TGRF Reviews - The Way of Kings

I have today finished The Way of Kings, and since I plan on diving straight into the second book, I wanted to go ahead and review it. Normally I would let my thoughts sit for a few days (or try to at least), but with TWOK, I've been writing this review in my head for a while now, helped no doubt by the lengthy nature of the story.

As usual, I will break the story down into areas I feel deserve mention, either because they were done well or poorly. I'll average the ratings of these sections out to get the final rating for the story as a whole. Keep in mind that this is of course my own personal take on the book, and certainly not indicative of any other reader.

Let's get on with the review.

Ratings:
5: Amazing, above flawless.
4: Flawless, but doesn't really stand out.
3: Might have some issues, but works fine.
2: Has some issues which might detract from the story.
1: Flawed, bring the movie down noticeably.

Title: The Way of Kings
Author: Brandon Sanderson
My Rating: 3.25/5 - An original story which is unfortunately brought down in some areas, but is still a worthwhile read

Spoiler-free (and very long) summary: TWOK revolves around three main characters. Kaladin is a spear-soldier (everyone uses spears), with a less-than-optimal backstory. He is convinced he is cursed by the Almighty, since everyone around him keeps dying and he keeps making it out alive somehow. Captured, enslaved, forced to work as the lowest of humans, he now must reconstruct what he believes and what he knows, in an effort to keep his sanity. Along the way, he might find answers to the questions he didn't know he sought...

Shallan is a Lighteyes - nobility is based entirely on eye color for the Alethi people. She has come to study under one Jasnah Kholin, but her true motives are soon unveiled. She is on a mission of theft, driven by the desperate need to keep her family estate and name from being destroyed. She must move carefully if she is to succeed, but she soon begins to make discoveries, which lead to terrible possibilities...

Dalinar Kholin is a Highprince and Shardbearer. Shards are coveted items, said to be worth kingdoms. This is because they are relics from a half-forgotten past. They take the shape of Shardblades or Shardplate. Shardblades can cut through anything easily. They were made to cut souls, not flesh, and passing one through a person will kill them instantly, while leaving their body untouched. They can carve through stone easily, and normal armor is nothing to them. Shardplate is the only thing which can block a Shardblade - for a time - but it also gives its wearer strength and speed, turning them into a super-human. All the kingdoms in Roshar have some Shards, but Alethkar has the most.

The king of the Alethi, Gavilar Kholin, has been slain by a mysterious Assassin in White, who was sent by the Parshendi, strange humanoid relations to the docile Parshmen, who act as mute, willing servants to the Alethi. Alethkar creates the Vengeance Pact, the Highprinces of Alethkar uniting to defeat the Parshendi. But the Parshendi are anything but docile or mute. They are warriors, and the Highprinces now find themselves locked into a multi-year long siege on the Shattered Plains. All of the Highprinces are there, including Dalinar.

Dalinar's story revolves around the fact that he has strange visions during highstorms (regular mighty storms which blast across all of Roshar, leaving everything bare stone). The visions seem real, and he begins to question his sanity. Elokhar, the king, suspects someone is trying to assassinate him. Meanwhile, Sadeas, another Highprince, seems bent on destroying Dalinar. Dalinar must attempt to get to the bottom of multiple mysteries, while staying ahead of the foes which surround him.

If the length of that summary is any indication, you'll have a good idea of just how much stuff there is in the book. Believe it or not, that is the condensed version. On with the review.

Style - PoV: 1.5 I'm going to start with the obvious here. Sanderson's trademark style is to switch pov nearly every chapter. I want to be clear that there's nothing wrong with switching pov, but you have to know the problems it can cause and how to avoid them. The main issue with switching is that it can pull us away from the main character. Achieving investment in a character is NOT easy, so constantly switching away from that character makes it harder. This problem is fixed by ensuring most of the screentime is used by the protagonist, the protagonist is on screen in larger pov chunks than other characters, and the non-pov chapters don't come in large clumps. Sanderson fails in all three of these areas. The main character, Kaladin, probably has around 50% of the screentime, possibly less, and he often only gets one or occasionally two chapters before we switch to someone else. Another problem switching can cause is confusion for the reader, especially if there's a lack of explanation. Sanderson excels in lack explanation, and more than once I was left wondering what was going on, who these people were, and why I was reading about them. If there is one aspect which was by far the worst aspect of the book, it would be this.

Characters - Investment: 2.5 Connected to the pov issue, is that of character investment. Because Sanderson doesn't give us enough time to really sink our teeth into any one character, I developed a 'mild interest' about all of them, and a 'true investment' in none of them. This slipped away towards the middle of the book, when the plethora of chapters - disconnected or not - started to finally pile up and tip the scales. But in those early chapters, investment was low. Kaladin especially was not very pleasant to read about, and the opening Dalinar chapters were very confusing. More than once, I found myself having no desire to continue reading about these people, and only kept reading because I assumed things would get better. Without that assumption, I would have put the book down several times over. Despite this, it is worth noting that with the possible exception of Kaladin early on, none of the characters pushed me away, and several, most notably Shallan, were able to capture my interest despite her story being fragmented thanks to the constantly shifting pov.

Style - Opening: 1
I said the pov switching was the worst aspect of TWOK, but I feel like the opening did possibly more damage. Several things combined here: First, Sanderson opened with two prologues, then an opening chapter, none of which contained the protagonist. There was no one to get invested in, just some mildly interesting action. Second, the second prologue especially, and some chapters later in the book, introduced WAY too much too fast. One of the best things about TWOK was the originality, which I'll get to, but the absolute firehose with which it was introduced left me very confused. I feel like a softer trickle of new things would have been a better way to open, and I know Sanderson could have done this, because after the firehose, things settled down to more of that trickle. In addition, the things being introduced were often not described. For instance, horses are quite rare on Roshar, transport being done by Chulls. I didn't find out what a Chull was or what it looked like until half way through the first part (spoiler - they're giant crabs).

Plot - Twists: 4.5
As with Mistborn, Sanderson shows his mastery at plot-weaving and twist-crafting. The late game is where he shines, and beyond the middle of the book, I was hooked (way too late to be hooking readers, but successfully done nonetheless). Sanderson drops hints, building on his magic system and world. Revelations start dropping every few chapters. Now that he's taken the time to set the groundwork, he starts changing things, revealing things, making the reader question. In a good way this time. By the end of the book, the twists are rolling in thick and fast, and you begin to get a glimpse of the real story which is about to unfold. The bigger twists are definitely of the variety which makes you question everything you thought you knew about the story, and I'm interested to see how he'll keep that up in future stories. Because you can only change the world so many times.

Setting/Plot - Originality: 5 + 5
If there is one area that Sanderson absolutely dominates with TWOK, it has got to be the originality, both in the world and magic and creatures and religions and civilizations he's created, and in the story and plot as a whole. I feel like fantasy stories tend to suffer in the originality department, even if it's just relying on medieval settings too much, but Sanderson completely blows that problem out of the water. Roshar is so original, and the story so fresh, that there is no hint - literally none - of anything else. Literally the only ties to anything remotely earth-like are the presence of humans (amongst other races), horses (only occasionally), and certain universal constants, like gravity (which tends to change). The rest is built. Roshar is detailed literally down to the grass blades. The stories are new.

At this point I'm looking forward to reading the second book, which looks to be about twice as long as the first (hopefully this is a good thing). Now that the world and characters are more or less established, I'm eager to see just what Sanderson can do with them.

My hope is that we get to see Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar exploring the results of the first book. My dread is that Sanderson will introduce new main characters, and we have to repeat the first half of book one again with them. The worst he could do at this point would be to NOT pick up with Kaladin and the others, instead focusing on a completely different group. The best he could do would be to build on the momentum the large cast he has provides, capitalizing on their decisions going forwards.

As with this book, I will likely review each section separately, and finish with a full review of the book as a whole. So until then, keep reading.

~TGRF.