Brandon Sanderson is practically a household name for people who want to read modern fantasy. Every one of his series has become best sellers at some point. It really is impressive.
While he hasn’t written any books about SlotoCash Casino he has written for a broad genre of books.
He’s written mysteries, grand fantasy novels, dystopian books, and even more thrown in between. He is a man who really likes writing and it shows.
Allegedly he once got bored on a long flight and finished a book. He just likes writing.
All the way back in 2010 Brandon Sanderson started his epic fantasy series, known as the Stormlight Archives. He published the first book in the series called the Way of Kings.
It was a critically acclaimed success, selling more than a million physical copies in the years since its release. That is truly an achievement when you consider that the book is more than a thousand pages.
The Way of Kings has a beautifully done storyline contained within itself yet it still connects itself perfectly for a sequel. Which isn’t something that every author can pull off.
Brandon Sanderson pulled it off perfectly, leaving you craving the next book. Which was not a disappointment.
If you’re somehow still undecided after finished the Way of Kings about whether or not the quality is maintained from the first book to the second I’m going to save you some time and be straightforward.
It is. Read it.
If you need more convincing, here is why;
The Characters
The characters you read about and learned about in the first book are still here and continue growing, their development is far from done.
Kaladin now has the responsibility of leading an entire battalion of men in an army, not just a squad of men that were destined to die.
Shallan has to handle the new knowledge she learned at the end of the Way of Kings along with the secrets that Jasnah just revealed.
And Dalinar most of all needs to live with the betrayal and loss that he and his army faced when Sadeas, their ally and fellow general in war betrayed them and left them for dead.
New ones are of course introduced but I couldn’t really go into those without spoiling parts of the book for those unfortunate folk who have not yet had a chance to read it.
The Theme
The main theme that carries over from the first book in the series to the second in my opinion is the meaning of honor.
What does it mean to truly be honorable? How do you make a baseline for what an honorable decision is?
How do you choose between two dishonorable acts when you are forced to choose one?
These are some of the moral and philosophical questions that Brandon Sanderson brings up in his writing. When some authors start bringing these types of morals and philosophy into their writing it can easily start to feel like you are being preached to.
Not with Sanderson though, he brings these problems up but he doesn’t force his opinion down your throat.
He lets his characters decide. Do you agree with their conclusion, their answer? Is that Sanderson’s opinion or answer for that question?
I don’t know but it is the decision that that character would come to. And because of how well Sanderson’s characters are put together it really feels like their decision.
If they had chosen any other one, even if you think it would’ve been the “better” one, it would’ve felt wrong. Because that’s not what those characters are.
It’s just another thing that pushes Brandon Sanderson’s writing to another level.
The World
Brandon’s world-building, along with practically everything else in his writing, is amazing well done. There is so much information about this world and how it works that just feels so thought out.
The author will add cool magical and intriguing things into his world but he always thinks about the effects of those things. How would they really be used if this was a real-world with people with everyday problems, like work, food, and industry?
Magic isn’t just for flashy fights and wizened old men who spend their days studying old tomes to be able to cast magic missiles at some pesky goblins.
If it was a real living world magic would be squeezed and rung out for every drop of usability that it can offer and Sanderson has thought of that.
It’s the little things that he’s thought of that really bring his world together above other ones, like the details of a storm that leaves behind a kind of clay, called crem, that dries soon after it’s left behind.
How would real people like farmers, businessmen, or construction workers use such a natural event to their advantage?
People wouldn’t be able to just let things lie and have all of their buildings get covered in clay. Water left behind after the storm has to sit for a few days so that the crem can settle at the bottom and the rest of the water poured off to be drunk from.
It’s the little details like that that are explained to you but never breaking from the stride that the story finds itself in.
You never get bored because you’re forced to read pages of exposition on how a cities waste disposal system works. Yet you still know how that system works because it was explained to you, yet in an interesting, careful way that makes you not even realize that you just got exposition thrown at you.
It’s the type of thing that a lot of authors attempt but very few can pull off. Especially with a world so full of unique lore and history as Roshar, the fictional universe where the books take place.
With the book being more than a thousand pages long you’d have thought that the author would have had to have thrown in some pages of exposition somewhere but it never comes.
I guess that’s just another beauty of the writing of Brandon Sanderson and another reason why if you’ve read the first book and liked it you need to read the second.
