Posts Tagged: The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Publisher: Tor Books - Pages: 1008 - Buy: Book/eBook
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Just one look at the cover of Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings tells you everything you need to know about it. If you’re a fantasy virgin, a passerby in the grocery store, you can tell that it’s about knights and vivid fantastical set pieces. If you’re a long entrenched fantasy reader, you can see that, for all of publisher Tor Books’ will to make it so, the first volume of Brandon Sanderon’s The Stormlight Archives is the “next big fantasy, ” the heir apparent to Robert Jordan’s legendary and flawed opus, the Wheel of Time.

The Way of Kings is big. Thunderously huge. Sanderson might be best known for his work completing the late Robert Jordan’s series, but before that he was known to fantasy fans as one of the more exciting upcoming epic fantasists. His most popular work up to that point was the Mistborn trilogy, a self-contained series that, while applaudable for Sanderson’s eagerness to develop fascinating magic systems, suffered from poor pacing and bloat in both the second and third volumes. The longest of those volumes was two-thirds the length of The Way of Kings, the shortest about half.

Most writers are expected to write an epic fantasy in less than 200,000 words, The Way of Kings flirts with 400,000.

Since then, Sanderson’s star has risen to heights reached by few other working fantasy authors, and as a result the editorial department at Tor has slackened their reins, hoping to nurture the novelist as he attempts to fill the enormous hole left by Jordan’s passing. Even in the early pages The Way of Kings, while Sanderson is busy introducing readers to fallen gods, it’s easy to recognize his excitement at being given the reins to write an epic fantasy in the vein of Jordan, et al. Most writers are expected to write an epic fantasy in less than 200,000 words, yet The Way of Kings flirts with 400,000. Though this immense privilege and freedom for Sanderson’s ambitions hurts the novel, it also allows for a refreshing boldness and scope that the genre has been missing since the completion of the Wheel of Time and Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. Read More »

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

The release of Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance looms on the horizon like a highstorm. Tor continues to drum up excitement for a novel that is sure to be one of the biggest fantasy releases of the year, and heir apparent to Robert Jordan’s completed Wheel of Time series (’cause, something has to fill that spot on Tor’s release schedule, right?), with a generous dose of early-release chapters.

So far released: Prologue, 1, 2, Lift, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9

(Please note: chapter seven has not been released early, so don’t skip it when you read the final book!)

And a little sneak peek (with, I suppose, minor spoilers for those of you sensitive to those things. In which case, why have you read so far through this post?)

Shallan sat again on her box on the ship’s deck, though she now wore a hat on her head, a coat over her dress, and a glove on her freehand—her safehand was, of course, pinned inside its sleeve.

The chill out here on the open ocean was something unreal. The captain said that far to the south, the ocean itself actually froze. That sounded incredible; she’d like to see it. She’d occasionally seen snow and ice in Jah Keved, during the odd winter. But an entire ocean of it? Amazing.

She wrote with gloved fingers as she observed the spren she’d named Pattern. At the moment, he had lifted himself up off the surface of the deck, forming a ball of swirling blackness—infinite lines that twisted in ways she could never have captured on the flat page. Instead, she wrote descriptions supplemented with sketches.

“Food…” Pattern said. The sound had a buzzing quality and he vibrated when he spoke.

“Yes,” Shallan said. “We eat it.” She selected a small limafruit from the bowl beside her and placed it in her mouth, then chewed and swallowed.

“Eat,” Pattern said. “You… make it… into you.”

“Yes! Exactly.”

You might be concerned that Tor is releasing too much of Words of Radiance before the book even hits store shelves. Worry not. By my calculations, the currently released excerpts only cover 0.000839% of the 17,000 page manuscript for Words of Radiance. That’s but a feather atop a mountain.

If you’re looking to catch up on The Way of Kings (Buy: Book/eBook), don’t forget about the reread going on over at Tor.com. If it’s anything like their other rereads, it’s great stuff.

Words of Radiance releases on March 4th, 2014. It is available now for preorder: Book/eBook.