Review of Words of Radiance

If Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson was a marathon read, I definitely have a runner's high. I think. Anyone who knows me would know I'd be more likely to have a runner's heart attack than a runner's high. And those people should stop ruining my metaphors. Anyway, I loved this book. That's not a surprise, since I've liked everything Sanderson has written, but I am going to try to be a little critical here instead of being another fanboy.

Words of Radiance is the second book of a planned 10 in The Stormlight Archive series. It feels like this was the second book in a trilogy though, with a nice set up at the end for a final book to wrap up. I think Sanderson is planning to have smaller story arcs within the 10 book set. I have a couple of complaints with the story, and I will try to be light on my spoilers, but you've been warned. I feel like the last few pages of the book threw a ton of new bits of story at you all at once. I know an epilogue sets up the next story, but we meet three new Radiants right at the end with no explanation of what their orders mean, one of which is the most frustrating, as Sanderson didn't really even allude to the fact that they were becoming a Radiant. I know Sanderson's style is to drop a lot of hints about the world and then explain fully in later books, but that just left me frustrated instead of excited. I also think it's weird how Kaladin and Shallan spent months with their respective spren while learning to be Radiants, but the new batch seem to have spren that already know who they are and don't have any of the memory problems that Pattern and Syl did.

Those frustrating bits aside, I think this was a great book. Way of Kings is set during a war, yet its not all about battles. There are a lot of political machinations happening, yet it doesn't get bogged down in slow political scenes. There are several main characters being followed, but you can easily keep their stories straight in your mind and the interaction between them works well. Sanderson has taken elements from several genres (epics, political tales, and war stories) and blended them all seamlessly into a story with good pacing and a killer plot. I rarely found myself bogged down in a slow chapter, though some of the interludes seemed unimportant for now, and I also didn't feel like he was rushing through a scene just to get to the next one.

You learn a lot more about the world of Roshar and how the powers of the Radiants work in this book.  I liked seeing the different styles that his characters have while learning to use a power that they can access instinctively. Sanderson does a great job in giving his characters real life and personality that is unique to them. Their personalities carry through faithfully in all of their interactions, but they aren't flat one dimentional people either.

I can't wait to read the next book in the series, although history tells me I'll be waiting quite a while. I'm anticipating a great deal of conflict between the orders of Radiants and their individual members. I also can't wait to learn more about how the worlds of Roshar and Shadesmar really work.