The King's Way

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Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by overpowering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity. Six years later, the story shifts to focus on Kaladin, a dark-eyed Alethi villager with a burning hatred for light-eyed nobles. Trained in his youth as a surgeon by his father, Kaladin volunteered to go to war for the army of a local lord named Meridas Amaram, to watch over and protect his brother, Tien, on the field of battle. In his third battle, Kaladin fails to protect his brother Tien, who is killed. This drives Kaladin to become a better fighter, resolving to protect others from the same fate. Let’s say I’m a potter. And I have a vase I want to reshape into something else. I start turning the wheel, reshaping and reshaping it – only to end up with a same vase again.

Renarin - Dalinar’s youngest son, Brightlord of Alethkar, Prince of House Kholin. Renarin is very shy and very quiet, and is not a solider like his father and brother, because he freezes in battle and sometimes has seizures. Brandon Sanderson has also stated that Renarin is on the autism spectrum, which is awesome representation we rarely see in high fantasy. Who he is at the beginning and the end, moral conflicts that shaped his character inside of one cohesive story etc...What happens when we exclude stories about his past (those infamous info-dumps), stories that tells us how Kaladin’s character was shaped and came to be to the point where we meet him in his first chapter? But besides the wars and the all of the magic, there is a prejudice war that is constantly going on, too. In this world, having light eyes gives you all the advantages. Blue eyes, green eyes, grey eyes, amber eyes, any kind of light colored eye is superior to any form of dark brown. Some of the higherups in this world believe that the Heralds choose light eyes people at birth and mark them to rule. This is a really big parallel to the world we live in today, and I really liked this aspect of the story and the discussions that surround it. I gushed a lot in all the paragraphs above this, so you guys can probably tell I really loved this book. I truly think it is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, and I think this is Brandon Sanderson’s strongest series yet. The discussions in this are important and super eye opening if you look at the parallels to our world today. The characters in this are amazing and a few have really nested themselves inside of my heart. All the magic is so unique and so captivating. The story and plotlines were so addicting. Sadeas - He is also Highprince of Alethkar, along with Dalinar. Dalinar, Sadeas, and the late King Gavilar all grew together and were best friends, yet this book constantly makes you question his loyalty. He is known to be very cruel, and is on the forefront of the war against the Parshendi. Syl - Be still, my heart. Syl is honestly everything I look for in a character to love with my whole being. She is such a little cinnamon roll, and I keep picturing her tripping military dudes in her little invisible form and it just makes me smile for days. Syl is a spren that has bonded with Kaladin. She found him on a night that he needed her most, and has rarely left his side since. And she constantly reminds him that his life is worth living, and what an honorable man he is, and how he isn’t cursed and doomed to lose everyone he loves. Syl is honestly probably my favorite character in The Way of Kings.

I knew 3 different people who started this book after I did, but still finished before I did. It's okay though... it's okay. We have the freedom to express our opinions in beauty of subjectivity, and we should always fight and bite to keep that. Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart,The Emperor’s Soul, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you’re already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings.And… do you know what some of you who read those books said about that approach of building a character? I admit, on my first two reads, I was inclined to agree. I understand all of you who think and say that. We have huge magical swords, which as far as I am concerned, have dethroned all others in the fantasy and sci-fi genre. These Shardblades, together with its defensive magical counterpart, the Shardplate, constitute the most desirable objects of power among all the kingdoms in this world. There are gemstones infused by Stormlight from the highstorms, which are used as currency, as lighting and to power fabrials and the Shards. With all these and more, Sanderson has created a world that is at once enthralling and remarkable.

And whoever experienced a battle in real life, or at least played CoD online, or really, really carefully was trying to figure out what baseball is about, probably knows of confusion I’m talking about. (And if you’re wondering, yes, I experienced all three above – baseball is the worst. By far.) Better authors that were more focused on quality of what they were writing about - where you can actually recognize their effort to make a book better; First two books of The Stormlight Archive series are the most dangerous thing that happened to this genre.The majority of the crew on Bridge Four were all awesome and I love how Kaladin brought them all together, the camaraderie was great. I previously said that The Secret History intimidates me with its 25 hour audiobook, but you know what I found out today: the audiobook for this one is a whopping 45 hours... In 50 years, when historians will bang their heads in an effort to find roots of a downfall of epic fantasy as a genre, they’ll find its roots here. In this very book. And the reason why I read War and Peace so many times was because upon each read I discovered something new that would grip me in Leo’s story; a new character and their perspectives I overlooked or experienced in a different way every other time I took the book in my hands.

It's difficult to condense my feelings into a short review but I just love the way Brandon Sanderson builds his worlds as he makes you care for each character first before fully explaining the world that he has plopped you in the middle of. Except, there is. There are books actually written about it. With carefully dissected examples of what throughout the history of literature and media all around us today, worked as a story, plot or characterization and, more importantly, what didn’t worked. Obviously, I can’t tell you anything about the story but I’ll tell you this, The Way of Kings is the beginning of tales that will remain inside your mind palace. It’s a heavily character driven book filled with tales of life & death, love & hate, bravery & cowardice, hope & despair, trust & betrayal, faith & atheism. Basically, all elements required for a great story are here, told from multiple POV. Kaladin: A darkeyes from the nation of Alethkar, who is forced to serve on a bridge crew in the army of Highprince Torol Sadeas. Formerly an apprentice learning surgery from his father and a member of the army of Brightlord Amaram, he hates lighteyes because of Amaram. Amaram betrayed Kaladin, by first causing the death of his brother, Tien, and after Kaladin saves him from a man in Shardplate, forcibly takes the Shards for himself, killing all of Kaladin's close friends in the process. Kaladin is able to use Stormlight to heal himself and make himself stronger and faster than any normal human being. He is accompanied by an Honorspren named Sylphrena, or Syl for short. She came to him because of his innate honor and kindness in the face of the evil and betrayal that seem to surround him. Kaladin's connection with Syl is what gives him his power with Stormlight; it also gives Syl the level of sentience she possesses. In 2011, it won the David Gemmell Legend Award for best novel. [9] The unabridged audiobook is read by narrator team Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.Before you started reading this book, let me do you a favor. Go outside your home, look at the sky, the stars, clouds, the moon or if you’re brave enough, the sun. Done? Good, raise your expectation of this series that high. My expectation for this book was probably higher than that and it still managed to blow me away. I’m pretty sure the title The Way of Kings is a hidden message by Sanderson for his reader, telling us that this is his first step in his way of becoming one of the kings in the genre. If you have not read this book either because of its intimidating size or that it is part of an unfinished ten-book long series, allow me to attempt appeasing your doubts by saying that each published book has so far wrapped up its story well enough that readers are not left hanging. With this, one can treat each volume as a trilogy in itself and savour it like as such. Another point to note is that Sanderson intended the ten books to be written over two different arcs of five books each, with each set being separated by a significant time period. If you are still not convinced to start reading this series, I can only say that you will be missing out on one of the very best the genre has to offer. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion. Ever since the assassination of the King Gavilar Kholin six years ago, the kingdom of Alethkar has been at war with the Parshendi who are said to have murdered the king. Dalinar and Adolin Kholin fight in this war of vengeance, while across the land, Shallan fights her way to become the ward of a well known heretic and scholar who has what she needs. And then there's a man who's lost all hope, a man who fights for survival even during times of despair... Kaladin Stormblessed.