Like Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring before it, Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings is the first instalment in an epic fantasy of immense proportions; The Stormlight Archive, a series set to become a benchmark for modern fantasy in years to come.
Set on the world of Roshar, a world blasted by the gigantic highstorms that sweep across it, The Way of Kings is a story that is dangerously easy to lose yourself in. Despite being over a thousand pages long, it will fascinate you right up until the end, a testament to the sheer power of Sanderson's iÂmagination. Likewise, his characters are very very human. They have their quirks (especially the enigmatic irascible jester, Wit.), and their flaws, but they are as human as you and I, and that makes you love them all the more.
His world, and his characters, are intricately and infinitely detailed, fitting together like the pieces of a vast puzzle, a puzzle on a much larger scale than anything that Sanderson has attempted before. At times The Way of Kings makes references to the overarching cosmology of Sanderson’s uÂniverse, references that echo the conflicts present in his other books, but you do not have to have read anything else that he’s written to understand the core story.
The only real problem with this book is its length. Aside from Sanderson’s glosÂsaries and forwards, the story itself reaches one thousand and one pages, and, even if you’re a fast reader, that’ll take you weeks to read. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a brilliant book, but one that needs you to devote a lot of your time to it. If you have a short attention span, or if you tend to put books down for six months before finishing them, then this book is probably not for you. If you can manage Terry Brooks’ Shannara, Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, or Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, then you’ll definitely be able to finish The Way of Kings.
If you’re unsure whether or not to buy this book, I recommend that you check out the prologue on Brandon’s website. It’s completely free, and it’ll give you a taste of what the rest of the book’s like. If you do purchase it, then I assure you that you won’t regret it (although waiting for the rest of The Stormlight Archive to be released will quickly become irritating).