Book #34 of 2014: The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive Book 1)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 5/loved (1-5/hated-loved)
Usually when I read a "best book I ever read"-level book, I know how I'm going to feel about the book from the first paragraph. With Way of Kings, that didn't happen. Oh I knew it was a good book from the start, a really good book, but my "wow this is the best book I ever read" feeling was slower to build. Where a series like Chaos Walking had the amazing idea of Noise that snagged me from the first lines, the wonder of Way of Kings built up with each new detail and world fact. And I really enjoyed that: The alienness of the world didn't slap you in the face, it kept expanding with what seemed a never-ending series of small details until their world felt just as real and fleshed-out as ours.
As I posted previously, this is one giant book. Longer than a GoT or most Stephen King books, Way of Kings took place across multiple countries, character PoV chapters, and thousands of years. He's written hundreds of thousands of words in notes about the world it's set in, and boy does that show.
As much as I liked the characters, I think I like the world/setting best of all. Set on another planet, the driving force of the plant is the Highstorms -- massive wind/rain storms that happen on a regular basis through most of the year. Everything on the planet evolved or was created based on those storms. Most creatures have thick shells or stone-like skin. Plantlife has a rock casing, can withdraw into the hard trunk, or has other adaptations to survive the Highstorms. The buildings people create are specially made to last the storms (sloping roof and windows only one one side, for example). Everything is so interesting and detailed. Everything from soil and rock to the people (so many countries, people, cultures!) to the form of money they use (so unique and cool!).
Unfortunately for those of us reading ebooks, the illustrations are hard to see. Luckily they're all online on the author's website.
In the book's introductory info, the author thanked his publisher for letting him publish such a different sort of book -- so much longer than most books are nowadays (about four times as long as books I usually read!) and full of pictures, maps, and chapter header illustrations. This is really one quality piece of work. The ebook version is just over $5, which is the steal of a lifetime. The second book is just over $10, which I didn't bat an eye at paying (usually I hate it when ebooks are $10).
There's so much I'd love to talk about, but I hate risking spoiling the story for anyone who wants to read it. Each little element is a new discovery. I'll talk about one more though: The Spren. I'm not certain what Spren are (the book is great about giving you information and allowing you to guess or discover things yourself instead of giving you the flat-out answer). My thought is they're spirits. There are lots of different kinds (fearspren appear when someone is afraid, creationspen when someone is making a work of art, lifespen around growing things, rainspen or firespen in puddles or fire, etc). They all look and act differently. People can sort of use them (you'd know a wound is infected when rotspen show up, for example).
The characters are so interesting. There are two main PoV characters, but even the minor PoV characters and non-PoV characters are great. I don't think there's one character I dislike (writing-wise). There are so many plot threads! The book covers such scope (time, number of characters, distances, everything).
But all this aside, the writer is just good. I've spent much of this book comparing it to the previous book I finished, Zhukov's Dogs. The writing in Way of Kings made me feel so bad for the author of Zhukov's Dogs -- you can't even say they're not in the same league, it's more like they're not even in the same profession.
Disclaimer: I've not actually finished the book yet. I'm about 70% done. I was worried I might finish it while my mother is here, then I won't be able to concentrate and write up the review it deserves. However, now that I'm thinking about it, even without the hospital/visit it would likely take me weeks more to finish this book, so maybe I'd have been safe to wait until I finished. Either way.
"Sadly" this book and the next book are going to kill my book count for the year. Each one is easily four books worth of reading, so I'll be getting credit for two books instead of eight, but know what? I'd rather not make my goal and have mega-long great books to read. They're just that worth it.
Go buy this book. There is no better use of $5.
Rating: 5/loved (1-5/hated-loved)
Usually when I read a "best book I ever read"-level book, I know how I'm going to feel about the book from the first paragraph. With Way of Kings, that didn't happen. Oh I knew it was a good book from the start, a really good book, but my "wow this is the best book I ever read" feeling was slower to build. Where a series like Chaos Walking had the amazing idea of Noise that snagged me from the first lines, the wonder of Way of Kings built up with each new detail and world fact. And I really enjoyed that: The alienness of the world didn't slap you in the face, it kept expanding with what seemed a never-ending series of small details until their world felt just as real and fleshed-out as ours.
As I posted previously, this is one giant book. Longer than a GoT or most Stephen King books, Way of Kings took place across multiple countries, character PoV chapters, and thousands of years. He's written hundreds of thousands of words in notes about the world it's set in, and boy does that show.
As much as I liked the characters, I think I like the world/setting best of all. Set on another planet, the driving force of the plant is the Highstorms -- massive wind/rain storms that happen on a regular basis through most of the year. Everything on the planet evolved or was created based on those storms. Most creatures have thick shells or stone-like skin. Plantlife has a rock casing, can withdraw into the hard trunk, or has other adaptations to survive the Highstorms. The buildings people create are specially made to last the storms (sloping roof and windows only one one side, for example). Everything is so interesting and detailed. Everything from soil and rock to the people (so many countries, people, cultures!) to the form of money they use (so unique and cool!).
Unfortunately for those of us reading ebooks, the illustrations are hard to see. Luckily they're all online on the author's website.
In the book's introductory info, the author thanked his publisher for letting him publish such a different sort of book -- so much longer than most books are nowadays (about four times as long as books I usually read!) and full of pictures, maps, and chapter header illustrations. This is really one quality piece of work. The ebook version is just over $5, which is the steal of a lifetime. The second book is just over $10, which I didn't bat an eye at paying (usually I hate it when ebooks are $10).
There's so much I'd love to talk about, but I hate risking spoiling the story for anyone who wants to read it. Each little element is a new discovery. I'll talk about one more though: The Spren. I'm not certain what Spren are (the book is great about giving you information and allowing you to guess or discover things yourself instead of giving you the flat-out answer). My thought is they're spirits. There are lots of different kinds (fearspren appear when someone is afraid, creationspen when someone is making a work of art, lifespen around growing things, rainspen or firespen in puddles or fire, etc). They all look and act differently. People can sort of use them (you'd know a wound is infected when rotspen show up, for example).
The characters are so interesting. There are two main PoV characters, but even the minor PoV characters and non-PoV characters are great. I don't think there's one character I dislike (writing-wise). There are so many plot threads! The book covers such scope (time, number of characters, distances, everything).
But all this aside, the writer is just good. I've spent much of this book comparing it to the previous book I finished, Zhukov's Dogs. The writing in Way of Kings made me feel so bad for the author of Zhukov's Dogs -- you can't even say they're not in the same league, it's more like they're not even in the same profession.
Disclaimer: I've not actually finished the book yet. I'm about 70% done. I was worried I might finish it while my mother is here, then I won't be able to concentrate and write up the review it deserves. However, now that I'm thinking about it, even without the hospital/visit it would likely take me weeks more to finish this book, so maybe I'd have been safe to wait until I finished. Either way.
"Sadly" this book and the next book are going to kill my book count for the year. Each one is easily four books worth of reading, so I'll be getting credit for two books instead of eight, but know what? I'd rather not make my goal and have mega-long great books to read. They're just that worth it.
Go buy this book. There is no better use of $5.