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A review by isabellarobinson7
The Way of Kings, Part One by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
Rating: 5 stars
When I first started The Way of Kings, I was still getting over the fact that I was reading the Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy that everyone just would not shut up about, and I was reading it! Sometime after I really had read a sizable chunk (mostly in one sitting), I finally understood why it was talked about so much - in short (which the novel in question most definitely is not), it was incredible!
The entirety of this book seemed perfectly timed, because just as I got sick of hearing about Shallan, part one ended and the second didn't contain any of her POV chapters, instead Adolin and Dalinar's. And then the same thing happened with their chapters. It was around the time when Navani and Dalinar were interacting in a way (no spoilers) and it made me very uncomfortable seeing where I thought it might go, and as well as that Dalinar was going to do something that I really didn't want him to do (again, no spoilers so I'm not going to say what the something was, just that I didn't want him to do it). When that happened and I got bored (and irritated I guess) with the chapters from Adolin and Dalinar's perspectives, Shallan came back and my interest in her situation was instantly renewed. (Oh, and Kaladin has POV chapters, obviously, but I never ever got sick of those, and don't really seeing myself ever doing so).
Speaking of Kaladin, his character really displays the master Sanderson is when it comes to fantasy characters. (Heck, the lore of Roshar does this just as good if not better, but more on that later.) Anyway, Kaladin was just great. There really is so much I can say about Kaladin, but it makes perfect sense inside my head which probably means it was become the exact opposite when I put it into actual words. His personality, his unfolding backstory, his wants, his needs, his desires, his emotions... they all feel so utterly real to the reader, but yet at the same time you feel as though you are reading the biography of a folklore hero who is nothing but a myth, having never really existed at all.
And finally, the lore. It felt reminiscent of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in so many ways, but was completely unique in other. I'm not implying that the two were copies of each other, merely that I see the same amount of work, detail and proficiency in the lore of both Middle-earth and Roshar. So far, The Way of Kings was not overly flooded with information about the wider world (which is as it should have done, considering it is only the first part of the first book in the series), but what we did get, and what I have discovered through additional research, really intrigued me.
The Stormlight Archive is off to an amazing start, and if Sanderson manages to maintain the level of quality consistantly with each following installment, it could become a series that is remembered for generations to come (cheesy I know, but hey, it's true.)
Review for Part 2 can be found here
When I first started The Way of Kings, I was still getting over the fact that I was reading the Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy that everyone just would not shut up about, and I was reading it! Sometime after I really had read a sizable chunk (mostly in one sitting), I finally understood why it was talked about so much - in short (which the novel in question most definitely is not), it was incredible!
The entirety of this book seemed perfectly timed, because just as I got sick of hearing about Shallan, part one ended and the second didn't contain any of her POV chapters, instead Adolin and Dalinar's. And then the same thing happened with their chapters. It was around the time when Navani and Dalinar were interacting in a way (no spoilers) and it made me very uncomfortable seeing where I thought it might go, and as well as that Dalinar was going to do something that I really didn't want him to do (again, no spoilers so I'm not going to say what the something was, just that I didn't want him to do it). When that happened and I got bored (and irritated I guess) with the chapters from Adolin and Dalinar's perspectives, Shallan came back and my interest in her situation was instantly renewed. (Oh, and Kaladin has POV chapters, obviously, but I never ever got sick of those, and don't really seeing myself ever doing so).
Speaking of Kaladin, his character really displays the master Sanderson is when it comes to fantasy characters. (Heck, the lore of Roshar does this just as good if not better, but more on that later.) Anyway, Kaladin was just great. There really is so much I can say about Kaladin, but it makes perfect sense inside my head which probably means it was become the exact opposite when I put it into actual words. His personality, his unfolding backstory, his wants, his needs, his desires, his emotions... they all feel so utterly real to the reader, but yet at the same time you feel as though you are reading the biography of a folklore hero who is nothing but a myth, having never really existed at all.
And finally, the lore. It felt reminiscent of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in so many ways, but was completely unique in other. I'm not implying that the two were copies of each other, merely that I see the same amount of work, detail and proficiency in the lore of both Middle-earth and Roshar. So far, The Way of Kings was not overly flooded with information about the wider world (which is as it should have done, considering it is only the first part of the first book in the series), but what we did get, and what I have discovered through additional research, really intrigued me.
The Stormlight Archive is off to an amazing start, and if Sanderson manages to maintain the level of quality consistantly with each following installment, it could become a series that is remembered for generations to come (cheesy I know, but hey, it's true.)
Review for Part 2 can be found here