Book Two of the Stormlight Archive The Stormlight Archive, #2
Hardcover, 1087 pages
English language
Published Sept. 4, 2014 by Tor Books.
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 …
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 he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.
Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and their civilization-ending Desolation. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but even arriving there proves more difficult than she imagined.
Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The consequences for Parshendi and humans alike—indeed, for Roshar itself—are as dangerous as they are incalculable.
Great read. If you liked The Way of Kings, you'll like this too. It's a long one.
Started Sept 9 22, Restarted Jan 1 23
Time to read: 21 hours 26 min
Time to read (total): 22 hours 44 min
Sanderson knows how to make me feel like I'm 10 years old watching Avengers for the first time and thinking it's peak fiction.
I’m hooked.
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.
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 …
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 comes to mind) and colorful side characters
- Shallan finally gets some really good character development, Kaladin goes through some proper turmoil and Kaladin gets to be a badass some more
But the overall criticism I had of the previous book in this series still permeates through this one. I can't really word it properly, but I was never properly shocked. I felt like I was constantly pleased, never challenged. Very rarely was I at the edge of my seat, worrying that a beloved character might just die. It's a mostly upward trajectory with a few valleys. The whole thing feels carefully engineered, similar to a catchy pop song. You won't be googling lyrics, but you will often catch yourself singing it to yourself. But I've learned my lesson, I've learned to not see it as a bad thing anymore. That's why I rate is 4/5.
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 …
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 had some minor pacing issues, but I couldn't help but feel that the pacing was very lopsided in this book. For being almost 1100 pages, it is almost comical how much action was packed into the final 50 pages. I found many chapters in the beginning and middle of the book to be needlessly drawn out and uninteresting. In fact, entire chapters likely could have been cut without anything critical lost. The final 100 pages had a lot of non-stop action, which was great and very much understandable for any adventure book. But the final pages also had a TON of exposition that I feel would have been better suited peppered throughout than offloaded all at once. It was jarring to switch between fast paced scenes with long exposition conversations that didn't need to occur in the final pages. For this reason, some of the character decisions felt rushed and undeveloped at the end when it could have easily been addressed in the slower chapters earlier on.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. I supposed I was just expecting more of an improvement on the issues that the first book had. Regardless, I'm super excited to dive into the next one!
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 …
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 of Kings reside a step higher.
Still a great book, excellent development of Shallan (her and Kaladin discussing their pain in the chasm prior to the storm hit the harder than it has previously) and the accelerated activity in the end of the book makes this hard to put down once the climax approaches.
November 2017 reread: A re-read of this book was necessary because I forgot a lot. I remembered a bit of Words of Radiance but that last half of the book felt like I was reading it again for the first time. How does Kaladin get out of this? What's up with Pattern? What is the Everstorm?
Progress was taking nature and putting a box around it
I stand by my 4/5 rating only because parts of Shallan acting as Veil was a bit drawn out. Learning how to manipulate Lightweaving isn't as epic as Kaladin and Szeth flying around but taking time with Shallan's character is necessary because of her significance in the story.
There are a lot of revelations in the end of the book and maybe that's why I forgot everything on the 'march to center' of the Plains because there is so much happening in a short time. In a 10 book opus complaining about reveals and plot development is bad form but everything came to a closure very quickly.
Re-reading the Stormlight books has been fantastic and with a week to go for Oathbringer I will fill my time with Edgedancer and be all set for the 14th.
Original review from 2015:
...the sky and the winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.
This was a solid successor to Way of Kings, but it lacked something to make it truly stunning, to give it that five star rating. I have no immediate complaints about the story. Words of Radiance built on the story created in Way of Kings, expanded the magic system and history, but it just missed something.
Is Sanderson better at creating a world than building on one? Was the enjoyment of Way of Kings being exposed to everything for the first time and not as amazing as the cast in Radiance understanding Stormlight and their powers?
As this is book two in a 10 book series I imagine this book will be made better by knowing the entire story so on subsequent rereads I may revise this rating. For now Words of Radiance stood as a really incredible story and the wait for the series to finish will be my equivalent of the Weeping.
The series is continued. Sanderson some how manages to snatch both victory and defeat from his characters. This is an enthralling work and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
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 …
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 shounen anime levels of self-indulgence and fan service... and honestly I'm more than here for it, I don't really remember if I've ever re-read a chapter several times in a row like I would rewind a TV show or a movie to rewatch a particularly cool or well-shot scene, but I did it while reading Words of Radiance. What a good, fun book. Can't wait to read the next one.
The ending of this book might be the most epic heavy-metal satisfying showdown I've ever read. There is no way you can put the book down for the last 150 pages.
No idea how Sanderson can possibly top it but excited to see what he does.
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.
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.
4.8*
Loved it, I cant wait for book 3, brilliant universe and story!
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 …
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.”
The king was fine.
Brandon Sanderson writes really good books, of which this is another
