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A review by who_knew
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Now, for the record, a 4 star rating on a 1100 page book is a lot higher than a 4 star rating on a 300 page one, but yeah. It was good! It... I don't have much of a takeaway from this one.
I could have put this book down at a lot of points and really struggled to pick it back up again, so I'm glad I had the time to push through and binge a lot of it. It was a really good way to spend the time...
I think I've started taking Sanderson for granted after reading so much so quickly. I'm starting to have an eye for what he does wrong and am getting a bit desensitized to what he does right.
He's a master of multi POV. It's always interesting, the new perspectives being brought to each chapter.
He's not great at emotional impact. I didn't care when Jasnah died nor when we found out she wasn't dead after all . Syl died and came back. Moash betrayed Kaladin. The dumb foreign king (Taravangian?) is... a lot, I guess. . There's so much going on, and it's all so conceptually interesting, but the delivery on these Big Huge Moments feels underwhelming each time.
His world building is awesome. The world feels big and overwhelming in the best possible way. It feels silly but somehow still tangible and real.
I think I've been reading too much romance lately. Fantasy writers largely DON'T ever learn to build and break tension the same way as a person who can make you feel fully immersed and invested in just... whether two people kiss. But man, if someone could bring that energy to the fall of an empire like Sanderson's, it'd be a hell of a book.
I guess my takeaway overall is that you have to read this book because it's truly interesting, not necessarily because it makes you Care.
This was still a hell of a book.
I'll read the next one. It'll be great.
I could have put this book down at a lot of points and really struggled to pick it back up again, so I'm glad I had the time to push through and binge a lot of it. It was a really good way to spend the time...
I think I've started taking Sanderson for granted after reading so much so quickly. I'm starting to have an eye for what he does wrong and am getting a bit desensitized to what he does right.
He's a master of multi POV. It's always interesting, the new perspectives being brought to each chapter.
He's not great at emotional impact. I didn't care when
His world building is awesome. The world feels big and overwhelming in the best possible way. It feels silly but somehow still tangible and real.
I think I've been reading too much romance lately. Fantasy writers largely DON'T ever learn to build and break tension the same way as a person who can make you feel fully immersed and invested in just... whether two people kiss. But man, if someone could bring that energy to the fall of an empire like Sanderson's, it'd be a hell of a book.
I guess my takeaway overall is that you have to read this book because it's truly interesting, not necessarily because it makes you Care.
This was still a hell of a book.
I'll read the next one. It'll be great.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Murder