“The Way Of Kings” is the first book by Brandon Sanderson in his epic series, “The Stormlight Archive”.
By his own admission, this is the series that has been moving around his brain for many, many years now. Brings hope to any nerd who spent their saturdays writing out characters and places and scenes where Drizzt, errr, “Blogdan” fought off twenty evil creatures at once.
Sanderson fits somewhere in between GRRM, JVJones and RJ. Those are the three Epic Fantasy authors that are closest to my heart.
He doesn’t always split his chapters per character. There are a couple of chapters with a number of points-of-view in them. And there are a couple of povs that you only hear from once, some of them for obvious reasons.
There are scenes in this book MADE for Visual Story-Telling.
Spoilers
Kaladin running up the Bridge (4), leaping from the top, drawing magic from little stones entwined in the dreadlocked hair of those he faced.
Suits of armor that grant superhuman strength and agility. Massive swords which are linked to the wielder, and take ten seconds to summon.
A warrior in white, an Assassin really, who is a weapon with or without his Shardblade. Moreso without, casting magic that causes gravity to be upturned and great stones to be flung through the air.
End Spoilers
This is a fantastic book. The start to a truly great series. And with Sanderson’s obvious skill in time-management, which so few Epic Fantasy authors seem to have, it would seem that we might be able to get ten books in ten years, or close enough.
Brandon Sanderson, hats off to you! Champion effort.