The King's Way

Product Information

Fulton, Ben (August 27, 2010). "Author Brandon Sanderson's real-life fantasy". The Salt Lake Tribune . Retrieved April 29, 2017.

In stark contrast, we also have the story of a highprince with an established legendary repute. One who was, however, now ridden with guilt from an earlier perceived failure and beleaguered with doubt that he might be going mad from strange visions that beset him at every highstorm. Both which fuelled his desire to understand the in-world book named The Way of Kings. The story of Dalinar Kholin is one of duty and unity and, once more, of honour. In the Shattered Plains, Dalinar appoints Kaladin and his thousand-strong bridge crews to serve him, his family, and the king as bodyguards, convinced that they will never side with Sadeas or any of the other Highprinces in the game of spies and saboteurs that they are inevitably going to start once his appointment as Highprince of War will be announced. Kaladin is appointed captain of the guard and Dalinar gifts him his old cloak as a symbol of gratitude and favour. Kaladin, in exchange for time to accomplish his goals, promises to train his bridgemen well, and even begins to entertain the idea of teaching Surgebinding to some of his men. I never thought that you could read about bunch of knights, dressed as medieval Power Rangers, wielding giant swords that were made out of pure essence, which would appear in their hands out of thin air (or morning mist) when they would call them with their minds – and not come out as a dork high on sugar. Szeth, a Shin man cast out by his people and condemned to obey his constantly changing masters, is sent to assassinate the king of one of the world's most powerful nations, Alethkar. As the story progresses, he continuously changes hands, doing his best to hide the fact that he possesses an Honorblade, a mythical blade used by the Heralds that can cut through any material. He also possesses access to powers that are no longer available to normal humans (“Surgebinding”), once possessed by the Knights Radiant and thought lost, making him incredibly difficult to defeat in battle.I tried as much as I could to share my thoughts in a thoughtful and respectful manner for all of you who love this book.

Finally, your mileage may vary but the writing in this book drove me crazy. I haven’t read anything else by Sanderson, so I don’t know if this is just his style or if there was a failure in the editing process, but I found a lot of the dialogue in this book to be exhausting. For instance: Ramifications of this atrocity called: ‘characterization through characters past’ will be significant in future. Honorable mention: Thank you Mash and El for being there for my fangirling and rambling!! AND FOR CONVINCING ME TO FINALLY READ THIS. The character relationships there and the development from what happened with Kaladin in the past was so heart warming and satisfying to read. Especially given the fact that they are in the middle of war… it felt like they had this own little family in the midst of all the death… *sobs and screams incoherently*

Follow Daily Express US

From Brandon Sanderson—author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive and its fourth massive installment, Rhythm of War—comes a new hefty novella, Dawnshard. Taking place between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, this newest story (like Edgedancer before it) takes a deeper look at several characters in the saga, and brings them to the forefront. Obviously, I can’t tell you anything about the story but I’ll tell you this, The Way of Kings is the beginning of tales that will remain inside your mind palace. It’s a heavily character driven book filled with tales of life & death, love & hate, bravery & cowardice, hope & despair, trust & betrayal, faith & atheism. Basically, all elements required for a great story are here, told from multiple POV. In The Way of Kings, we pretty much follow four main characters, even though three are at the forefront of this book: Before I touch upon the third arc told from the perspective of a female character, I’d like to draw some attention to the worldbuilding. Roshar is one of the most unique fantasy worlds I've come across. Alien but not in a bizarre fashion, Sanderson literally built the world from the ground up, right down to its flora and fauna which evolved to adapt to the highstorms that regularly sweep its destructive forces through this vast continent. There is also this unorthodox societal and cultural structure that demarcated status by eye colour, and occupation (and food!) by gender. In this respect, Sanderson was highlighting how discrimination or norms can manifest in a particular culture, which may come across as ridiculous or unacceptable by others. And the other unique concept/tradition in this world is that it is “beneath” men (other than ardents) to learn how to read and write. Like, men in this world marry a lot of the time just to be able to have their wives read to them and write down things for them. Yet, this value in society has not only put them at a disadvantage in life, but as also put them at a disadvantage in solving the mystery of the late king’s final act before death.

Best Fantasy Novel". Goodreads. Archived from the original on May 7, 2017 . Retrieved June 3, 2017. Szeth barely had any chapters, yet I found his povs amazing and heartbreaking. Imagine not having control of your own body and being forced to kill so many people??? The things he's had to do... stormfather, it's horrifying. AND THAT LAST CHAPTER OF HIS??? Oh god, I so wasn't expecting that. *extremely concerned* Szeth - Okay, call my weird, but Szeth’s chapters, as few as there were, were my absolute favorite. Szeth is still a very mysterious man, but he wields a Shardblade and knows how to use it to its full abilities. He is known to the world as the Assassin in White and is one of the most feared assassins in the world. From his perspective we get to see the guilt and pain from what he is being forced to do, but who and why he is being forced to repent for his past sins, is a constant mystery. Also, the epilogue chapter of this book, which is in Szeth’s perspective, actually blew my mind.Questions that I and all fans of this series definitely have aplenty. The Stormlight Archive has raised the bar to stratospheric levels and I feel extremely privileged to be part of this journey. It's difficult to condense my feelings into a short review but I just love the way Brandon Sanderson builds his worlds as he makes you care for each character first before fully explaining the world that he has plopped you in the middle of. A young lady in pursuit of gaining a position of the ward to the most renowned scholar in Roshar, Shallan had a hidden agenda, and her arc seemed disconnected from the one taking place on the Shattered Plains where the other two main characters were. Nonetheless, it was still a compelling one and provided the much-needed exposition on the bigger underlying story of an impending world-at-large peril without info-dumping. Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.” November 2022 saw the release of The Lost Metal, the seventh volume in the Mistborn saga, and the final volume of the Mistborn Era Two featuring Wax & Wayne. The third era of Mistborn is slated to be written after the first arc of the Stormlight Archive wraps up.

Spren - Also, in this world, they have Spren, which are magical little beings that come in a variety of different types. For example, Rotspren appear when something is beginning to rot, or something is dead, or something is being infected. There are tons of different Spren that take many different forms in this book. Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. Or was that victory an illusion all along? Did our enemies realize that the harder they fought, the stronger we resisted? Perhaps they saw that the heat and the hammer only make for a better grade of sword. But ignore the steel long enough, and it will eventually rust away.I loved how everything in the book came together. Everyone's stories eventually collided into one end game and I loved it! OMG, that ending! I can't believe some of the things that were revealed! Shallan soon discovers that Jasnah's Soulcaster does not possess the ability to transmute, but instead hides her uncommon inherent ability to Soulcast. When Jasnah learns that Shallan possess the same ability, she plans to start instructing her in its proper use. She also reveals her research into the secrets of the Knights Radiants' desertion and the enslavement of the parshemen. Jasnah's father, King Gavilar, had started researching their origins when he had encountered the Parshendi in the Shattered Plains, surprised by the existence of a culture of warrior parshmen and concerned that the whole of humanity's servant class could turn against them. Jasnah's research had subsequently revealed that Gavilar's fears were founded: stories of the ancient Voidbringers seemed to point to the fact that the now-docile parshmen were the Voidbringers, enslaved by humanity. Jasnah also reveals the existence of the Ghostbloods, a secret organisation searching for the same answers she is, but for diffferent reasons. Kabsal was a member of the Ghostbloods, their symbol having been found on his body after his death. When Shallan recognises the symbol, she realises that her father was a member of the Ghostbloods. Syl - Be still, my heart. Syl is honestly everything I look for in a character to love with my whole being. She is such a little cinnamon roll, and I keep picturing her tripping military dudes in her little invisible form and it just makes me smile for days. Syl is a spren that has bonded with Kaladin. She found him on a night that he needed her most, and has rarely left his side since. And she constantly reminds him that his life is worth living, and what an honorable man he is, and how he isn’t cursed and doomed to lose everyone he loves. Syl is honestly probably my favorite character in The Way of Kings. The result of more than ten years of planning, writing, and worldbuilding, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.