Review: The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Just an idle comment, nothing more. My comments are often idle. I never can get them to do any solid work." That was intense reading. And by intense I mean having to race against the deadline and trying to finish the first two books in the series before the third one is published. Well, I haven't failed yet, but considering I have one week left and the whole second book, it's safe to assume I won't make it. In any case, 2.5 weeks for a 1000+ pages "monstrosity" (author's definition, not mine) is a new record for me. However, I'm not sure it had to be that long. The pace is acceptable, the reading is interesting, but why exactly it had to be that wordy, I don't understand. Was it something particular we needed to see there? There were also quite a few instances of using a technique I don't appreciate. Some event is mentioned over and over, without any details. The readers are given bits and hints, while the characters know exactly what happened. By the end of the book, we still don't know where Shallan comes from. We are hinted at what happened to Kaladin's brother at the very beginning, but frankly, when I reached the detailed account on page 920 I no longer cared. Though I have to admit that the last 100 pages I couldn't resist and read only the dialogs, I became so excited. And then had to start them over and read carefully. And then came a massive blow - a huge cliffhanger. Turns out those 1000+ pages were just an introduction!! I suspect we won't see even the culmination any time soon. All in all, interesting, entertaining, expertly written, but not quite epic yet.

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