by Brandon Sanderson
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery.…
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reviewed The Way of Kings
Sanderson is operating at a completely different scale here. The Stormlight Archive is the most ambitious ongoing fantasy series being written today, and The Way of Kings sets up a world with the scope of Tolkien and the plot mechanics of a master thriller. Kaladin's arc alone is worth 1000 pages.
reviewed The Way of Kings
Slow in places but never without purpose. Sanderson is building something cathedral-sized and you can feel the architecture in every chapter. By the end you understand why every scene existed. A masterwork of long-form storytelling.
reviewed The Way of Kings
The flashback structure is used better here than in almost any other fantasy novel. Each character's past reframes how you read their present. The magic system (Stormlight, Shardblades) is stunning. An enormous commitment that pays off with an enormous reading experience.
Cassandra Clare
