The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1)

기준 Brandon Sanderson

무선제본, 1008 pages

언어: English

Published 2010년 8월 2일 by Tor Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-4299-9280-0

(5 reviews)

Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars are fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship …

Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

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.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under the eminent scholar and notorious heretic Jasnah Kholin, Dalinar’s niece. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of more than ten years of planning, writing, and worldbuilding, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths,

Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

-From Cover Flap

25개의 판

G. Deyke reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]

2 stars

The Way of Kings was in general a pretty decent read once I got into it, and by the end (a rather extreme cliffhanger) I was sufficiently invested that I quite wanted to know what happens next, and would certainly have read the next book in the series if I'd had it available.

That said, it suffers in several points, most notably that it positively oozes with Straight White Male Author Disease. The book is glaringly, painfully cisheteronormative, to the point where it's seriously uncomfortable to read in parts: the sort of thing you'd expect from a 50s sci-fi novel you read mainly out of academic/historical interest, not from a contemporary fantasy which hopes to be taken seriously.

I'd read the rest of the series if I had it available; I might even seek it out, as long as I didn't have to pay for it. But I'd be seriously …

I'd read the rest of the series if I had it available; I might even seek it out, as long as I didn't have to pay for it. But I'd be seriously reluctant to recommend it to others, except in dearth of other reading material.

Anders reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

Over 1200 pages of fantasy

4 stars

This was a thick pocket book. Over 1250 pages of fantasy and adventure with a fair bit of violence, deception, magic and conflict. This book, or was it series of books has been compared to those by Tolkien although I would not go that far.

I found the story a bit confusing as it consists of many different threads, that only at the end of the book starts to come together.

I would recommend the book to anyone who is not intimidated by its thickness and weight, and likes good fantasy world building.

forpeterssake@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

Really long

4 stars

I'm not sorry I read it, I liked the world-building, but I don't know if I can make it through 11 more books in this series!

Olivia Appleton reviewed The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

Fantastic book with only one major flaw

4 stars

The Way of Kings is a worldbuilding masterpiece. Its characters are rich and internally complex, their stories are fascinating, and their motivations compelling (even when you disagree with them). The single exception to this is the Shallan arc.

This is not because Shallan is a bad character, but because she's a decent character surrounded by great ones, and because it takes too long for her arc to connect to the main story.

I highly, highly recommend reading this book, and most of this author's other works.

iicurtis@bookwyrm.social

별점

12월 19