October 25, 2016

REVIEW| The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1)
Brandon Sanderson



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Synopsis:

According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed ...They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won. Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself - and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne. On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight. What happened deep in mankind's past?Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?

Review:

The Cover:

Let's be real here, everyone has some formation of an opinion of what makes a good book cover and whether an author has been blessed enough to get on board that train. Brandon Sanderson has, in my own opinion, boarded the "UK for once has a better cover than the US train.

CHOO CHOOO!!!

Sam Green somehow always gets these covers spot on, they're alway gorgeous illustrations that fit perfectly to the variations in Sanderson's Cosmere universe. Each one recognizable by a colour: Stormlight Archive is so far red, the Mistborn books are pale blue and Elantris by its green. 

As well as this, you could say that Green has managed to encapsulate the scope of Sanderson's world, where the most prominent plot points are in the explorations of war, and scope of what the book tackles.

The Content:

This book was definitely a slow burner of a plot. It did take me three months on and off reading for me to get through this monster. I would get super into the plot and then a hundred pages of reading loose interest again- swap to another book and then come springing back.

That being said I cannot say I didn't like this book. It had all the elements that I adore in Sanderson's works that makes Sanderson a great fantasy genre writer. What I adore about Sanderson's magic systems is that unlike many other world's magic is limited. Creating a tension and challenge that helps push certain aspects of a book's plot into action, creating a good rise and fall action.

The reason this has dropped two stars is because I did keep losing interest where this was such a slow burner. Perhaps if I had read this at more this time of year I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Also, some characters didn't hold my attention either. Whenever we were on the political side at court I was enthralled by the character, the masses of battle scenes just left me tired. I guess this is why I adore Game of Thrones, the ratio of court political intrigue feels slightly higher than in Sanderson's Way of Kings.

I will definitely continue on with this series. Even though it will take a huge commitment-- only two out of ten books have been written and released so far folks.

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