RonBurgundy Looks like the old thread got lost in the crash so here's the new one. This is a planned 10 book epic, broken into two 5 book series with a break in between. Brandon Sanderson has completed the first two volumes, The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance. Both were easy 5* ratings for me. The third book which is without an official title is scheduled for a 2016 release. I've spoilered two tweets. Brandon has started writing the book and has tweeted about a potential title and who he believes the book's flashbacks will center around. Spoiler Brandon Sanderson @BrandSanderson15h15 hours ago First Dalinar Flashback scene went well. For now, I'm assuming I'll use these (instead of Szeth's) for this book. Percentage par set to 1%. Brandon Sanderson @BrandSanderson15h15 hours ago I've had a lot of working titles for this book, but "Oathbringer" is the most appealing to me right now, for multiple reasons.
This is uncharted territory for me because this is literally the first fiction book I've audiobooked (for my commute, dear god what have I been missing all these years!) so I'm going to 100% butcher name spellings and no-fucks will be given sorry not sorry. Spoiler: Thru Ch 23 - TWOK First off, just wanted to step back and say how much I fucking love Sanderson. This book has been so well set up and created thus far. Unlike GRRM's universe which at times can be overwhelmingly large and can at times be presented quite dryly and can be a dull history lesson, Sanderson weaves the history in through the story in an easy to handle method, although it can be blatant exposition at times. Aside from the Truthless assassin (can't tell if it's Zeth or Seth) and the introduction of the "magic" powers of the shard bearers, the physics and back stories are usually well blended and aren't glaring juxtapositions with the rest of the plot. The first assassin scene might as well had an intermission and blinking red neon light signs "**DESCRIPTION OF MAGIC POWERS AHEAD**", it felt like a video game introductory tutorial the first time the combat system is introduced, tbh. I have strong opinions about a lot of characters, but I'm more curious as to where things are going plot wise than character development at this point. Rock's a personal favorite at this point.
Spoiler: Thru Ch 23 - TWOK Spoiler ill pay more attention upon reread, I didn't feel as hit over the head with explaination during the first assassination (with S'zeth, you pretty much had it). I guess I was so swept up in the action I didn't realize it
I really enjoyed TWoK and WoR, best fantasy novels I have read since A Wise Man's Fear. I have also read the Mistborn trilogy and while I definitely enjoyed them the Stormlight Archive seems to be in a different league altogether. Fascinating worldbuilding and lore, and I really dig the idea of the over-arching Cosmere. He seems to have matured as a writer in the Stormlight Archive, much better character development and he strikes a good balance of providing satisfying revelations while leaving some questions unanswered. I really want to know what's up with Hoid. Dude is an absolute machine, he has another novel Shadows of Self (Mistborn spin-off) coming out October 6th. But still I fully expect him to have finished Oathbringer* by 2016.
Spoiler caladin just survived the storm. So don't spoil if I'm right, but based on his response to Stormlight he's either a shard bearer or a Knight's Radiant reborn? Would be fucking sweet for him and Szeth to square off if he ends up having a blade of his own and climbing walls and shit. Also rock remains a ronburgundy favorite.
You must be audiobooking. Kaladin is definitely special as you can see. Rock is the man. Shallan's storyline pays off a little toward the end of this book and a lot more next book. Words of Radiance does Shallan's flashbacks like Way of Kings does Kaladin's. How much more of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere have you read? I might recommend knocking out Warbreaker before you start Words of Radience. Just reasons.
Holy fuck Shallan tripping balls on shrooms (tyfys For spelling Balckfish and yes audio booking). The only Sanderson books I've read are Mistborn and Reckoners
Oh shit Spoiler also, Shallan has a shard blade??? Holy fuck at that chapter. Jfc this book is solid.
Audiobook super annoying that female chapters read by a woman and male by a man... They pronounce Sadeas in 2 totally different ways and his voice is different (obviously). So hard to focus and to mentally think its the same character. #AudiobookProblems
Now on book 2, WOR is so far better than TWOK. The Blackfish Spoiler should I remove that spoiler about Shallan's shard blade? I guessed it due to heavy wording about holding out her hand, but doesn't reveal til book 2. Also, too late to read Warbreaker, what am I going to miss?
I enjoyed WoR more than WoK. You don't need to remove it. There are some crossover characters that you won't catch unless you've read it but it's alright it's not necessary obviously.
Now I'm intrigued. Tell me more about this Cosmere deal? There are other books in the same universe at the same time just not involving Shallan, Kaladin, the Kholins, etc?
Yes. And there are characters who show up in multiple novels through "world hopping". One character is in every one of his Cosmere novels just using different names. His biggest roles are in Stormlight and Warbreaker. I'd be interested to see who you think it might be.
Should I know who the messenger is that visits Shallan (4 years ago chapter)? Spoiler the one who gets her to surgebind first?
Just got to a later chapter and it definitely was who I suspected, which pretty much seals my initial thoughts on him. Spoiler Wit
The duel arena scene at the end of part 3 was just fucking spectacular, Sanderson is really great with fight sequences; see all of Mistborn Triology.
Finished WoR. Definitely better than the first. Thoughts Spoiler HOLY FUUUUUUCK SHALLAN, that reveal of her being her mom's murderer totally blindsided me. Even though her shardblade never made sense until then. Soooo gooooood. Excellent book, again, creative and well written action, decent enough humor, although Shallan/Kaladin in the chasms got really annoying, and overall had me very interested for most of the book. Great cliffhangers and reveals at the end of every "book" section. For how great the first 97% of the book was, and btw it was fucking awesome, the last 3% was a huge letdown, other than Adolin choking the ever loving poop out of Sadeas. Why is it disappointing? hate him bringing back Szeth and Yasnah with Deus Ex Machina solutions. It's bullshit, I'm sorry, I know it's a magical world of Spren and heralds and shit but you've just undermined death in your Cosmere. Fuck it, the "drama" of characters dying is severely weakened, it's like Ned Stark was revived and was actually Coldhands and Robb Stark comes back as the fucking High Sparrow. You can't revive every major character who dies. I'm sorry, just makes me irrational upset when fantasy writers use that plot device. /end rant. I'm also curious to see how he continues to make Kaladin interesting, or if he makes him into a minor character. In making Kaladin a Radiant, he's completely tied up all his loose ends and fixed all his character defects enough to be fairly boring. Will he serve as nothing more than part of the Shallan/Adolin love triangle? Will shit go down in his hometown and break him again? Drama with his parents? Honestly wouldn't mind if he became a minor character flying around murking voidbringers off stage while Adolin steps up as more of a major character but nvm I guess he already is. Also, read book 3 was originally going to be focused on Szeth's backstory, fuuuuck that.
Oh my, yes. 3rd favorite epic fantasy series behind ASOIAF, KKC. I am sure others besides me and The Blackfish have read these, but they are fantastic. Sanderson is also incredibly prolific and transparent, so you know this huge series will get done relatively quickly as well. How goes it IYO.
Always wanted to read these, but I'm quite wary of involving myself in my third unfinished epic fantasy series.
Yeah, I know he writes fast, but he does a bunch of series' and it'll seemingly be like 2020 by the time the series is finished. I'll probably start soon but that doesn't mean I won't hate myself.
That is true, however its different for me because Brandon keeps us up to date on exactly where he is in the writing process so I know pretty much when it is coming out and I don't worry about it. I can get excited in anticipation of the next book as opposed to pissed because we have no idea when it is coming out and waiting forever.
It's also not as bad because of the Cosmere. It makes all his books feel connected, even when you are reading different series.
Yea Sanderson is a fucking machine at churning out novels. Plus like The Blackfish and TheGrifter mentioned, he keeps a very good log of where he is in the writing process for his books and the Cosmere makes everything feel connected.
I started The Way of Kings tonight. As I did with Wheel of Time, I'll post thoughts upon each book's completion.
Thanks. These are some long books--almost 400k words a piece. Still, I have a tendency to get engrossed so I should finish them in a couple weeks each. There's only the two that are out so far, so I don't have too far to go to be caught up.
The Way of Kings thoughts spoilered. I didn't read the thread beforehand fwiw. Spoiler Okay, the first thing I want to address doesn't really have to do with TWoK much at all. What I wanted to talk about is the quality of writing increase from Elantris to this book. I don't want to say that Elantris was poorly written, because it wasn't, but TWoK just read so much more smoothly and confidently. At times in Elantris, which I read a few weeks ago, there were some jerky transitions and odd verbage. It's impressive the level of jump Sanderson made in the five years (Mistborn) between the books. Anyways, onto the world. I'll be honest: I really enjoyed the story, but it was unique to me in that it's nearly 400k words and 90% of it follows 3 characters. That's standard in writing, but for that many words it wasn't as expansive or epic as I had expected. I can tell it's coming, but the cast of characters was still somewhat smaller than many books of this genre. The world is interesting: highstorms, Lashing, stormlights, shards, spren. It's vintage Sanderson in its construct. If you've ever read him, I don't need to speak further there because you understand. The storylines lagged a bit in the middle for me, specifically Kaladin and the father/son duo (I'm on my phone and will butcher the spelling from memory). I actually found Shallan the most interesting in the middle sections. I'm willing to wager that I'm in the extreme minority there. Look, this is going to be a 10 book series so, much like the WoT, we're just scratching the surface of plot at this point (1 book). I will say that I did not expect Kaladin to remain with the bridges the entirety of the book, but it served as an avenue of one of Sanderson's favorite subjects: leadership. The guy loves to delve into what makes an effective leader. He's done it in every book I've read of his. The ending was interesting re: Parshmen and Voidbringers. I didn't see that coming but I knew they were important in some way beyond their current function. I'm curious to see where this series leads because Sanderson's version of epic fantasy is so different from Jordan or Martin that I'm intrigued by the thought of a developed magic system utilized throughout 10 books. Great start and I enjoyed it. Worth the 400k word investment.
Good stuff and I agree with everything except for Shallan but you thought you would be in the minority there Spoiler I was disappointed when I found out Words of Radiance was going to be Shallan centered where WoK was Kaladin centered, but I really got into her story in the 2nd book. Hopefully you dive right in because WoR is even better than WoK imo. Looking forward to your thoughts on it
Yeah that was awesome and really unexpected. Come back and read this spoiler after you are done with the book. Spoiler her coming back alive at the end of the book is a fucking awful decision. Cheapens that story arc a ton.