POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! The Way of Kings (Brandon Sanderson)

raich

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 4:27 pm

I currently have Book Hangover, translated as:

n. The struggle of trying to reconnect with reality after finishing a really amazing book.

It took a couple of weeks but I finally finished all 1,000+ pages. I already started Words of Radiance, so I guess my Book Hangover may really be better defined as Binge Reading Syndrome.

Anyone want to discuss/obsess with me?? I'd love some fellow geeks along for this ride.

Nerd

professor

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 4:38 pm

Um
Wow. I LOVE the term book hangover LOL

And the author is Brandon Sanderson!! The same one who wrote The Evil Librarians! Is this book appropriate for kids?? I was JUST talking to my son about how we need to find a new great book series to get ourselves into..

raich

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 5:00 pm

I wouldn't necessarily give it to my kids to read unless they were older and ready for a lot of war scenes, (very) minor romance, and generally up to understanding and appreciating a seriously epic book. Honestly I'm glad I read this as an adult because the lessons and messages are so incredible and I think they'd be lost on a kid.

bigsis144

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 5:57 pm

professor wrote:

Um
Wow. I LOVE the term book hangover LOL

So many good books by Brandon Sanderson!!!!

If the level of romance with Bastille in the Evil Librarians books was fine with you, you can definitely read Sanderson’s other YA series - the Rithmatist (just one book so far, but a cool creepy magic system in an alternate universe USA that is tons of islands due to cataclysmic floods), the Reckoners (very superhero aesthetic, down to having superhero “names” and personas to go with one’s powers), or Skyward (space opera, the deepest “teen” books he’s written so far. Absolutely incredible.)

Way of Kings is the first book in the Stormlight Archive series, and it’s got some seriously intense political and philosophical world building and themes of war and mental health issues… it’s amazing, but much denser and heavier than the YA books. Each tome can be 1,000+ pages long, so heads up!

raich

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 6:08 pm

So here starts some spoilers. Read ahead at your own risk!

**********************************************************

I cant get enough of Rock. I love the way he talks, his sense of honor and what he does for others and how strongly he holds on to his ideals. I love their bonfires at night, the way they all came together as this strong group. And Lopen! No one (but Kaladin) would have chosen him as a bridgeman but look how helpful he ended up being to the team (and all his cousins, cuz one can never have enough cousins lol.) In my head for some reason he is Hispanic, even though as far as I know there are no Hispanics in Roshar haha. Maybe it's his name, or "Gancho," or his zillions of family members. He just makes me smile.

And I am intrigued big time by Shallan. I'm sure she has some major backstory that will come out later in the books. Jasnah, too.

bigsis144

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 6:38 pm

I love Shallan and Jasnah!! There is definitely more to each of them that is yet to come. 👀

I love all the cultures and religions. Vorin gender roles where writing and sweet foods are for women (and cover that safehand!), and men get spicy foods.

I love the biology - all the weird crustacean creatures and the plants that have evolved to protect themselves from the High Storms. It’s almost like the world is a sea floor covered with air instead of water.

imasinger

Mon, Jun 14 2021, 9:18 pm

If you listen to the audiobooks, they do the Herdazian (Lopen's country) accent like cockney, I'm afraid it's gotten in my head, though Hispanic sounding would work fine, too.

Rock and Lopen are both great characters, but I can't think of a character here that I don't love; even the evil ones are so much themselves, so beautifully depicted that I'm glad they're there to move the story along.

I love when someone you think is a minor character turns out to be a major one.

I love the structure of the series, where certain structural elements of each book are repeated in the others (not gonna say more).

Syl is a favorite, too.

raich

Tue, Jun 15 2021, 8:22 am

Yes, I suspect there's more to come of all the major characters, especially since I was looking at some fanart online and saw some of them carrying rather impressive looking weapons which makes me very excited.

I have so many questions and wonderments. Most I suspect will be answered (like backstories of so many characters I'm fascinated by like Moash and Teft and Sigzil and Shen and Szeth, and explanations as to why Jasnah is so aversive to men and why Shallan killed her father and whether he was a Shardbearer or if she got the Blade from somewhere else...) The allusion to Shallan's backstory and her fleeting psychological distress also intrigues me, so I hope we'll see more.

But some other pieces I'm not sure if I just missed something so far. For example, the whole safehand idea. Is that a modesty thing? Or just cultural/religious? Was it explained in the first book and I missed it? I'm also a little confused about exactly what happened during Recreance and the fall of the Knights and Heralds but I'm hoping that's still supposed to be deliberately confusing and as of yet not totally explained.

And I wonder if it will come out why Moash didn't get the tattoo on his forehead like everyone else. I really like the guy.

I also just realized yesterday that the guy Ishikk was paid to search for seems to be none other than Wit! I'm sure that's something.

I was thinking about all this so much that I had trouble sleeping last night. This is bordering on an issue. Yet I read on! Oh well Smile

raich

Tue, Jun 15 2021, 8:24 am

Also, I love so much that Sanderson doesn't just tell you everything outright. You have to make connections by yourself and really THINK. Details come out like little tasters and sometimes I find myself going back a few chapters to look something up and realize it was there before and I just didn't recognize the significance yet then. So fun!