TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #106

Concerning DoD:
Since my last update just over a month ago, I've only gotten approximately half way through the outline for Dawn of Darkness. This isn't due to a lack of interest or any problems. It's simply because the story is turning out far larger than I had anticipated.

I revisited a few things which I felt the outline needed, most notably a consistently ramping feeling of tension. I'm quite happy with the way the story gets progressively more and more tense now, and I feel that this story has really nailed that more than others.

DoD is also making use of light worldbuilding and side character development to feel far more full and realistic than some of my previous stories.

If everything turns out, DoD should be quite excellent. It's just taking a while to get there. I'd judge my actual progress to be closer to 60% than the 50% my signature shows, because the second half...

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....

I had assumed that the fourth part of The Way of Kings was the final part, but now that I've finished it, it appears I was wrong. There is a final part five, which looks to be quite short, and feature everyone, including Szeth (which I'm definitely excited about). Since it's short, and since it's the end of the book, I will simply roll it into my review on the entire story. So stay tuned for that.

But now it's time to get onto the review for part four, which I finished yesterday.

Title: The Way of Kings (Part 4)
Author: Brandon Sanderson

Compared to the first three parts of this book, for each of which I had a strong idea of what was good and what was bad, part four seems mediocre. Not in a bad way. It had good and bad as well. It's just that I think the lines between the two started to blend in this part, and things started to level out.

I'll go over the bad first, then the good, then the in-between.

...