Meanwhile, Kaladin, a former soldier disgraced and sold into slavery, arrives on the Shattered Plains as a bridgeman, a role designed to help carry and place the immense mobile bridges which carry the Alethi army into battle. Mistreated by his masters, Kaladin begins to burn with the need for freedom and vengeance, and finds like-minded men amongst his fellows.
In distant Kharbranth a woman named Shallan seeks a missing princess, hoping to become her protege and study under the most famous heretic on all of Roshar. But Shallan's quest disguises another, less honourable cause.
These three stories become entwined with the ancient legends of the Knights Radiant and the Voidbringers they fought against. The world of Roshar and the wider cosmere beyond lie in danger from an ancient force, and the key to understanding the nature of that threat lies with a man who can walk amongst the worlds...
There's no faulting the ambition of this novel. The publisher and the author have set out their stall quite clearly: they want the ten-volume Stormlight Archive series to be the next dominant epic fantasy series, replacing the soon-to-finish Wheel of Time sequence. The publishing marketing spiel has cranked up to support this effort, drawing comparisons with Tolkien and Frank Herbert which are more than slightly hyperbolic. Yet The Way of Kings manages to weather these pronouncements to stand on its own merits as one of the best epic fantasy releases of this year.
The Way of Kings is Brandon Sanderson's finest novel to date, showing a remarkable and satisfying maturing and evolution of his craft. Sanderson is a student of epic fantasy who's made it his business to test the limits of the subgenre and take a mass audience with him, and The Way of Kings raises this skill to new heights. Roshar isn't another generic fantasyland, but a dangerous and alien world wracked by devastating tempests which the normal business of humanity takes place in the lulls between the storms. In his previous books Sanderson has used his worlds as effective background locations, but in The Way of Kings the world itself comes to life satisfyingly, becoming a vivid location which the reader ends up wanting to know more about.
Characterisation is an area where Sanderson takes a significant step forward in quality. His characters in The Way of Kings are considerably more flawed and more real than those in Mistborn or Elantris, but he also avoids turning them into grim, grey ciphers. These characters are given motivations and rationales for what they do which make sense, and then evolve satisfyingly over the course of the book. It has to be said that of the three major protagonists Shallan is the one who is not developed very satisfyingly in this way until the very end of the book, when her last three or four chapters transform the reader's understanding of her character and motives in a very impressive manner.
Sanderson has a strong reputation as the creator of impressive magic systems, so it's rather surprising that The Way of Kings pulls back on the magical side of things. There's an excellent opening sequence depicting the assassination which is slightly reminiscent of Nightcrawler's attack on the White House in X2 and is as impressive, but otherwise actual feats of magic are somewhat few and far between in the book (although there is a fair amount of use of magical artifacts such as fabrials and Shardblades), although with plenty of hints that these will form a bigger part of the story in subsequent volumes.
Another surprise is that Sanderson makes a bold move in this volume by putting some of the common mythology of his universe into the centre of the plot: Hoid, the Shards of Adonalsium, the Shadesmar and other elements which have been hinted at in Elantris, Warbreaker and the Mistborn series are here brought into somewhat sharper relief (although foreknowledge of those earlier novels is not required) and followers of this shared-universe element of Sanderson's work will have plenty more to chew on as a result of this book.
On the downside, Sanderson does adopt an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach with the book, and uses some side-plots purely to establish elements which will have no resolution until much later, and as a result there are a few side-stories which simply have no apparent reason for being in this novel (most notably the scenes set on the Purelake). In addition, to achieve greater resonance and carry out more impressive worldbuilding, Sanderson has had to sacrifice the thunderous pace that made the first Mistborn novel very enjoyable, the result being a book which is a good 150-200 pages longer than it strictly needs to be with some repetition of ideas and some action sequences (the chasm battles, whilst very impressive and atmospheric, do start blurring together after a while).
The Way of Kings (****½) has some minor issues, but overall is a deeper, darker and more satisfying novel than anything Sanderson has produced to date. The book will be published on 31 August 2010 in the USA and on 30 December in the UK.
17 comments:
Can you say anymore about how is writing has improved?
While I enjoyed Mistborn for it's plot, I thought his actual writing was pretty terrible. There was just no intimacy or immediacy to any of his scenes. He just seemed unable to breath real life in to his world of his characters due to his want of telling instead of really showing.
Hopefully he's improved on that though, as this book sounds pretty good from a story perspective.
Does volume 1 stand by itself?
In other words, does it have a reasonable conclusion, or does this start the endless waiting for the next big fat volume syndrome?
Anon1, have you read The Gathering Storm? The prose in The Way of Kings is a lot like that. I have also read an ARC and I agree with a lot of what Wert says. The prose and characterization are MUCH better in TWoK than in BS's prior books.
Anon2, sadly for you this starts the endless waiting. Luckily BS writes very fast so I would expect to see the next book in about 2 years, with A Memory of Light before then.
Thanks for the review! My first pre-taste of what to expect when I add this title to my shelf in Sept.
His writing is improved, although some show/tell issues remain.
Volume 1 is not as stand-alone as say the first MISTBORN book. There's some big revelations at the end but I wouldn't say anything like a cliffhanger. I think Sanderson knew it might be 2-3 years before he released Book 2, so he avoided anything too outrageous as an ending to the book. But this is very much the first chapter of a bigger story and not a huge amount is resolved at the end.
the Shattered Plains, a vast landscape of plateaus separated by dark chasms
Interesting. Sounds like he's been influenced a lot by the landscape in his native Utah, Canyondlands NP for example.
I'm so glad to hear that this is a good read and that Sanderson is improving. I enjoyed both Elantris and Mistborn but simply haven't got round to reading his more recent work. I'll be buying this when it comes out in the UK though and I genuinely cannot wait.
Brandon is actually from Nebraska. He's only lived in Utah since he started college.
Brandon addresses the hyperbole of the ARC marketing copy here: http://brandonsanderson.com/blog/876/Thoughts-on-THE-WAY-OF-KINGS
The jacket copy on the final book is much different.
Aah right, thought he was from Utah. Still, I reckon the landscape hay have influenced him. Sounds similar. May ask on Twitter, being interested in the geography and geology of Utah.
I notice that this garnered a rating better than any of the reviewed Steven Erickson's. Do you stand by that?
Any of the reviewed ones? Yes. Of the unreviewed ones, I would rate DEADHOUSE GATES, MEMORIES OF ICE and maybe MIDNIGHT TIDES as being superior. Possibly GARDENS OF THE MOON as well, which I have a great fondness for despite its much-discussed issues.
On the subject of Erikson, I know you said before your thinking of completing the Malazan reviews. Just wondered when abouts your thinking of reviewing them?
You may have mentioned it before, but i cant remember when you said and maybe its changed since :P
Kenn
Can't believe there is a 4 month wait for this in the UK. Bonkers :(
I think the interludes serve the purpose to induce the sense of things happening in the world. We get to know that all around Roshar, mysterious things are happening despite our characters staying pretty much put. This creates quite a bit of tension, especially regarding future books.
I think the end is a cliffhanger, but a pretty one. As Keamy said, there are definitely revelations, but two of them combined (Sazeth + Kaladin; contradicting missions!) make me feel _very_ hanging.
Any plans to review book 2, or waiting for more of the series to be published?
This is objectively the book which has caused the most damage in my life. (A book causing damage being bizarre anyway, in my mind.) Its banality, triteness, repetitiveness, slowness and goallessness has done serious harm to my hobby of reading and therefore my life, for not a short time. And when I chose it, against all my previous instincts, exactly to be a sort of cheesy, clichéd fantasy bestseller tome to dive into. (And let's be clear, it is cheesy and clichéd in a general sense, it just fails at being fantasy, first of all, and even being a book, in a way, and especially at being immersive or possible to "dive into" in any capacity, compared to anything else.)
It has the worst or objectively most non-existent pacing, I think ever, of anything close to this length, and secondly, the world-building is worthless crap mostly consisting of "there are these vines... like on the cover... the end (and storms, big deal)". (And this bridge-carrying stuff just comes across as incredibly construed and tiring, aside from dull, and at that self-satisfied, after the second of maybe 15 times.)
In a review I wrote elsewhere I said reading this book leaves one mercilessly exposed to the waiting room and time or wherever one might want to bridge time by reading... It is the worst thing I have ever come across for this purpose, in the genre most suited for this purpose. And failing at the ultimate test of reading, I would say.
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