The Way of Kings by Brandon SandersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have to admit, I was worried for the first 500 pages. This book is slow going at first. Early on, I found it difficult to really root for Kaladin (who wallowed in his own crapulance a lot) and for Dalinar (who has a crisis and withdraws from life). Fortunately, the Shallan/Jasnah storyline kept me pulling through and was, for me, the best of the three throughout.
All the main characters are vividly drawn and their personalities are intact and consistent throughout, which gets high marks in my opinion. Otherwise, how could I loathe Dalinar's inaction and Kaladin's wallowing? And let me not forget the two most dynamic characters of all, Syl and Wit(view spoiler). Having just come off reading Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, I love that Wit, like Hobb's Fool, seems too knowledgeable and yet powerless. It works well in Way of Kings. All the secondary characters (and who knows how long they'll remain secondary) are brightly written as well. I enjoyed scenes with Adolin, Renarin, Danlan, Navani, Elkohar, Rock, Teft, Sigzil, and Taravangian.
I only have one small quibble with this book and it's really more of a request for future installments: Please, more of the women. Perhaps the clichest of cliches in modern fantasy is the male hero with female supporting cast. Navani, Danlan, and especially Jasnah and Shallan are very well written and deserve just as much "screen time" as the battle fighting heroes; they don't receive it in this book. The story moves well and Jasnah and Shallan's "big reveals" needed to wait to the end for plot reasons, so I understand spacing out Shallan's viewpoints, but I hope that the rest of the series will have more of these leading ladies.
There are, of course, plenty of cliffhangers by the end. (view spoiler)
A review such as this can't begin to approach the complexity of this book and it is, regardless, difficult to write a complete review of the first book in a series without a series to place it in. So I'll say this:
For fantasy fans who are worried about getting sucked into yet another endless series, this one felt more deliberate to me. Sanderson has a track record of delivering on extremely challenging deadlines and The Way of Kings is clearly a meticulously thought out plot. It may be a long series, but I feel like it will be worth the wait. The story is layered and twisted, the world-building is interesting without being gratuitous, the battles are spectacular, the characters are varied and vivid and complex. I will gladly keep shelling out money and time for this series if all the other books are this well executed.
ETA: I later re-read this book when the sequel was published. Read that review here.
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