Words of Radiance

Book Two of the Stormlight Archive , #2

Hardcover, 1087 pages

English language

Published Sept. 4, 2014 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-2636-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
867184929
Goodreads:
17332218

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5 stars (216 reviews)

The eagerly awaited sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Way of Kings.

Six years ago, the Assassin in White, a hireling of the inscrutable Parshendi, assassinated the Alethi king on the very night a treaty between men and Parshendi was being celebrated. So began the Vengeance Pact among the highprinces of Alethkar and the War of Reckoning against the Parshendi.

Now the Assassin is active again, murdering rulers all over the world, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin’s master has much deeper motives.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status darkeyes. Now …

11 editions

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

This book is just..... wow..... So good! I'm blown away honestly. I wish this series were complete or would be complete soon. I know the fifth book will be considered an ending but I hate that there will be 5 more in a "sequel" series and it will most likely be a very long time before those are all complete and published!

This book/series is just so. dang. good.

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

An enjoyable read, but as someone that generally doesn't really read big fantasy series, I had some gripes with it. It makes it very hard to rate, but to name a few:

- A frustratingly long buildup, only for a fuck ton to happen in the end, at once
- Recycling characters (reviving characters is my top pet peeve in any story...)
- Bad guy plot armor
- Prose is kinda plain, but it's fantasy, and not the focus of the book

The positives:
- The cool moments are really fucking cool, Sanderson has a talent for one liners
- The intrigue and world building hit a very juicy sweet spot between overly complex and oversimplified
- Things are kinda thrown in your face, making it really easy to follow along on audio, I've never actually been able to follow fights so vividly before
- Some really cool interludes (Taravangian …

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

WHEW finally. Sanderson does it again with another fantastic, fast-paced, intriguing installment of the Stormlight Archive. If you liked Way of Kings, you'll get everything you wanted and more in Word of Radiance. Many of my same praises and criticisms hold true for this book, but both dialed a bit more up to 11. The setting and world building is just chef's kiss. I can't get over how in love with this world I am. The cultures and people are all fully realized and interesting. I really enjoyed learning more about the Parshendi culture. Sanderson did a phenomenal job at creating both a rich yet wholly alien society that was a joy to learn about. The characters are written well and have very solid arcs, even if I didn't find some of their voices to be fully distinct.

I'd say my biggest complaint is with pacing. Way of Kings …

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

September 2020 Reread:
You turned an attack in to a promise. The wisest of men know that to render an insult powerless, you often need only to embrace it.

I remembered more from this book than my last reread in 2017. There is still a wagon full of tidbits, insights and references I either missed, forgot or became relevant with later knowledge that made this a very enjoyable read.

Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired results.

My previous comment indicated that the Shallan/Veil sessions were a bit tiresome but I didn't find that to be the case on the third go around...but I still can't justify bumping the star rating up from four to five. The book has some amazing sequences and highlights that stand out in the series but it lacks the cohesion or wonder that makes Way …

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

So, 2 books into the series (3 if you count Warbreaker), here are my thoughts on the Stormlight Archive so far: I would hesitate to call them masterpieces, the series' themes don't widen my perspective of the world, what they say doesn't feel particularly new or fresh, but. They're very competently written, I've come to really like the characters, the worldbuilding is extremely clever, Sanderson's writing fills me with confidence that the series is going somewhere interesting and the action sequences I have a very good time visualizing in my head in a way that feels very cinematic and rewarding. About Words of Radiance in particular, I appreciate the better, faster pacing compared with WoK (understandable, as that book had to introduce the world and characters) and the way some characters that felt under-developed got their chance to shine here. The last 150 pages or so of this book reach …

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Words of Radiance is exciting in ways that Way of Kings couldn't be for one simple reason: surgebinding. This book sees our surgebinders diving deeper into their powers and accepting what they are. There are many answers in this book, but more often than not they raise more questions. The climax of Words of Radiance comes at the end of a Sanderlanche of epic proportions, the momentum of which will launch you right into Oathbringer.

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

sigh
I get it, I get it. Yours is a fully realized world, deep and well-considered, much as the Mistborn world was. I get it.
What I DON'T get is why keeping the full story of your world a secret until the VERY END of the damn series -- just as he did in the Mistborn series incidentally -- if considered such an accomplishment. Barraging the reader with unanswered questions isn't clever, it's just mean.
end grumpy rant Hmph.

reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

Review of 'Words of Radiance' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Everything that was great about the first book continues being great in the second book. I don't think anyone can find disappointment here. It is fantastic how the plot can keep developing at such a high pace. 1,000+ pages and nothing feels like filler.

I really appreciate this generosity of the author. Many novels seem to be built on the idea of making the reader desire a piece of information and then figuring out how to withhold this information as long as possible. It makes sense as a mechanism to draw the reader through your pages. Brandon Sanderson instead gives you the information right away. He has so much plot that there is no reason to hold back. For example:


“The king!” Natam said, puffing. “An assassin.”



End of chapter 22. Do we now get a flashback? Switch to a different POV character? "15 years later"? No. The first …

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Subjects

  • Fantasy
  • Fiction