread:

^ I just bought The Way of Kings today. It is quite possibly the heaviest book I currently own... and I plan to read every word of it.

edited 18th Sep '10 5:30:07 PM by LizardBite

I thought it was an excellent book, though I finished it with more questions than answers. Of course, since it's the first book of a planned ten, that is to be expected. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where the series goes.

The only frustrating part for me was Kaladin's flashbacks, Sanderson dragged it too much, by the fourth flashback, I was like "TELL ME ALREADY DAMMIT!"

I'm about halfway through at the moment, and my only problem is the same problem I've had with all his books— the plot threads and characters who interest me most (Shallan's Plans and Kaladin's work on Bridge Four) seem to get overshadowed by the characters and plot threads that just aren't as compelling. Not to say that they bore me, but compared to the characters I really want to read about, they just come up short.

I thought that there was quite a few scenes with Kaladin's work on Bridge Four, but that may just be me. With a planned ten books in the series, maybe you'll get more of the characters and plots that you like better, Lizard Bite.

I'm kinda intimidated about starting this — It's not just a Door Stopper, it's the start of a series of ten Door Stoppers. Maybe I'll just start it during Christmas break.

^ Escape while you can! I am already a sucker to DoorStoppers

edited 29th Sep '10 5:52:37 AM by ryzvonusef

I think TWOK is Sanderson's best work yet. Although I did kind of want to slap Kaladin for being slightly wangsty for part of the second half of the book. I was like, dude you have superpowers, THAT IS AWESOME, stop being depressed about it.. Good thing he got over it and had a major succession of CMO As at the end of the book.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, however.

And looking at his track record at keeping people alive...

edited 9th Jun '11 12:18:11 AM by CyganAngel

I really liked it, though I hope no one ever invents a Brandon Sanderson drinking game (like the Stephen King drinking game from The Nostalgia Critic, where you take a drink everytime an author reuses plot elements from their previous books). I doubt Bran San wants so many liver failures on his conscience.

Is there a thread to discuss the plot points and play the WMG game? Or would that be this one, and no one's really started it yet?

May as well use this one.

Yeah, general warning, there's probably going to be untagged spoilers from here on in. If you read any further, you have no right to complain about being spoiled. You're reading at your own risk.

edited 19th Jun '11 7:45:11 AM by CyganAngel

Well, I guess somebody has to start.

I think the Parshendi will become allies against the Voidbringers. Yes, I know that's a bit of a contradiction, but they have far more honor and culture than is necessary for an Always Chaotic Evil warrior race created by a God of Evil.

EDIT: Whoops, my bad.

edited 18th Jun '11 8:12:27 AM by Discar

@Sparky: Ten o_0

Well, I managed with the Malazan books, I can do it here too.

I haven't actually started The Way of Kings yet, though. I plan on doing that when I finish the Mistborn books. Currently almost half way through The Well of Ascension. I'm enjoying it, but it's not grabbing me like Mistborn did.

I thought the Parshendi were the Voidbringers...

^Yeah, that's what I thought as well.

PEOPLE

SPOILER TAGS EXIST FOR A REASON

NOT EVERYONE HAS READ THE BOOKS

Seriously, you people just spoiled a huge end-book reveal.

Anyway, my WM Gs: In the next book, Kal is going to foil Szeth's attempt on Dalinar's life, exposing his powers in the process. People will react in fear and/or disbelief that a mere darkeyes could handle such feats.

edited 18th Jun '11 4:39:52 AM by LizardBite

If you're coming into a thread about a series one book long and haven't read it, I don't think you really have much right to complain about spoilers if you read the posts.

Jasnah believes the Parshsendi are the Voidbringers, but while she's very smart, that doesn't mean she's infallible. Right now, the reader doesn't really have enough concrete evidence about either group to tell for sure. Personally, I think that the Voidbringers have a sort of Hive Caste System going on, with Parshmen as workers, Parshendi as warriors, and presumably others we haven't seen yet. However, the Parshendi are likely fairly ignorant of their own history, since they don't recognize the Parshmen or understand why they're different, and the Parshmen seem barely aware of anything. It makes sense to me, at least, especially considering that the Parshendi seem to have some sort of Hive Mind, or at least telepathy.

She's not infallible, but first guesses in literature usually turn out to be correct.

Except, given this is Brandon Sanderson, all subsequent books in the series will each have their own research project going on, and each and every one of them will result in a dramatic revelation about how something everyone believes is true about the Constructed World is actually a lie. By the time we get to book ten, the whole cosmology of the world will probably be turned topsy turvy.

edited 18th Jun '11 9:00:53 AM by RavenWilder

Eventually, it turns out they are not really humans. They are, in fact, anthropomorphised spiders.

Bedtime for me now.

Yes. You. Do.

You could be coming into the thread to give your thoughts on the book so far. You could be showing up to ask if it's worth reading. Not hiding MAJOR FUCKING SPOILERS is extremely rude.