Review: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson has become the obvious heir to epic fantasy of this generation. Sure, there are plenty of great authors writing in the epic genre, and many more picking at or blending the edges, but when it comes to pure epic fantasy, Brandon Sanderson is King and in no danger of being usurped anytime soon. The focus of this effort is The Stormlight Archive, a projected 10-book series. Words of Radiance is the second book in this series, following The Way of Kings.

 

Above I called Brandon Sanderson the King of epic fantasy, I very much believe he deserves the honor and has earned it through work and dedication to the craft and just a bit of luck and goodwill along the way. King Sanderson* has benefited greatly from the unique opportunity to complete The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan’s tragic and untimely death. His efforts to complete the final 3 books in the series based off writing fragments in various states of completeness, rough outlines, dictated scenes, thousands of pages of notes, and his own interpretation to bridge the gaps provided him with a view into a nearly completed work of the immense scale common to multi-book series of epic fantasy and the challenge of finishing the series in a satisfying way. As a result, he gained a great understanding of the consequences of choices made earlier in the series that become amplified in later volumes. This in turn provided King Sanderson the chance to set his own massive series up in a way to avoid such consequences (in theory), or to put in a few other terms, avoid jumping the shark or becoming tangled in a Meereenese Knot. Of course, it’s far too early to judge the ultimate success of this when King Sanderson is only 2 books into his projected 10-book series, but initially I think the signs are there showing that he could pull it off – particularly with the way that Sanderson has chosen to juggle character points of view, keeping it to a relatively bare few (just 2 or 3 per book), with brief interludes where others can be thrown in to expand the breadth of the story at hand.

 

Above I’ve liberally used the term epic fantasy and I will continue to do so throughout this review. This is because of the importance of acknowledging what this book (and series) is, and therefore, what it is not. The Way of Kings is 1008 pages long in hardback (US). Words of Radiance is 1087 pages (US hardback). These books are back-breakingly big and capable of propping open a ten-ton vault, let alone stopping your door. In other words, they are big and they are bloated. The pacing reflects this – not everything included is strictly necessary (though this opinion of mine could vary greatly by one’s own point of view) – with events playing slowly and deliberately. The primary characters are explored in great depth, dwelled on in ways that are often mind-numbingly blunt and repetitive. Brevity is not the soul of Wit in these books (though Wit is the most interesting character, of which we see relatively little, though I digress). These books are for people who want to dive in, staying immersed for hours on end, and experience all possible aspects of the story. The eloquence of word count plays out in the epic way of King Sanderson and fans will flock to rule. (OK, I’ll stop now with my attempts at radiant word play).

 

So, that 200+ word paragraph above basically boils down to knowing what you’re reading. If you don’t like big, bloated epic fantasy of the likes of Steven Erikson, Robert Jordan and George RR Martin, then don’t read these books. They are long and could be edited down to a fraction of their end size, but that’s not the point of epic fantasy – at least not this epic fantasy. Enjoy it for what it is, or move on. Because complaining about the word count of book 2 in a proposed 10-book series in a genre notorious for large page counts is just silly. (But friendly mocking of that word count is encouraged, at least by me)

 

If you are beginning to wonder about where I intend to talk about the plot or specific characters, let me spell it out that I have no intention of doing so. There are plenty of other places that do a wonderful job of that, and I have plenty to talk about in my thoughts on this book without ever going there. Basically, with Words of Radiance being a book within a series that isn’t the first book, I think that those discussions are largely pointless in a review like this – or at least I have no interest in them. I prefer to talk in bigger picture terms on whether or not I think it works or not.

 

Above I mentioned three other epic fantasy authors: Steven Erikson, Robert Jordan, and George RR Martin. These three were chosen with intent as I think that there are similarities to be had with each. Robert Jordan is obvious and clear in his in influence and Sanderson has talked in detail about it in many places as he completed Jordan’s series. George RR Martin may seem like me just pulling out a popular name with little more than surficial similarity for extra SEO. However, I do see some similarities and influence through how points of view are utilized and how, ‘petty’ human struggles dominate early in the series, with the ‘true evil’ or ‘big bad’ only becoming a bigger focus as things progress.

 

The comparison to Steven Erikson is a bit more nuanced, and perhaps, more worthy of discussion. In my opinion, Erikson is the first author to truly pull off what could be considered a post-modern epic fantasy (in many ways the term ‘post-modern epic fantasy’ is a complete oxymoron). In the past Sanderson has been lambasted for calling his Mistborn series post-modern. And while he did backtrack a bit on that, I still think that King Sanderson really believes in the idea of him being a post-modern epic fantasy author. Honestly, I can see where that comes from – King Sanderson’s epic fantasy is an answer to what has come before, and there is a bit of commentary built into it. In The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, look no further than Wit (or Hoid of you prefer). Now do I think that The Stormlight Archive will ever rival Malazan in a postmodern view of fantasy – NO. But I do think it’s an interesting perspective to view this series through.

 

The Way of Kings was released in 2010 and with 4 years between releases, people may be struggling with the idea of whether or not they should re-read the 1000+ page first book in the series before moving on to the even bigger second book. I did not re-read and I did not look up any of the many summaries available online. I wanted to see how Words of Radiance held up given the time gap (plus I don’t have that sort of time these days). In general, I don’t feel that I was held back by my choice not to re-read, however there are of course caveats to this. I’ll start with the good – with The Way of Kings being a standard intro book and Words of Radiance being something of continuation and transitional book, it’s pretty easy to catch up on what’s important to know. But, one of the most popular aspects of this series does make it difficult to not be up-to-date with a full understanding of people and events – this series is huge and is meant to be huge. It is meant to be full of mysterious details and open-ended ideas that encourage ‘theory-craft’ to develop. King Sanderson absolutely wants his fans pouring over minute details to see what they may say about events to come and events that have already happened. And this does put the casual fan at a disadvantage. So far, King Sanderson balances things well enough to satisfy both, but he runs the risk of tipping one way or another as the series continues, and I doubt that potential tipping will favor the more casual fan.

 

This brings me to The Cosmere. King Sanderson is nothing if not ambitious, and from the start of his professional career he has developed an epic within the epics where most of the books he writes all take place in the same universe and all relate to each other in one way or another and an ultimate confrontation that is occurring. A single character known most often as Hoid (Wit in The Stormlight Archives) is present to one extent or another in each of these books. Up until now, this epic within the epics has been subtle and in the background, with only dedicated fans having much of a clue of what was going on. In Words of Radiance, it becomes clear that this series will become a central component of The Cosmere, and that the whole concept will grow and become much more important. This is another blow to the casual fan as only dedicated fans who read and digest all of books in The Cosmere will be able to fully enjoy and appreciate King Sanderson’s edicts. Or, from another point of view, this is a huge boon to King Sanderson’s fans as they get enjoy the epic within the epics as he brings something truly new to the genre. I suppose it’s time to throw Michael Moorcock into the mixing bowl of what has come before.

 

So, all you dedicated readers who have made it this far into the review may be wondering whether or not I liked the book and what I actually thought of – this is a very valid point to make considering I’ve rambled on for over 1600 words at this point and still haven’t really discussed this yet.

 

Yes, I liked the book – quite a bit actually. King Sanderson continues to improve as an author and I think this is one of his strongest efforts yet. Even though the book is so long, the pacing is remarkably consistent throughout and the writing is engaging enough to keep the reader (at least this reader) interested and entertained even while events progress at a measured pace. I believe that The Stormlight Archive is on pace to become the defining epic fantasy series of a generation and I will be along for the ride. Fans of epic fantasy and King Sanderson are getting more of what they crave with Words of Radiance – and likewise, those who aren’t fans of epic fantasy and/or King Sanderson should probably pass this one by.

 

So, all hail King Sanderson, overlord and archivist of The Cosmere…he’s earned it. But…

 

Wit, thy soul has brevity not.

 

And that works just fine for King Sanderson.

 

*I refer to Brandon Sanderson as King Sanderson throughout the review. I do not do this to mock Brandon, as I have the upmost respect for what he does and my personal interactions with him have always been wonderful. I do so partially to reinforce my point of him being at the top of epic fantasy at the moment, to help keep my rambling review somewhat cohesive, and because it amuses me.

 

 

Books of The Cosmere:

 

Elantris: Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

 

Warbreaker: Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

 

The Emperor’s Soul: Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

 

Mistborn

 

The Final Empire: My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

The Well of Ascension: My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

The Hero of Ages: My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

My Series Review 

Full Trilogy Boxed Set at Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

 

The Alloy of Law: My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

 

The Stormlight Archive

 

The Way of Kings: My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

Words of Radiance: Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon

 

 

New Brandon Sanderson Interview

A new interview with Brandon Sanderson has been posted over at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. Once again, I helped out by submitting a few questions, along with a few other bloggers including Larry from OF Blog of the Fallen and Adam from The Wertzone. It mostly covers The Way of Kings (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound, my review), but also hits on general writing and just barely touches The Wheel of Time.

It's another great interview, so go read it! And thanks to Brandon (and Peter, his assistant, who recorded and transcribed the interview...and of course Pat who arranged the interview).

Review: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson developed a decent following based on his own fiction, but it was his selection to complete The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan’s sad, premature passing that placed his name among the rock stars of epic fantasy. One has to believe that it was in part due to Sanderson’s exposure to the inner workings of The Wheel of Time that helped to inspire him to dust off a shelved concept for his own multi-book series. The Way of Kings (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) is book one of The Stormlight Archives, a planned 10-book series.

As a long-time fan of The Wheel of Time, I have nothing but praise for Sanderson’s efforts to complete the series. However, I’ve also enjoyed Sanderson’s own Mistborn series. In this respect, I really want more of Sanderson’s original fiction, and was quite pleased when I heard that The Way of Kings was in the pipeline. In spite of the pressures of limited reading time in my life I was equally excited when I learned that The Way of Kings is the start of a big fat fantasy series. Whether or not Sanderson’s exposure to The Wheel of Time influenced the development of The Stormlight Archives, The Way of Kings is superb beginning to a series that will likely be the face of epic fantasy for the next decade or more.

A beloved king is assassinated leading the nation of Alethkar to wage war against a mysterious foe beyond its borders. This war and others throughout the world of Roshar seemingly distract humankind from an oncoming apocalypse where creatures of myth seek the destruction of all people. We see the story unfold from the points of view of just a few scattered across the land.

Let’s not dance around it – The Way of Kings could be a defining example of big fat fantasy. It weighs in at a hefty 1,008 pages in hardcover and is only the first book in a projected 10-book series, and I daresay that each volume will probably be rather long. This is classic epic fantasy – an imagined second-world setting, magic, and good versus evil, though identifying a specific quest is a bit trickier. In some respects The Way of Kings holds much in common with beginning of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire – the real evil that must be faced (and most probably overcome) hasn’t really revealed itself as the typical concerns of humanity get in the way. In fact, while you could probably quickly identify the ‘good guys’, identifying the bad guys is far less certain. Thematically, this is the point, and a point that I think will only grow more important as the series progresses.

The Way of Kings is essentially told from the point of view of 3 characters. Dalinar is the brother of the assassinated king and uncle to the new king. Kaladin is a slave with a unique past sold into service of the army of High Prince Sadeas. Shallan is the daughter of a disgraced and impovershed house looking for a way save her family.

The Way of Kings is character-based in that the success or failure of the story lies with the characters much more than other elements of the story. In this Sanderson succeeds with characterization that is by the far the best I have seen in his writing to date. As one would suspect, the characterization does vary a bit, though it feels intentional and one’s reaction to it will largely be a personal one – in other words, I may like Kaladin best, but someone with differing life experiences from me may relate to Shallan much more.

As I indicated above, Kaladin is the character I found myself enjoying the most. While still relatively young, he is weighed down by the hand life has dealt him – a promising career, a rising star in the army, glory on the battlefield, a fall from the top of society, hopelessness and despair and throughout a sense of failing those around him. Throw in a natural ability to lead and a bit of mystery and Kaladin is a classic protagonist of epic fantasy that fans will flock to.

Kaladin contrasts with other characters such as Shallan. Shallan is young, naïve and selfishly motivated. Shallan’s goals are to get into the good graces of Jasnah, a smart, powerful, heretical woman, and steel her greatest possession. Her motivation may be to save her family, but it’s really hard to truly like a character with the annoyance of youth with questionable motivations. Or contrast Kaladin to Dalinar – an old honorable man who often comes across as a prudish, stuffy old man out of touch with those around him. Of course he’s also a great warrior, an inspiring leader and someone who just may save the kingdom.

Along with the major characters, there also a few minor, and more mysterious characters who I can’t help but want to know more about. Szeth is a mysterious assassin, more powerful and skillful than anyone he meets, and a slave devoted entirely to serving his master, whoever that may be. The few short points of view we get from Szeth always leave me craving for more. And there is Hoid, a character that has made appearances in Sanderson’s other fiction, including Mistborn (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), Elantris (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), and Warbreaker (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound). Hoid seemingly plays a larger, more critical role in The Way of Kings– does this point to The Stormlight Archives revealing the truth of a metaverse in Sanderson’s fiction? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.

My review wouldn’t be complete without a least some discussion of the world of Roshar. The world is dominated by highstorms – storms strong enough to strip the soil from the land. In fact the land itself has no soil and plants and animals have evolved to shelter from these storms. The landscape feels desolate and alien, altogether different from the cloned earths that most fantasy offers. This world further comes alive through the wonderful illustrations included throughout the text. I found it amusing that as I was reading The Way of Kings descriptions of Roshar reminded me of another fantasy world, one just beyond my remembrance – I finally realized that it was the world form Mistborn that I was reminded of. Sanderson has developed his own style of worldbuilding that I find immensely satisfying.

The Way of Kings is Sanderson’s most recent original work and the first book in a planned massive series. It’s his best book to date and the start of something very promising. The world is wonderfully creative with a deep history and uncertain future, the characters draw you in and make you care, and it all combines into something very special. Sanderson’s name may have leaped into the spotlight on the coattails of The Wheel of Time (though he was certainly on his way up already), but The Way of Kings proves that he belongs. This is a book that all fans of epic fantasy need to read and it could serve a great introduction for new fans to the genre, both young and not-so-young, as long as they can get past intimidation of 1000+ page book. My final thought can only be this: Brandon, when do we get book 2, because I want it now! 8.5/10