The Way of Kings - Stormlight Archives Book 1

Brandon Sanderson

Life before Death.

Strength before Weakness.

Journey before destination.

This book, as I think is tradition for Sanderson books, was reccomended to me by a friend who has since completely slipped into the beautiful insanity that is the Cosmere (The overarching universe connecting all Sanderson books for those are unaware). While it isn't my favourite, I do very much enjoy this series, and it absolutely kickstarted my obsession with fantasy again.

Brandon Sanderson, and especially Stormlight Archives, has become code for 1000 page books with extensive worldbuilding and epic fantasy galore. And I loved reading it. All of those things I am almost always here for, and with Stormlight giving us a very inventive world that is all just...rocks and crustaceans - and humans - and chickens (All birds are chickens.) - it manages to stay very refreshing.

The Way of Kings is the start to a saga revolving around a war between the kingdom of Alethkar and the Parshendi, a people who are distinctly not-human and we do not learn much about for now. The war started after the Parshendi assassinated the late king of Alethkar for mysterious reasons, as the two groups were on the verge of forming a stable peace and alliance. So we find ourselves several years into the conflict, following several characters that could not be more different. Kaladin, a popular soldier turned slave - Shallan Davar, a scholar with a complicated past - and Dalinar and Adolin Kholin, members of the royal family fighting in the war. The connections between them build slowly as we discover more of the story and what this war truly means.

This is a story frequently praised for its portrayal of characters struggling with grief, guilt and depression, and I will agree there, though it's important to note that it isn't a depressing story despite that, which I'm grateful for. Sanderson uses simple, very direct prose that, in connection with its steady pacing makes the book very easy to get through. For me, that makes the story less immersive though - that is honestly my main criticism of Sanderson in general. He doesn't write women perfectly, but the issues are very mild and honestly something I could overlook easily and better than average when it comes to popular fantasy (I'm looking at you, ASoIaF). In fact, my biggest issue in terms of worldbuilding and "iffyness" of writing certain elements would be how he writes oppression. To me, it lacks a lot of nuance I can't get into here, as that would be spoilers for the second book - all i will say is that the whole dichotomy of Lighteyes and Darkeyes separating the classes in Alethkar is, in my opinion, unneccessary and adds nothing to the worldbuilding or story.

All in all though, I will say that The Way of Kings is definitely good for some good old uncomplicated fantasy fun. The story is very compelling and fun to follow, and the pacing almost makes you forget about just how long it is. The only reason this isn't a favourite of mine is that I'm an enjoyer of some more interesting prose and less straight-forward storytelling combined with some of its little issues on the side.