The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

3.7/5 Stars

Speak again the ancient oaths,

Life before death.

Strength before weakness.

Journey before Destination.

And return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

I finally liked a Brandon Sanderson book! I hope everyone is happy now :D 3rd time lucky whoop! Admittedly I didn't like the first 500 pages or so, but as soon as part 3 kicked in I started to enjoy it so much more. I'm glad I stuck at it! If I were to rate individual parts it would look like this:

Part 1 - 2.5 Stars
Part 2 - 2 Stars
Part 3 - 5 stars
Part 4 - 4 stars
Part 5 - 5 stars

So there was a lot I liked but a lot I didn't like too, but overall it comes out as 3.7/5 Stars. :D

Pros

Jasnah. She is everything I love in a character and I'm so happy I've read this book for her and her only.

It's very clear that Sanderson loves this world he has created and I loved the amount of time he dedicated to the world building and development of his ideas. They all felt original and not just copy and pasted. I mean... Shardblades are pretty damn cool... What's not to love about a massive Final Fantasy type sword? Nothing, that's what. Your argument is invalid.

I loved everything about Shallan's POV and thought it was perfectly executed, from start to finish. Everything I wanted to happen, happened and of course Jasnah got plenty of page time! I also loved Szeth and hope to see more of him in the sequel and hopefully learn more about the Truthless too! Also how the POVs interlinked together was just genius and by the end I couldn't help but be impressed with the overall structure of the book.

I have a real hard time concentrating during action scenes and I have no idea why... They just bore me, but I think these scenes were written well. While they were still my least favourite scenes in the book, I did prefer them to action scenes in other books. That must count for something, right?

All of the religious and philosophical talk in this book was fascinating and I loved every second of it. Personally this is when I like Sanderson best. I appreciate how he always considered multiple sides to topics on morality and religion and really makes you think about it yourself and make up your own mind on what's right or wrong. Chapter 36 is still by far my favourite chapter in the whole book and that was down to it exploring this question of morality.

Oh and I also loved whenever Jasnah had a sassy Meryl Streep moment.... that's all ;)


Cons - ( All these opinions are down to personal preference and I am 100% in the minority)


My main issue with this book is how everything was introduced. When characters are introduced they are just simply a name and are built from there, instead of having a solid foundation. I understand we're not going to fully know a character from the first meeting, but when they are just a name it is really hard to care about what's happening to them.

This was particularly a problem with Dalinar's chapters, as everything was newly introduced later on in the story. However, I feel like Dalinar isn't at the start of his journey, which makes it harder to jump into his narrative, as opposed to Shallan, who is very much at the start of her journey... So this probably contributed to the confusion too. If that makes any sense? As his POV progressed though, I started to like him more and more and caught a grasp on his plot, although a lot of characters (including Adolin) are still just names too me.

Don't get me wrong I like Kaladin, but it annoyed me so much how he was portrayed to be so likable and 'good'. He definitely came off as a perfect character, who could do no wrong, which really ground my gears. Also I found it really hard to connect to his plot for the first two parts and I think that's because there wasn't really an over-arching story-line. For example from the start Shallan had a goal of trying to steal Jasnah's Soulcaster, so there was a clear aim and purpose But with Kaladin I just felt like for the first 2 parts, it was event after event after event without really going anywhere.

I also am not a massive fan of this whole Roshar world. *Gasps* I know... This one is 100% a personal preference, so ignore it if you wish xD I think the world is incredibly well crafted and all, but I just don't like how barren and boring it was to imagine... It sounds petty I know, but when I read, the world is a huge thing for me and if I get bored of the landscape it really hinders my enjoyment. As the plot took over this wasn't a problem though.

I had mixed feelings about the Spren. I think they're a really cool concept, but it was sometimes awkward in practice. Example:

"Anticipationspren sprung up around members of the army." 

I don't know it just sounds so dumb to me. There were just a few instances like this and most of the time I think it worked well and was actually a intuitive way to express feelings. So I guess this is more of a pro overall.

Despite these issues it feels wrong rating The Way of Kings any less than 4 stars, as a lot of my complaints are down to personal preference or just me being a big dumb dumb xD I'm looking forward to carrying on with this buddy read and have every hope that Words of Radiance will be a 5 star read. There best be more Jasnah :D

My Goodreads Review