So...I didn't love it | The Way of Kings Rant Review

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, book one in The Stormlight Archive...I'm talking about it today. I rated it 2 stars. Unfortunately it just didn't hit for me and I wanted to discuss. Going to be more of a negative review.
0:00 Intro & Disclaimers
2:09 Initial Thoughts
4:12 Plot Overview
9:07 What I Liked
10:06 Writing Style
11:33 Pacing
18:50 Magic System
20:44 Worldbuilding
25:58 Romance
28:38 Parshmen
29:27 Characters
33:54 Length
37:14 Closing Thoughts

[@tayvinbayless7924]

"Expectation. That is the true soul of art. If you can give a man more than he expects, then he will laud you his entire life. If you can create an air of anticipation and feed it properly, you will succeed. Conversely, if you gain a reputation for being too good, too skilled . . . beware. The better art will be in their heads, and if you give them an ounce less than they imagined, suddenly you have failed. Suddenly you are useless. A man will find a single coin in the mud and talk about it for days, but when his inheritance comes and is accounted one percent less than he expected, then he will declare himself cheated."

[@vesuviusquest]

You're quoting Sanderson at me aren't you..................................

[@ataridc]

I don't really love Brandon Sanderson despite reading like 5 of his books. You just hear them recommended so much for at least the past decade in anything related to fantasy. It's not even that it's bad, there is a level of praise I could accept and agree with like, "This pretty good YA fiction that even adults that have graduated from YA can enjoy." but it always has to be, "He is the king/god of fantasy!" it makes me wonder if people that say that really, truly read all that much. By far my biggest issue is the characters. It feels like Sanderson doesn't really understand people or what compels them/makes them well rounded individuals. It's like he only sees people filtered through pop culture cliches "honor guy" "funny, witty girl" "tough dude" and I just find it really hard to care about characters that can't rise above their associated cliches.

[@vesuviusquest]

I definitely agree, there’s barely any nuance or complexity in his characters and it just sucks the life out of them. They’re super uninteresting and having to follow them for SO MANY PAGES is not fun 😩 Also I totally feel you on the over-hyped-ness! It’s an issue I have as well and I think (maybe unfairly, idk) is one of the reasons I tend to judge him so harshly. Like the level of praise I always see is not at all in line with what I’m reading from him…

[@aryav25]

sanderson is the exact opposite of what you describe him to be, he understands people so so well that all characters feel real, they feel like people. what motivates them, why they give up, why they do what they do Everything he writes has a meaning to it, especially in stormlight archive

[@digitalbear1217]

​@@aryav25it's cool you have an author you like, but it's a waste of time to come into a measured criticism of them and say "it's actually the exact opposite. Every critique you have is wrong, and he actually excels at everything you say is weak about his writing." Like if you're not going to engage, why bother? We've all read other authors that we didn't feel shared Sanderson's pitfalls. We're not here because we're hateful, we're here to critique his art. And yeah, his characters are super sterile, in my opinion. In my opinion they're not compelling enough for him to have the popularity he's found. They're YA characters. You can disagree, but at least give me something substantial to argue with, if you're going to argue.

[@aryav25]

I'm not here to say "You're wrong and only I'm right", i just said that the way he writes his characters makes them feel like real people with whom many can share their struggles with. I have had several people, my friends, describe their journey through depression and anxiety and also their motivations and what I got from them is pretty similar to what kaladin's journey or dalinar's journey, vin's and elend's, vivenna and many other characters' journey. I know Sanderson has his flaws, everyone does, but the reason he's so popular is because a lot of people relate to a character so much, they see themselves in ti@@digitalbear1217

[@vesuviusquest]

@@aryav25 And anyone who has had those experiences of connecting with his characters are absolutely valid. I don't think any one of us are saying that those feelings are wrong, just that for many others (myself included), we find his characters to be a bit flat and uninteresting. Neither one is wrong necessarily--that's what makes art so great. Everyone has different interpretations 😄

[@Chu9947]

I agree with all your points. I DnFed the series. Its hard to find critical reviews of the series which is weird because imo it has so many issues. And everyone is gaslighting me into thinking this is one of thee best series. Thanks for the honest review. Subscribed.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you! And I totally understand your point about being gaslit 😆 It does seem sometimes like the SA can be overhyped

[@munen-muso]

Same, 100%

[@thestralspirit]

I am a huge Stormlight fan and clicked expecting the worst. However, your criticisms felt surprisingly fair and valid. Also I wanted to remind you that you should NOT read Words of Radiance. Just in case you had forgotten😊

[@vesuviusquest]

Hahaha thank you, I will not give in and read WoR

[@joshuanowlin443]

It never occurred to me that someone would read this and not know what it was about. I guess the main plot is inferred but not really shown in book 1. I don't find the pacing an issue, we get kaladins backstory which is interesting, winning over the bridgemen is interesting. Like i dont get it.

[@vesuviusquest]

That’s totally fair if you found all that interesting. I did too to an extent…I just wish we saw less of it. I got tired of the minutiae of it, but oh well that’s just one person’s opinion! Also yeah I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that I couldn’t boil down the plot, just something kinda interesting I noticed once I tried to explain it to someone else 😆

[@watchmehope6560]

Kaladin and shallan and teacher mommy are the best bits of this novel. I cant stand alodin and the king bits. They made me give up on the book a few times, thats how bored i was. The climax of their story was cool, and i left liking the king...But i still dont care about alodin one bit.

[@tweakking]

thank you, i agree with everything you said. It's crazy that so many people love these books despite the dialogue and character work. I read until oathbringer and then i couldn't take it anymore. It reads like a fanfiction of better books.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well you got farther than me! But yeah, agreed

[@gregorydavidson2744]

Mistborn was hard for me to get through but all my friends urge me to read this…Your review sums up a lot of my general feelings of Mistborn

[@vesuviusquest]

Oof yeah Mistborn was a challenge as well-a lot of the same problems, I agree. I’ll admit that Sanderson leveled up marginally with the WoK, but I think that if you didn’t like Mistborn, the Way of Kings probably won’t impress you 😩

[@andreabknight]

Thanks for this- as an author it is really useful to get reviews that break down what readers liked/didn't like in terms of the writing and how different things impact the reader

[@vesuviusquest]

I’m glad it was helpful 😁

[@sameerhaider3132]

What are some of your favorite books?

[@vesuviusquest]

Well some I love are Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Joe Abercrombie's First Law series, and Guards Guards and Going Postal from Discworld...I have a much longer list than that hahah, but those are definitely up there!

[@sameerhaider3132]

@@vesuviusquest just finished guards guards after seeing it on one of your videos. Great book 👍

[@vesuviusquest]

Awesome I’m so glad you liked it! 😄

[@Christian-ut2sp]

I’ve read all 4 stormlight books and thought all were fine and I’m excited for the 5th book, but I agree that all books should be cut down by at least half the total page count. The middles are too long Edit: later in the vid you said you felt as if your time, as the reader, was not respected due to the excessive length. That’s exactly how I felt and continue to feel about these books, even though you could consider me a fan of them.

[@vesuviusquest]

Thank you, I feel seen 😆 I feel like the Stormlight books would be so much more accessible and I would feel more inclined to take a chance on the sequel(s) if they just weren’t so dang long ☹️

[@hiiamsam4808]

You probably don't know, but there is a reason for these books to be so long. First version of WoK now called WoK prime was written during very hard time for Sanderson when he lost his love for writing. While he was working his job, he was writing this book. He said that WoK wasn't written for the readers, but himself, so made the book little bit more longer

[@vesuviusquest]

@@hiiamsam4808 I did not know that! That's interesting, and makes the length of the book make some more sense. But still to make it more marketable and accessible for new readers, I don't quite understand why it wasn't edited down to a more reasonable word count 😣

[@sirvazo1633]

I agree with your analysis wholeheartedly. I managed to finish this book after many weeks of reading and won’t be reading any more books in this series.

[@lydiam.1833]

Finally! Someone I am in agreement with concerning this book. Everything you said was spot-on. Shalon's attempt at humor, though. She was supposed to be so witty. I kept waiting for her to tell someone "I know you are but what am I" like PeeWee Herman. And those spren. So beyond annoying and ridiculous. I have to say my most hated parts were Kaladin's incessant whining and navel gazing. Ugh. I don't understand why seemingly all booktubers are so obsessed with him and everything he writes. Not to my taste. I did kind of like Elantris though. Something no one else has ever done. Okay, rant over.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah Kaladin was admittedly probably my favorite of the bunch, but his sections got to be a bit grating after a while. And Shallan having PeeWee Herman humor is so accurate LOL And spren! I don't think I even mentioned them much (or at all?) in the video, but that was definitely a worldbuilding aspect I did NOT like either. But overall I feel you! Sanderson is just not to my taste either. I'm glad you found at least one book of his you liked though! I thought Elantris was pretty interesting too.

[@bananatos8929]

Okay...so confession time: I read The Way of Kings... However. I wish the book(s) was just. JUST focused on Kaladin. I LOVED his pov/story. Like...can somebody just take Kaladin's story from the series and morph it into it's own book please? I'd buy this in a heartbeat. This all said, I like Sanderson's writing, I just wasn't invested in the other characters. I don't think I'll continue onto book 2 or the rest of the series for that matter.

[@vesuviusquest]

Fair! I like that idea because I agree Kaladin was the most interesting and well-written of the 3-ish main POV characters. If the book was more focused on him, I might have been more interested too (and then maybe this could have been a shorter book LOL)

[@bananatos8929]

@@vesuviusquestI'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so! (At least I can finally say I read one Sanderson book lol). Oh, by the way, I just subbed. ☺️

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you! And yeah I'm with you, I can finally say I've tried Sanderson...

[@noahku1314]

Really like this perspective on the book! I just finished twok and overall enjoyed it as entertainment, but I totally get where you’re coming from. Some of what you mentioned like the gendered societies and Shallan’s reaction to the alley scene definitely depends on the reader’s interpretation of the author’s intent. I was reading it as a critique of gender roles since most of the gendered ideas were blatantly ridiculous (men can’t read?). I thought it was an interesting inverse that women are the only ones trusted to be scholars and inventors. And Kaladin and Dalinar’s stories I thought were intended to criticize the masculine ideas of power and aggression being noble with the emphasis on the meaninglessness of war and the senselessness of the deaths of the bridge crews and common soldiers like Kaladin’s brother. For Jasnah I totally dug her and loved that part where she mercs those dudes in the alley. Like is she Batman or something? Thought shallan’s reaction was interesting especially since it’s revealed later that she murdered her father so it made me wonder what her real issue with what Jasnah did was. I actually liked Shallan quite a bit but Dalinar was so boring hahaha. I would speed read his chapters waiting until kaladin showed up again. The romance aspect was so stale man where was the chemistry? When they got together I felt nothing and it was so funny when dalinar told elhokar that he was courting his mother. I’m thinking about checking out words of radiance too because I heard shallan has a lot of development so if you end up reading it, it would be great to hear what you have to say! Also, have you read any Robin Hobbs? Going to be reading Assassin’s Apprentice next :)

[@vesuviusquest]

I have not read Robin Hobb! I would like to at some point, but I feel like she keeps getting pushed back in my TBR 😅 And if I ever read Words of Radiance, I will surely update here! I honestly don’t think I will, but you never know… And I enjoyed reading your takes on the book! I can see where you’re coming from and it’s probably like you said-different interpretations of the author’s intent

[@tealautomaton5931]

I love your honesty, this review was fantastic.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you! 😄

[@dsanch110]

Agreed with many takes here. My take on Way of Kings is that works GREAT as a part 1 of the epic 10 book series it will eventually become. But as a cover to cover experience, I was incredibly confused and bored halfway through. I love how WoK sets up the rest of the series but failed to stand on its own in terms of dialogue and pacing. It lacked a solid plot (except for shallans storyline). The end was amazing and I love how Kaladin finishes of his character arc by the end, but the rest of the book just didn't hit for me.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well I'm glad to hear it was at least a good part of a whole! I wish it made me want to keep reading the rest of the series, but (I like the way you put it) the cover-to-cover experience was just not great 😩

[@SilasBackhaus]

Thank you for this video. You summed up all the problems I had with this book perfectly. The only thing I would have added is the humor. There was a lot of it in this book and it was never funny to me. Espacially when all the other characters laugh so I know its supposed to be funny. But I just cringed every time.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yes absolutely! I think I mentioned the humor briefly...or maybe I just thought about it LOL But yeah it was like every time he attempted humor, he would just explain the joke in the next line or have characters overreact to it and it was so annoying.

[@dragonwolf8692]

I’m disappointed to see so many people here disliked the book or Sanderson’s books in general. I got a lot out of these books with Kaladin’s struggle with his depression and Dalinar’s journey of becoming a better person than he once was. So I disagree greatly with most of the takes here, like almost every one of them, but I respect that everyone has different tastes. I do agree that it could have been better paced in some parts though with the fluff trimmed down. Save a hundred to two hundred pages. Love seeing a small channel show up in my recommended. Good luck!

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you! And listen your feelings about this book and Sanderson's other books are completely valid. I've seen other people with the exact same sentiments as yours--that the characters really spoke to them, so you are definitely not alone there. I love the fact that everyone can have wildly different opinions about a piece of art--different strokes for different folks.

[@stephenlogsdon8266]

But is it a good story told poorly? I bought this first book because it was a big honkin fantasy. Recalling my time in a good Jordan book, or Martin, or Tad Williams To Green Angel Tower, I love thick fantasy. After 3 of these Stormlights, and realizing they don’t get any better, I did read Tress, and just don’t understand the love. I liked Kaladan, in this 1st book and some in book 2, but I couldn’t stand Dalinar, and you hit on great points with these characters. That and the fact that they all sound the same. I didn’t mind his prose, I thought it was pretty good (I’ve been told my prose is similar, not that I don’t try to do better), but the Dalinar sections bored me into skimming (1/2 the book or more). In book 3, I still don’t know who the antagonist is, must have missed it in my skimming, and I don’t know why they war. And since my favorite character has achieved his superpower in book 2, he’s become just as boring. I was hoping the world building would carry me forward, and except for a small section when they travel in that alternate world, it utterly fails to keep my attention. I own book 4, I bought it because I keep wanting it to be good. I keep wanting to be proven wrong. It’s still sitting there, unread. With Tress, it had a couple of clever sections, but the characters were a bit shallow, as was the world building, as was how he broke the 4th wall in places. I guess he will have his fans, and I don’t want to take it away from them, but maybe I’m not one. He even made me realize I’m not a big “heist book” fan, and the magic system based on metals? That’s just plain cumbersome … being “clever” just by being different, with no real sense of a reason why it works.

[@vesuviusquest]

Hmm yeah you might be on to something there. I guess if there hasn’t been any improvement several books in, maybe it’s not that good of a story at all. I felt like he had some good ideas, but if he can’t execute them well then maybe it’s just a lost cause. I feel you on wanting to keep pushing through to see if it will get better though, I do that all the time… And I agree with basically everything you said! Except I haven’t read Tress and now I’m going pretty sure I won’t 😆

[@stephenlogsdon8266]

@@vesuviusquest well … I don’t want to dissuade you. There are some clever things in it.

[@vesuviusquest]

@@stephenlogsdon8266 No, no worries. I've basically already decided at this point I'm not reading any more Sanderson anyways 😂

[@SleepyBookReader-666]

What you describe here is fuel to my fear of super fat fantasy novels. Very convincing critique.

[@vesuviusquest]

I hear you 😆 it doesn’t give me much desire to give other big fantasy books a try either!

[@stuff3219]

I trudged thru mistborn and barely made it to the finish line. Everything you say here applies there as well. Fantasy really needs to be gripping right away imho to justify spending so much time reading thru it. Wheel of Time was also terrible to me and couldn't get thru the first book. First Law Trilogy was great tho!

[@vesuviusquest]

Hard agree about First Law! So good. Also hard agree about Mistborn 😆 I had to rrrreallly push myself to finish the third book. It was so slow... Also I agree that fantasy needs to be gripping right away. There are so many books out there to read, I want authors to force me to read theirs by having a great opening!

[@stuff3219]

@@vesuviusquest Yes! Game of Thrones is a good example. First chapter and I'm in. Then the whole book delivers.

[@markolepotan]

I agree with literally everything you said!!!

[@vesuviusquest]

🙌 thank you!

[@JoelAdamson]

I am a big Brandon Sanderson fan, but I am not a Brandon Sanderson book fan. Elantris was cool, Mistborn was okay, and Way of Kings is boring. It's not about anything. It's not a story. It's a sequence of events. I love a good doorstop. I read them all the time. But I've tried to read this four times, and the furthest I've gotten is with the audio book (which I actually paid for). It's boring. I can't stand to listen to it. I'd really like to figure out why so I don't do the same in my own writing.

[@vesuviusquest]

I feel the same about Sanderson--I love to watch his BYU lectures. They're so informative and he is so knowledgeable and good at keeping you engaged with the subject. But then on the actual writing side, his books are not my favs :( And yes what you mentioned about the WoK not being about anything...that is a huge problem and I agree. I think that's a big contributor to why it's so boring. I really struggled even in this video to explain what it's about and I still couldn't tell you what the whole series is about, only make assumptions. I think making it clearer could have done wonders to make it not so boring. This book was so meandering because there was no clear finish line, no clear goal, not even a clear villain/antagonist. It feels like what we got here is a REALLY long prologue to a (possibly) greater story, but I couldn't tell you if even that's correct since I've only read this one book...maybe the rest are just as meandering! Anyways, little tangent haha, but your last sentence there really made me think about it.

[@KartikAyyar]

Thanks for this video. Agree he could have trimmed so much content and just told the same story.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yesss 🙄

[@bosch992]

I enjoyed the book. The pacing was was rough for me in the middle as well. For the worldbuilding, it adds up over the series and becomes more of a payoff over time, but I respect your view that a book needs to stand on its own. Fully agree on the gender separation angle - as at book 4, there's still no explanation for the "safe hand".

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah the gender separation thing was the most grating thing for me, as is probably apparent from the video LOL And I could definitely see the worldbuilding being a nice payoff over the length of the series. So I can see that side of it too!

[@dinoslayerreviews]

Loved this video. It just highlights how hype kills critical thinking. There are podcasts just praising the hell out of this book. I really liked The Way of Kings, but when I think about what can be improved there'a a LOT there. It just shows that author fame does is not indicative of skill.

[@vesuviusquest]

It is interesting, I wonder if Sanderson’s growth as an author was stifled somewhat because of all the praise and success he had with his early books…but then I haven’t really read any of his later stuff so I can’t speak to any truth or falsehood of that

[@rkgrkg]

Your point on character-relevant world-building is a big reason why I end up DNFing a lot of epic fantasy series. As a character-first reader, if a certain historical or cultural element doesn't impact our characters, I don't want to know about it. Even in shorter books like Jade War, the superfluous details drive me nuts and I skim, skip or tune out. It just seems rarely done naturally. The characters are either having an awkward boring conversation about something obscure that the author wants to include for the sake of world-building, or the pov character goes off into random thought and ends up sounding like a history documentary narrator, or it's a straight info-dump. I'd rather spend my time reading a classic which is just as long but actually has some real history in it, however romanticised. Although I certainly did NOT need the entire history of the Paris sewer system plopped down in the middle of Les Miserables, lolol. Despite the previous rant, I do like some fantasy, which is why I keep trying. I like what Tolkien did-- he just added appendices and wrote a separate freaking book.

[@rkgrkg]

And, unfortunately, I did DNF both Mistborn and Way of Kings, for a lot of the same reasons you gave, not just world-building.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeesss I have the same problem with other epic fantasy series. It’s why I mostly prefer stand-alones over the huge door-stopper series. If they just have one book, the author (usually) has to be more strategic and efficient about their world-building, so it’s so much more bearable. Also I’ve never read Les Mis, but with how long that book is, hearing there’s a huge tangent about the sewer system does not surprise me 😆

[@richardanderson8107]

I'm a character-first reader as well, if the story isn't giving me a reason to care about the people in it I lose interest fast. The best thing I've found in contemporary fantasy is Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series. The experience, flaws and growth of the characters comes first, above anything else, and the most prominent aspects of the worldbuilding all support that, so might be worth a try! They're on the slower side pacing-wise and while I found that to be a strength rather than an issue they won't be for everyone because of that :) Hobb's prose is also very good.

[@rkgrkg]

@@richardanderson8107 Oh my gosh, yes! I read Liveshp last year and loved it. I'm waiting impatiently until Assassin's Apprentice is available from the library. Yes, out of order, but I don't think it matters too much, lol.

[@rkgrkg]

@@vesuviusquest lol, unfortunately, that's not the only tangent. If I ever read it again, I'll simply skip those chapters. I did enjoy it when it stuck to the characters.

[@brucanthwood]

THANK YOU. I felt like he wanted to hit 1000 pages so it would be considered an "epic" book, as for each in the series. I dont think it's a bad book... it's just lacking.

[@vesuviusquest]

Omg yes, I’m sure a lot of issues could have been fixed if he would have just edited down the word count…it could have still been epic, just not unnecessarily long.

[@lempollo6430]

Your cat is huge and terrifying

[@vesuviusquest]

🤣 he’s always watching…….

[@zhyarjasim]

The way the characters were written was really irritating, what I love is great characters and great characters that interact with each other, otherwise what's the fun? I only finished this one because my friends kept pushing, saying it will get better by the end and they were right it did, but I hated the journey to get there and that didn't justify the good ending for me. At the end of the day I'm glad this book worked for them but life is too short to spend on 1,000+ paged books when you can read something shorter and more enjoyable or just anything else even if it's that long.

[@vesuviusquest]

Agreed!! I don't think the 1000+ pages were worth it here

[@byakugan2173]

I really disliked the think with the safehands and only women reading etc because how would that come to be established and respected for a long period of time? Actual women need to use both hands, men will have the desire to read and write stuff. Later on I read that Sanderson put those things there because he thinks taboos are interesting/silly. That's how he thinks the world work, that taboos have no real grounding in reality and are born out of silly whim. Also, of course those things are not really relevant/impactful in the story later on and are mostly forgotten.

[@vesuviusquest]

Woww it make so much sense he would have put in those "taboo" things because he thinks they're interesting. That's exactly what I accused him of for his other worldbuilding! And I didn't even think about the societal implications and longevity, but you're absolutely right it doesn't make sense it would have never changed for that long of a time period. It's just ridiculous.

[@jame2433]

There are many in the book who do partake in female activities, and characters find that interesting. I wrote in another comment this was one of the more interesting aspects to the book for a number of reasons and frankly, real cultures in our world have done weirder things with their gender roles. But regardless I can totally see your pov

[@GiggaGMikeE]

Strong disagree, as the Cosmere in general and specifically SA is my favorite franchise of books, but to each their own. I respect your opinion and thank you for giving the series a try. If you ever want to try it again, you may get more out of the Audiobooks. The two narrators(male and female that switch off depending on the perspective of the chapter) make it much easier to follow along and get the most out of the many plots/character threads going on in the series. Plus the accents used for some peoples is just a joy to listen to.

[@holdenh13]

I disagree with a lot of what you're saying but do respect your opinion. I'm interested to see your take on Fourth Wing...

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you 😀 And oh Fourth Wing…honestly I’d probably hate it and that’s why I haven’t picked it up yet 😆 …idk maybe someday! But I almost feel like I’ve seen enough reviews to know that it would just be a hate read at this point.

[@yobejones6716]

You are spot on. I forced myself to finish it because of all the great reviews. The middle 800 pages are just people walking around and talking about things. Nothing exciting, nothing suspenseful. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. No discernible plot. There needs to be more of a story. I thought the end was good but didn’t need 1200 pages of character building to build up to it. If this were a TV show, a couple of things in the ending probably would get some cheers.

[@vesuviusquest]

Thank you, I agree 100% !! It was hard for my brain to compute that we had over 1000 pages of basically no plot 😆. So unenjoyable.

[@user-ly2ll5od1r]

There's literally 3 plots going on at the same time, and you might think that you are 1000 pages in, but really you are only 300 pages in. It's only when you reach page 1252 (or 1007 on hardback) is when you actually read those 1252 pages (or 1007 on hardback) Also there's a pretty clear plot, 3 clear plots actually. 1. Kaladin trying to survive slavery and unite his slave friends to overthrow the slave owner and ultimately succeeding. 2. Shallan trying to steal a thing to help her family, ultimately gets involved in a conspiracy something much more complex and important. 3. Dalinar getting premonitions of the future, his attempts making others believe those premonitions, getting involved in monarchic conspiracy, gets betrayed and then ultimately makes a sacrifice of his property to prove himself and save Kaladin from slavery. I'm not gonna pretend like all 1250 pages of this book were flawless, but some of you folks seem like you just read it on autopilot and didn't follow it at all. There was a clear plot from page 1 and that plot kept on going until page 1250, not that it appeared out of nowhere at page 1000 and that it didn't exist previously before those 1000 pages like you people imply.

[@arenkai]

The comment about the magic is weird to me because of the nature of the story. We're witnessing a world where magic is returning to the world, so of course it's not bombastic complicated stuff from the start. This also doesn't make sense with your comment about pacing because it feels like you wanted more explanation on how the magic works on this world, while at the same time complaining that the story was already too dull and bloated. How the magic words on Roshar is deeply linked to the worldbuilding, especially Spren, storms and the overall mechanics of the entire universe. The magic system of Stormlight is deep and complicated, The Way of Kinds is just not the "magic system" book of the series, which is planned to be 10 books long from the start separated in 2 five-book arcs. So of course book 1 doesn't have all the answers and all the magic, that's a reasonable choice. Also, your comment on Shardblades is odd. You complain that when they are summoned, all tension is robbed of scenes ? Which ones exactly ? Because, yes, Shardblades are Shardplates are incredibly powerful items, which links directly to the worldbuilding you were complaining about: The most powerful countries usually are the ones that control the most Shardblades and Plates because they are so powerful. It's like complaining that someone bringing a gun to a knife fight removes all the tension, well... Yes... That's the point, that's what is being showed here: the non-Shardblades holders are severely outmatched in a fight. For the rest of your comments I guess I'll single out 2: What does it mean for you to "handle slavery/gender norms well" ? Because to me those ideas were handled in ways that were thought provoking and nuanced in both Mistborn(for slavery) and Stormlight (for both aspects). So without qualifiers to those comments I'm afraid all I get out of that is "I don't see it" and to your question : why is everything gendered ? My answer would just be: why not ? Because... Yeah... That's weird and specific, but that's fantasy. Weird and specific is the name of the game. The Alethi are a war-mongering people with strict gender roles, what's the issue with that ? Especially since we have characters that openly disregard those roles and find it weird in universe to, like Jasnah and the rest of the non-Alethi people. That's called worldbuilding, which you thought was shallow while missing the point. And at last : why would you expect a book that isn't a fantasy adventure story to get you to plenty of places within the world ? That's just not the kind of story it is, and if you went in with that idea, someone lied to you. But saying the worldbuilding is weak and shallow just before complaining that it's weird to you that Vorin women hide their safe hand is kind of ironic. You're discovering a new culture, in a fantasy world, some things will be weird to you and won't have deep expalanations because that's just how those people do things, that's called worldbuilding. Imagine someone from a random world in fantasy came to Earth, and noted that most of the population here writes with their right hand, and that's the common way to teach everyone to write to the point where 90% of the population is right-handed now. There's no explanation for that, it's just a fact of our world. It doesn't need to exist as part of a grand planned explanation. It's just a cool fact about our world and it leaves us to wonder "Uh... That's true, it's weird that it turned out that way." If every worldbuilding element is just there to serve the plot, that's what I would call shallow. Worlds aren't only there to serve the plot. Some elements do, like why the cast system is separated between dark and light eyes, with the former as nobility in Vorin countries ? Well, that's an aspect that links to the overall plot of the series, how magic operates on Roshar and what happened in the deep past of this world. And I guess that's my final take on your review of this book. Like a TL;DR if you will. To me it doesn't feel like the issue is that it's shallow, but that you expect the book to take you by the hand and walk you through every aspect of this world. Every time something isn't explained, you default to "this is just here because it's here, that's shallow", when in reality you are dismissing important aspects of how this world is unique (you don't even talk about Spren) and how the author wants you to think about them instead of him spoon-feeding you every important aspect just to serve his plot. That's the impression I had anyway listening to you talk about this book, like you expect everything to be simple.

[@vesuviusquest]

Hi, ok first--I really didn't have a problem with the magic system in this book and the main reason I even brought it up in the video was just that I saw so many people praising how cool it was and I didn't understand that at all because the way it was presented in this book was so simple. That's pretty much it. I don't have any issues with it on face value, but you are putting a lot of words in my mouth--I never said I wanted more explanation on how it works. I don't, lol. As I even said, I'm sure it gets more complex in subsequent books. I just wanted to point out my opinion of what I saw a lot of other people saying vs my impression. As far as my comment about Shardblades being overpowered, I would apply that to any action scene in which we're supposed to be feeling any sort of apprehension as to the outcome. It's been over a year since I've read the book so I can't tell you which scenes in particular, but I'm sure they're there. If the point is, as you say, to indeed remove the tension, then that's ridiculous. Why would Sanderson want to remove tension from all action scenes involving a shardblade holder? It robs the reader from feeling any engagement. It was good to have a major character finally lose their blade at the end, but it came too late in my opinion. Then as far as handling slavery/gender norms well--I honestly wish that Sanderson would have just not touched them at all. I feel he took too much of a "black and white" lens in his approach. You say that you think both those ideas were handled with nuance. I heavily disagree. And that's fine for us to having different opinions. As I said in the video, I see too much of gender essentialism in our world and I personally don't want to read about it in stories. If not everyone feels that way, that's valid. So there's nothing wrong with it per say, it's just a personal preference of mine that I don't like it. But I will say, if the reason everything is gendered is just "why not?" then that's a poor reason in my opinion. "Why not?" is, to me, not good worldbuilding. It's throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks instead of making worldbuilding elements meaningful and purposeful. And it's all well and good for authors to make up whatever they want for their world--more power to them. But when they include it in the story text and focus on it so heavily by mentioning it all the time, then yes I'm going to want a better explanation than just "why not?". Maybe you don't see it that way and that's ok, but I'm not necessarily wrong for having my opinions on what I like in stories. On the adventure aspect--I didn't necessarily hear anyone say specifically that it's an adventure/journey, but it is heavily marketed and recommended as "epic fantasy" and to me that comes with a huge connotation of a big world that will be explored. That's not to mention the page count--which is also typically a signaler to me that we'll be seeing a good amount of the world. So he's not necessarily wrong for not doing that, it's just super disappointing. And yes I think the safehand thing is nonsensical while also thinking the worldbuilding is weak and shallow. Both things are true at the same time. I don't see that as ironic. To me, deep and complex worldbuilding would include things that are (as I mentioned before) purposeful and meaningful to the story. The safehand thing seems to have no signifcance, so why include it in the text so much? Why harp on it so frequently? Obviously stories set in a secondary world like Roshar are going to include things that are new to me, but, again, I would rather them have purpose (especially when the book is already so long!! I don't need it to be longer by including random things like that). I suppose including details like this are technically the definition of worldbuilding, but I don't find them good or interesting at all. Also, nothing in our world developed at random. There is a reason to everything being the way it is. Whether it's science and evolution or sociological or cultural reasons, everything in our world developed from something. Using your example of right-handedness being dominant--even if there is no scientific reasoning for humans being this way, culture and society played a big role in shaping this aspect of our lives. There used to be a lot of superstitions about left-handedness and so this likely led to a bias against them when creating tools/products/materials for our homes/schools/etc. It's not a grand planned explanation as you said, but it's definitely not random. I just want to feel that Roshar is lived-in and well though out, but I didn't feel that at all. It instead felt like, again, spaghetti being thrown at a wall--including random world facts just to include them without much significance. And finally, I absolutely do not expect this book to take me by the hand through everything. I wish it didn't, actually. I think it does that too much. I stand by my criticism that the worldbuilding felt shallow. You may not feel that way, but I certainly do. To me, "this is just here because it's here" IS shallow. Having a reason for something existing whether scientifically/biologically or culturally would be, by my definition, more deep. I actually wish so badly that this book DIDN'T feel so simple, but it did. And that's my opinion. If yours is different that's totally fine, but you have put a lot of words in my mouth that I didn't say.

[@arenkai]

Well that's odd because The Way of Kings has very little of the magic system in it. Words of Radiance is the real intro to the magic. And Oathbringer is when it gets used more commonly for action and storytelling. And Rhythm of War is basically a crash course on magic-theory and the metaphysics of this world. I'm sorry you were mislead about what you were getting into. You misunderstood my Sharblade comment. I said it makes battle trivial against *non-shardblade holders* yes, but it doesn't rob any scenes from their tension if both characters hold Shardblades. And in fact it has the exact opposite effect if our main characters DON'T hold shards, like for example Kaladin which we see barely coming out on top after his entire squad is decimated by a shard holder, and that is considered a miracle. Shardblades are supposed to be death sentences to normal people. Not to other Shardblade and Plate holders. It makes battles trivial to the side that holds the Shardblade if the opposition doesn't have one, but most of this book we follow a character that doesn't have a Shardblade and the ones that do are into the politics (and nearly die even though they have blades and plates by the way) All your comments on worldbuilding are a bit frustrating because you seem to apply different standards to our world's worldbuilding then you would a fantasy world's worldbuilding. You missed the point I was trying to make about the right-handedness for example, which was that there are obviously reasons for why things are what they are, but why would expect to know those reasons as you encounter those elements ? Nobody in our world knows those reason either, it's basically knowledge left to historians and the likes. And as such, an outsider would see it as random that we basically all write with our right hands. And even if the reasons exist, they are so far away from recorded history that pulling them into a coherent explanation would take a lot of time and research. This is exactly the same with how Sanderson builds his world. He goes for the "throwing the reader in a new world" with specific social norms that all makes it feel more believable as a world. What you are asvocating for makes worlds feel LESS real to me. For example in Stormlight, why is everything a weird crab thing ? Why not make the creatures normal animals ? It doesn't serve the plot, or the characters, right ? Well, that's just how this world is, that's cool. (Except there are reasons for that if you analyse the way the world works, and it's just weird and specific on the surface before becoming part of a breathing ecosystem when you think about it. That's the exact opposite of shallow to me. A world that, the more you think about, the more you understand why things work the way they do. Maybe one day we will know why Vorin women hide their left hand. Who knows. Maybe the clues are already there and we just aren't seeing it yet. To me it feels like you're being uncharitable to the author by assuming all those worldbuilding aspects are random when most of them have reasons for existing. And even if they were random, instead or telling yourself "uh, that's weird, I wonder why it's like that" Your first reaction is to assume the author put them there without thought. To me that's a very uncharitable way to engage with a story. I don't expect Harry Potter to explain to me why people fly brooms or use wands, that's lore imported from our world the story piggybacks on. All Sanderson does in his books is remove the training wheels from his world and throwing you into something without prior knowledge where you need to figure out the cultural aspects as you go. Maybe that's not your style, and that's fine. But what is not fine is pretending like there is only one way to create meaningful worldbuilding.

[@vesuviusquest]

STILL you are putting words in my mouth. I've tried to make it clear with disclaimers and qualifiers in both the video and my response that this is all one person's subjective opinion. I'm not pretending that there's only one way to create meaningful worldbuilding, but there are things I value when it comes to writing and storytelling...and you clearly value different things. You're making so many broad generalizations about what I'm saying so I'm not going to continue trying to explain myself and my thoughts--I think between the video and my first response I've said what I wanted to say.

[@AquaLunaDesigns]

Hey its totally valid that you don't click with Sanderson. I disagree with most of your review, and I think you got some facts wrong, but I did really like your style and your way of explaining things, and I hope you keep making videos!

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you, I appreciate that!

[@BossAttack]

Thank you for saying everything I wanted to. Listen, Sanderson's name looms large over the fantasy genre, so I finally decided to take the plunge. But I started with the Mistborn trilogy, his first. And...it was shit. God awful, each book worse than the laugh. But I was told that Stormlight was so much better, how Sanderson had improved vastly. Sure, the prose is still basic but everything else is improved. Okay, I'll admit Way of Kings is better than Mistborn. I will disagree that the worldbuilding is lackluster, or maybe the ZERO worldbuilding in Mistborn has skewed my perception. But there is actual worldbuilding with this novel, like there are actual places that exist beyond wherever the narrative is focused on. We don't need to visit every location mentioned, but I should at least get an idea that other noble families or locations exist beyond Alethkar, Kharbranth, and the Shattered Plains. Congrats, because that's pretty much the only positive I have to say. The prose is still shit. 1,000 fucking pages of shit ass basic prose. Listen, when I'm reading a BOOK, I do expect to get enjoyment from the actual text itself. However, I can look past this if you characterization and plotting is operating at an Nth level. Because without good prose, all focus will now be on your character and plotting. However, the characters and plotting here are equally middling. Every character is basically a single character trait, no complexity. Dhalinar is honorable. Khaladin is a good guy hero that just wants to protect people. Shallan is "witty" and shy but wants to learn and grow out of her shell. Repeat that for 1,100 fucking pages with zero change. Now, I don't want to hear about how Khaladin gets more complex 4 books and 6,000 pages further, no. Either he's interesting now, after a 1,100 pages, or I'm not reading further. The plot, as you noted, is basically non-existent since the entire story is just two goddamn places where the same thing happens every chapter. Dalinar groans about honor and whether he's going mad. Kal suffers. And Shallan reads and goes on dates. Fucking fascinating. And listen, I love a "nothing happens" story. Nothing is happening are probably my favorite stories. You know, where a bunch of characters are just stuck in a place and where are just zeroing in on their personal character and growth, examining every facet of them and overarching larger themes. But you know what? Those are usually the second or third novels or films, AFTER you've established who these characters are and let us have some plot fun with them. It's why the Empire Strikes Back is so amazing. What's important though is that STAR WARS didn't start with ESB, it started with A New Hope! We are stuck with these characters for over 1,000 pages where nothing happens and nothing interesting is explored about them. Oooooo will good guy Khaladin finally escape or save some people? Is the honorable Dalinar insane in a high-fantasy series that starts off with a prologue from 1,500 years ago with some magical warriors such that we know for a fact that it's literally impossible for his visions to not be real? Absolutely riveting. Oh, and after Mistborn I think it's clear Sanderson has a fetish for woman with long black hair. And hey man, so do I. But I also don't go writing about that in every story. Let's not talk about the lack of women, LGBTQ+ characters, his constant need to write about slavery that he is not equipped to handle, and godawful romance. Let's not.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well you might have gone in harder here than me 😆 But hey I agree with you! I like your takes

[@MrE517]

I think it helps to go into this book knowing that it is book one in an incomplete ten book series. I also wondered why there were really only two locations for almost the whole book. The answer is because the story is just starting, even though TWoK is over 1,000 pages.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah see it’s that last part that gets me…I can take a slow beginning and an incomplete story sometimes, but not a full 1000+ pages of it 😫

[@chadvansyoc11]

To be faire im pretty sure it's implied that the gendered-ness is not supposed to be a good thing

[@vesuviusquest]

You may not be wrong! But I’ll just say that definitely wasn’t my interpretation. Although I’ll admit I have some bias with that specific point based on the previous Sanderson books I’ve read.

[@Dragonnscale]

@@vesuviusquest The gender stuff in his books are a criticism, not an approval of it. The fact that only women can read and write makes Dalinar's desire to do so taboo, which others him from the other highlords. This is critical to the plot because it coincides with the other brightlords thinking he is crazy. Also, you mention mistborn, and I assume you are talking about Vin's desire to be ladylike. In mistborn, he makes it clear that he is going against the generic modern idea that for a woman to be strong she needs to be masculine. He is showing a woman who was forced to be masculine so she wouldn't be attacked in her thieving group. She later finds out she enjoys feminine things, and that she can still be strong even though she enjoys feminine things. There are examples in his books of women who are masculine and enjoy being masculine, warbreaker has a few examples of this. I agree that there are a lot of problems with Sanderson, I agree somewhat to your takes on the genericness of characters, but this piece of criticism caught me the wrong way.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well I'll admit you have me at a disadvantage here since it's been a while since I read either WoK or Mistborn LOL. But I believe my main complaint with the gendered-ness of the world was just that it was set up this way in the first place. If he truly does make commentary on it and use it as a theme for the series, honestly good for him! I would be interested in that and I think it could add a nice dimension to the story. If that is the case though, I don't think he added enough emphasis on critique in this book, nor does he really do anything with the undertone of subversion, and maybe that's why it's something I never picked up on if it is truly there. The status quo stays in place throughout the whole book, so to me it was just empty and frustrating world-building. I'm just personally tired of reading gender essentialism in fantasy books because I'm tired of it in the real world and I think it really got to me here. And then as far as Mistborn, I think I actually agree with you...again, if I remember correctly. It was pretty heavy-handed, but at least he was trying with a somewhat feminist arc for Vin. No complaints there. I think my problems were more that there was basically no female rep besides Vin despite there being a pretty large cast of characters (Allriane and Tindwyl are the most prominent that come to mind), and that there were still comments made here and there (enough to bother me) about being "ladylike" or whatnot with really no commentary to accompany it. Same with Elantris. But all in all as I've said elsewhere, I am most certainly bringing in my past biases with Sanderson into TWoK and I acknowledge that. So I honestly had no trust in him that he would speak on a gendered world with any sort of nuance hahaha...so you may be absolutely right, I was just speaking to my interpretation.

[@jame2433]

I read this recently and it became one of my fave books of all time. That said I respect all of your points in this review, except when it comes to the approach to gender roles. I thought that was quite an interesting take on how a culture could view gender roles. While we still live in a pretty patriarchal society (despite what a lot of people may say), throughout history we have very clear roles for the genders in most cultures. Similarly even some languages are gendered. So this was one of the most interesting aspects for me. It’s not explored a lot and I hope it will be but reading and writing being a women’s skill means they scribe for men, but this actually gives women an immense amount of power in some ways. Anyway good review 😊

[@vesuviusquest]

Well thank you! And I understand how the gender aspect of the culture here could be interesting. I don't necessarily disagree! I just wish that if Sanderson were going to include it, that he would give us a reason why it exists that way, or subvert it, or offer commentary or something. I just don't like to read worlds that are super gendered like this because I'm tired of it in our own world. Like I said in the video though, I definitely understand that this wouldn't bother everyone!

[@byakugan2173]

I read all of the books and you are correct. Slavery and the whole cast system are handled very poorly in the sense that they are not really handled at all. They just go away with literal magic. Sanderson uses them for his storytelling ends and then magically heals and ignores them. I also feel he has an elitist POV since all his enlightened characters are the literal ruling class or become the ruling class. Not a working class main character on sight.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeesh, yeah I guess I feel justified in my skepticism LOL

[@arenkai]

I mean... People that criticise Sanderson's writing here will say he lacks nuance, but then find is odd that he doesn't handle slavery and cast systems in the classic way by having slave masters as the main characters you're supposed to empathise with. Said characters will still say openly that they think a ruling class should exist because it's tradition. While still being the protagonists of the story. That's the depth and complexity though. Those characters are flawed. You're also dead wrong on the elistist comment since his previous work before Stormlight was Mistborn, which focuses entirely on a working/slave class revolt.

[@vesuviusquest]

@@arenkai Uhh I don't think I've EVER seen anyone that thinks the book lacks nuance also say that they wanted the characters you empathize with to be slave masters. I don't know if I believe people are really saying that...

[@unladenswallow43]

Preach. I do not understand how so many people say he’s a great writer. Like what you like, but there are general objective standards that need to be met for something to be considered great and he falls woefully short. It’s like they’re reading another book. If you haven’t tried it yet, might I recommend Malazan.. ☺️

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah I gotta say I don't understand either.... And actually Malazan is on my list to hopefully get to this year! I'm glad to hear you like it 😀

[@user-rb9mg8om4x]

That's how I feel about Fourth Wing. I just don't comment bc what's the point?

[@Har1ByWorld]

Malazan is shit compared to stormlight archive.

[@user-rb9mg8om4x]

I agree, the plots are long winded and the aesthetic of the writing is blah, but the characters got me invested. I think it's a mental health thing. If you've struggled with mental health or feeling like a loser in the past, this can be a very cathartic series. So many popular books nowadays (cough, Booktok recommendations) paint their male protagonists as already badass. But seeing someone who's so downtrodden in book 1 but by book 4 grows into a complete legend, is hugely cathartic for me.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah I definitely get that! Especially seeing their internal (and external) journeys over the course of the series. I haven't had any of the same struggles per say as these characters so that probably didn't help in me not feeling any connection to them.

[@chase55431]

"Everything is over explained " and yet you missed critical information and didn't understand large part of the book.

[@vesuviusquest]

Wait what did I miss/didn't understand?

[@nassan1599]

​@@vesuviusquestwell for starters, how on earth did you come to think that the storms are gonna destroy the world and they need to stop them?

[@vesuviusquest]

Honestly I think that came from one time where I saw someone explaining the series like that…that some people were out on a journey to stop world-destroying storms. And that must have stuck with me after all this time 😅 but if that’s wrong then I guess it was the blind leading the blind…… So I admit that was a misinterpretation, but I don’t think that at all affected my feelings on this book, I would have just been surprised to learn down the line.

[@IgokiJessie]

So... This review gives me mixed feelings. I respect your opinions and agree with some of them, that being the absolute slog that the middle of his books usually are, but the rest? Like, what? I have experience hating on some popular books, like The Lord of the Rings, The Kingkiller Chronicles, and more recently, Daughter of the Moon goddess, so I guess it feels interesting when someone else goes through the same experiences too. But I feel like, aside from the length and the over-explaining (which has a reason but I agree is still a problem), a lot of your problems with the Stormlight Archive comes from you expecting a novel that can stand on it's own two feet. The thing is that The Stormlight Archive wasn't MEANT to be that way in the first place. The Stormlight Archive is meant to be the stage where a lot of things crucial to a wider *universe* takes place. It's too fucking long for what it is, but my point still stands. A warning that always comes to mind when a new reader is about to explore the series, is that you should go into it with the knowledge that The Stormlight Archive is a planned 10 book series that also ties into the going ons of several other novels and series. If you're familiar with Sanderson's writing, that should tell you that you probably SHOULDN'T expect speed, conciseness, and having everything you need to know dumped on you in the first place. I can't really organize my thoughts well, but I hope you get what I'm saying. I feel like you came into this series with expectations of what it is or should be. You complained about the fact that events happen only in two places, but I have a question. How would you feel, then, if characters and events were spread over ALL the various nations of Roshar? There's something called gradual progression, y'know? Brandon might be a bit slow in getting to the important bits, but there's a good reason why you're repeatedly told to hold fast and move on. I'm very sure that if he wanted too, he could've included the rest of Roshar, since important plot points and characters are tied to basically every nation in that continent. But that would make the book feel overwhelming and unfocused. The Shattered Planes and Kharbranth are the main focus because there are main characters there who's story has to be understood before including anything else. Also, bringing in any other nation would quickly reveal a lot of things that would be better kept in the sidelines until the time comes for their reveal. The Way of Kings is like the foundation of the entire Stormlight Archive at this point. I personally feel like it's somewhat fast paced, in that it jumps from scene to scene without dwelling too much on them. The problem comes when there's an assumption that a lot of those things only serve to drag things out, and for no other reason, which can't be furthest from the truth. I think i should end it here. I still have a lot to say, but I'm on the hospital bed rn so let's shelve that. I understand some of your complaints, but the vast majority are baseless.

[@vesuviusquest]

Well first off I'm sorry to hear you're in the hospital, I hope you recover soon! Also, I'm going to disagree that most of my complaints are baseless. Everyone's reading experiences are different and I'm allowed to have my criticisms as much as you're allowed to have your praises. If my points don't resonate with you that's ok, but I tried to give my reasons for critiquing certain things so I think my points do have some basis, even if you disagree with them. Next, I'm not going to apologize for expecting a book to stand on its own, even if it's part of a series, and I'm DEFINITELY not going to apologize or give the book any leeway on that if it's 1000 freaking pages. I've read plenty of first books in other series that lay a foundation for the story to come while still having a narrative that can at least somewhat wrap-up with definable character arcs by the end of it. And they've also done it in shorter page counts. I certainly didn't expect speed, complete info dumps of the world, or conciseness. I knew I was getting into a 1000+ page book and I've had experience with Sanderson before. But even in his shorter books he's had more of a wrapped narrative, and some of those were part of a series. I shouldn't need to read ten 1000+ page books in a series that is not even close to being finished just to get the full story. Again, other people may not care about this, but I do. Also, I really want to point out that every person goes into books with expectations. Everyone brings preferences and biases to every situation, even stories. I can't help having certain expectations, even if it's just basic narrative requirements that I want stories to hit (a clear ending, character arcs, compelling stakes, etc.). Beyond that, the only other expectation I had was just that this was going to be an exciting story. And unfortunately, for me it wasn't. Many other stories have defied and transcended my personal preferences and expectations, but The Way of Kings did not. If The Way of Kings was meant to solely provide some foundation for the rest of the series and a wider connected universe, then that's fine--cool, even. But the plot, character arcs, pacing, worldbuilding, etc. shouldn't need to be sacrificed just to set things up. That's essentially a waste of a book (a, again, 1000 page book(!)). I don't understand then how the book is supposed to appeal to anyone when it (and not just it alone, the whole series even) is meant to be a sacrifice just to connect a narrative universe? I also balk at the idea that books should need warnings, unless it's a content/trigger warning of course. If readers need to be cautioned that a book or series is going to be written a certain way, then it's already lost the game in my mind. That's a personal philosophy, but I understand if not everyone feels this way. Just trying to give some context around my arguments. On the worldbuilding, I understand gradual progression. But spending, again, 1000-ish pages (I know it's actually less than that with the interludes and brief random other scenes and whatnot) in just two main places is a bit much. Fellowship of the Ring and The Eye of the World are both beginnings of epic fantasy stories, are shorter than The Way of Kings, and both manage to give us LOADS more of the world and magic and characters than this book does. I don't need to know everything and I don't need to see every location, but again, only two main locations is really disappointing to me. I would have been very happy to get a little more of the world and conflicts introduced earlier. Even some of the reveals that happen at the very end of the book could have come sooner. They didn't need to be plot twists at the end. They could have been mid-point twists or something? I mean overall I would be willing to give this book so much more grace if it was just SHORTER. But if I'm asked to read 1000 pages just to have the START of a story, I do think it should have accomplished certain things other than just giving us what was essentially a prologue as I've heard others describe it.

[@BonesNeverLie]

I bet you hate the Wheel of Time and Harry Potter

[@vesuviusquest]

No I love Harry Potter! And honestly I've only just started The Eye of the World, but I'm mostly enjoying it so far.

[@kanor13]

@@vesuviusquest If you don’t like Sanderson for his prose, repetitive writing style, lack of/bad characterization, and some “sexist vibes” (just to be concise) then you will probably not have a good time with Wheel of Time whatsoever, but obviously who knows. I respect a lot of criticisms of the Stormlight Archives but I find it frustrating how people will rip on Sanderson for boring dialogue and lack of characterization and say it bothered them a ton but then the same issues (that I think are even more egregious in Wheel of Time) don’t bother them at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinion obviously but I’m curious what you think of Wheel of Time! I’ll just add that there are MULTI-BOOK LONG stretches in Wheel of Time when the plot *literally* doesn’t move whatsoever (it’s known as The Slog in the fandom) and that even first time readers of sometimes advised to skip it, so be aware of that if you haven’t heard about it.

[@vesuviusquest]

@@kanor13 Yeah I can't comment too much on the comparisons yet since I'm only one book into Wheel of Time, but so far I do agree that the dialogue and characterization are lacking there a bit for me. I think the difference, at least so far, is that I'm so pulled in by the worldbuilding and the plot in WOT that I forgive the weaker parts of the writing. This is actually funny timing because I'm working on my video about The Eye of the World now and that's basically the sparknotes of the whole video lol But yes I have definitely heard of the slog and it's absolutely one of my biggest doubts about the rest of WOT. The beginning has been good, but can it keep up for the next 13 books? I may end up having the same problems with it as I did with this book haha, who knows!

[@notengoniidea5623]

Omg the gender issue is such a week point. You are. Saying it as if sanderson was putting his personal opinion into the matter and not just a description on how this culture work. Like you said, gender separetion is something that happens in our world so its valuable to talk about it in works of fition. Its like saying that you hated slavery in the book and why he included it. I was kind of okey with the other points althoutght I dont fully agree but this one was kjnd of dumb.

[@vesuviusquest]

I never said anything about Sanderson's personal beliefs about gender. Honestly I have no idea of his stance on the matter. I just took issue with how he portrays gender in his books (at the least the ones I've read). I make no assumptions about his personal opinions though. But yes, gender separation is definitely something that happens often in our world and my main sticking point is that I don't care to read about a world where it's the norm too. I believe I said in the video (though if I didn't, I'm saying it now lol) that although this is something that bothers me, I can understand if others didn't have a problem with it. It's not like it's an objectively bad thing, it's just my opinion that I don't care for how he approached it. I agree that it can be valuable to talk about in fiction. However, Sanderson does nothing with it. He doesn't subvert it, he doesn't add any commentary or arguments for or against it. He just...included it in his world seemingly just to have it be a random part of society. And that's where my problem lies.

[@amandavanwyk5424]

From your summary I can tell that you didn’t understand the story at all, which explains why you didn’t like it. If you’ve ever heard of Malazan Book of the Fallen series (which is another popular fantasy series consisting of 10 books), don’t read it. Stormlight Archive doesn’t hold a candle to MBotF in terms of complexity. It’s insane.

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah I've definitely heard Malazan can get complex. But I'm curious though, what would you say I didn't understand?

[@amandavanwyk5424]

@@vesuviusquest It’s not about stopping the storms from destroying Roshar, like you mentioned. It’s about stopping another Desolation from happening. How does a Desolation happen? The Voidbringers. In this book, we don’t know what the Voidbringers are yet, but it’s the whole reason why Jasnah is in Kharbranth doing research. Dalinar gets all of those visions to show him what happened last time the Desolation came. It destroyed civilization across the entire planet. Those who survived were left with almost nothing to rebuild. The Knights Radiant, along with the Heralds (think of them as angels, sort of), fought the Voidbringers, so in this book we get glimpses of those powers returning to mankind. The Radiants are humans who are granted powers by Spren, which are sort of like nature spirits. They bond with humans by speaking oaths, truths, etc. Each order of Radiants has their own way of bonding them. Once they bond, the Radiants can absorb stormlight from gem stones, and this storm light grants them abilities like flying, soul casting, etc. The Highstorms infuse the gem stones every couple of weeks or so. So, in short, it’s not about stopping the storms from destroying Roshar. Not at all. Do you like audiobooks. I recommend the audiobook. The narration is excellent.

[@vesuviusquest]

@amandavanwyk5424 Oh yeah I understand all that. Well maybe not some of the specifics about the Knights Radiant you mentioned, but for the most part I got all that. I guess when I said they want to stop the storms-is the desolation not a giant world-destroying storm? Lol maybe I just assumed it was. Also unfortunately I don’t think the audiobook would work for me for the SA. High fantasy books are usually too overwhelming for me on audio-then I think I REALLY wouldn’t understand what’s going on 😆

[@amandavanwyk5424]

@@vesuviusquest The Desolation isn’t a storm. The Desolation is the return of the Voidbringers and the destruction they cause upon returning. As I mentioned before, what exactly the voidbringers are isn’t fully explained yet in this book, but it involves the Parshendi and the Parshmen (the slaves the Alethi keep). Near the end of the book, Shallan figures this out (just before Kabsal poisons her with the bread), that the docile slaves will somehow turn on the Alethi. The Voidbringers come from Odium, a terrible God-like force that is the opposite of the Almighty (who is dead). I can give you spoilers to help you understand more, if you’re interested.

[@vesuviusquest]

No I appreciate it! But I’m good. I do understand all that-confusion on story contents isn’t why I disliked the book. It was more that he never got to the point of the story. It took until almost the end of the book to even understand that it’s all about stopping the desolation. I know it was kind of foreshadowed in the first prologue, but then after that I didn’t like the in-between story told and the character journeys were not interesting to me.

[@purplehaze557]

i agree with you that the book could be a lot smaller but most of your world building takes were absolutely dumb, the gap between masculine and feminine is there for a reason, i find it absolutely shocking of you to be accusing Sanderson of having certain beliefs in gender norms. One of the main themes of the Stormlight Archive books is that not everything is what it seems, that being why lighteyes look down on darkeyed people, why women eat mostly sweet food and men eat spicy and salty food etc

[@vesuviusquest]

Well if that's one of the themes of the series, then I feel that it's not presented well in TWOK. If he's going to depict these gender ideas as flawed, that's totally fair...but then he doesn't need to wait until the later books to start bringing in the subversion of it. It could have started here. I only read THIS book in the SA and based off my experience with his books so far, he has not instilled any trust in me that he would approach this with any nuance. If I were to read further in the series maybe I would walk this back, but even then I still stand by that I don't think I'd enjoy it. I just don't like fantasy worlds where genders are separated like this. I feel no need to touch on it. Not saying he can't or that it's objectively bad or anything, it's just a preference thing and I understand where others wouldn't care about this as much. Also to clarify, I did not make any assumptions on Sanderson's personal beliefs in gender norms. I have no idea how he views that topic--it could be wildly different than how he presents it in his books! I don't know. My issue is just with how he writes them and how gender is portrayed in his books.

[@purplehaze557]

@@vesuviusquest so its fair to criticize a writer just cause hes brewing a certain idea for a book or two, you can literally see the commentary by certain characters (Jasnah) in the first book how those norms dont make sense anywhere except the Alethi society, i think its fair to say a writer can speak through their characters without being to on the nose with their personal beliefs, otherwise some other "book critic" would go on and on about how everything has to be over explained, like readers cant figure out things by themselves lol

[@vesuviusquest]

Yeah I think it's definitely fair to criticize something that I don't feel was emphasized strongly enough in this book (I mean it's fair to criticize ANYTHING, but anyways)...which, I'll reiterate that I'm just judging THIS book in the series. I shouldn't need people to tell me that things are different in later books to change my perception of this book. That indicates to me that the author did not get their ideas across clearly enough, which was definitely my experience here. If he was planting any seeds in TWOK for things to be different in future books, I honestly did not pick up on them. And that could be me bringing in my past experiences with Sanderson, but like I said before, he has not inspired any hope in me that things would be different this time around. If it IS different, that's great, but that just doesn't change how I perceived the writing and themes in this book in particular. But if you think Sanderson was clear with his intentions, that's totally valid! I'm not saying he objectively definitively wasn't, I just think maybe we had different experiences and different interpretations of the work.