Way of Kings Review

Since starting this blog, I vowed to read more sword and sorcery fantasy made for adults. This isn't just because Dragonguard is in that branch of stories, it's also because my writing gravitates towards telling stories about wizards and warriors. But as you may know, I didn't grow up reading high fantasy. I was influenced by tabletop roleplaying games, comics, and rpg video games. This means that I have a lot of faulty assumptions about what it means to be a high fantasy story and what kind of stories these writers tell. I think reading the Dragonbone Chair really opened up my eyes to how big of a discrepancy there was between fantasy readers and the general public.

Williams did a lot to challenge conventions of the genre while still treading the tropes and it was published in 1988. Did he challenge the conventions of the time or was his work seen as standard in 1988? I don't know the answer to that because I'm looking at high fantasy novels from an outsider's perspective. My knowledge of high fantasy comes from media influenced by high fantasy novels and outsider bias. There's a part of me that thinks high fantasy is still about chosen ones going on quests with a group of mixed race and mixed class friends to acquire a MacGuffin. But actual high fantasy novels know better than to walk down that path. Publishers and writers have been fighting that perspective for decades and even a huge success like Game of Thrones hasn't challenged that because critics didn't talk about how HBO was bringing real high fantasy novels to the main stream, they talked about how GRRM was subverting conventions.

So if I'm going to contribute to the conversation about high fantasy I need to know what is being published in the modern age. This lead me to hear about Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives. I was familiar with the author's Mistborn series. I enjoyed aspects of the storytelling, especially those that felt like standard high fantasy. But when some talked about the Stormlight Archives, they didn't just say it was good, they said it was a contender for the greatest Adult Epic Fantasy book of all time. I had to see what all the hype was about.

I finished the Way of Kings a few months back but I've been waiting to move on to the second book. I didn't want to jump from novel to novel for fear that I might miss out on understanding what the book did well and where the flaws laid. Finishing the Way of Kings left me with an odd feeling. Intuitively, I could say that this story wasn't the greatest of all time. Point of fact, I wasn't convinced that the novel needed 425,000 words to tell the story it told. The story took its time developing plots points, used a repetitive approach to character development, and it indulged in world building for its own sake.

https://coppermind.net/wiki/The_Way_of_Kings/Statistical_analysis

Meandering Plots

Of the four main plots presented, Shallan's story was the most straight forward. It was a linear tale about morality whose central story motivation revolved around one character being able to figure out how magic worked. I was compelled by someone's journey to understand a soft magic system. I loved her dynamic with Jasnah and how the two ladies were on a quest for knowledge that took place in a library. But we spent 67,000 words with this character to have a back loaded story. We spent a lot of time inside Shallan's head, learning about her opinions and fears but very little actually occurred. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to spend a lot of time being introspective, I feel like her story was used to lower the intensity of Kaladin's tales. Shallan quickly became my favorite character, but she did very little and learned less.

My least favorite plot had to be Kaladin's flashbacks, but this might be because I'm not a fan of flashbacks. Rather than devolve into a rant about the failings of flashbacks, I'll say that Kaladin's were a model in wasted time spent in the past. We rarely learned anything that we couldn't have figured out through context and the in-story motivation for us learning about his past was nothing more than Kaladin thinking back. Regardless, the plot doesn't hold up on its own. It's a story that does little more than highlight the important moment's of a character's development growing up. For almost 40,000 words we did nothing but learn about the misery that Kaladin suffered. Time and time again the twist was, "life isn't fair for the dark eyes."

For narrative reasons I can't figure out, Dalinar's plot was shared by his son Adolin. There could've been interesting contrast between Adolin and Dalinar if their stories were given equal weight, but they weren't. Roughly a quarter of Dalinar's chapters were spent seeing camp life from the cavalier playboy's perspective and he mostly just thought about his father while pondering the loyalty of other high lords. As for Dalinar's actual plot? It was an interesting political mystery. We had an assassination attempt, a clash of ideals, and surreal dream trips into the past. The last of which might sound a little strange and it is. Still, I liked seeing how the dream trips affected Dalinar and altered his decisions. I enjoyed what twists his story had to offer. I just wish that he as a character didn't spend so much time waffling.

At 127,000 words, Kaladin's story is undeniably the main thrust of the novel. Through his journey we are introduced to an army more interested in competition than the benefit of the nation as a whole. I found this individualistic approach to leadership fascinating and relatable and I thought that the idea of a bridge crew was an interesting solution to a problem of topology. I liked how his story tried to use tactics and infrastructure to overcome cruelty, but I thought that the solution of kindness was overshadowed by the culmination of his power. The story spends a lot of time trying to build up the loyalty of Kaladin's men but it's handled from the perspective of a DM updating his crew's morale instead of a human being forming meaningful friendships. For some, this might've worked but Kaladin's relationship with his bridge crew was far too impersonal for me. Like most of the novel, a large portion of the writing was spent on understanding Kaladin's mindset throughout. The problem is that there usually wasn't a lot for him to adjust to.

While there were great moments within the book, I never felt like I'd read four book's worth of content. Each story was mired down by introspection and repetitive cycles. I understand how people can change through the daily grind of life and I can even understand the appeal of showing that. The problem with Way of King's plotting is that we were continuing to check up on the character's headspace when not a lot had changed. While we see characters changing a little at a time, the story still throws dramatic changes in character development during the final act of the story. So we have slow gradual change in a character's motivation accented by sharp dramatic moments of conflict. This can be an effective way to show character and growth but it loses its impact when we don't see the characters having meaningful interactions with people.

Isolated Characters

While I could talk about Szeth or the ancillary characters that passed into our POV, it would only go to show a pattern of isolation. I think it’s far more interesting to highlight how Sanderson gives the MCs friends, allies, and even lovers, but chooses to have them rarely interact with them. This leads to the characters defaulting to naval gazing and it’s an idea that I’d like to come back to.

My favorite character, the duplicitous noble, Shallan, has every reason to distrust others and do things on her own. However, she isn’t alone. She has a mentor that’s also a mark for her theft, and a love interest. It makes sense for Shallan to avoid talking to them about her feelings, but her mask slips and she comes to see them as friends - even considering reworking her life to be with them. I loved these developments in her mentality, but there was still a lot of her just pondering her own life and plight. She had reason to distrust them and comes from a background where that paranoia fits, but she doesn’t do anything to trying and understand who these people are. She isn’t proactive about the relationships in her life, nor does she use these relationships to work through her problems. Shallan spends most of the book anticipating things rather than causing things to happen.

Kaladin’s flashbacks were about the plight of dark eyes and his relationship with his family. Arguably the most important relationship to his past was the one with his brother. His love for his brother came to define his life more than his relationship with his father, because it became the pivotal reason for him deciding one path forward. Yet all I can say about his brother was that he liked rocks and likely had a developmental disorder. He was more symbol than character. While Kaladin and his father had a handful of discussions, they were mostly glossed over. I can only think of a single moment where Kaladin and his brother interacted with each other for longer than an exchange and it was a pleasant quiet moment. There was an almost love interest in his past that had more of a rapport with Kaladin than his brother, and I got that from a single scene.

Dalinar was a general in an army. We learned more about his rivals than his subordinates. I can’t think of a single officer, but I’m pretty sure one of them at least had a name. More important to Dalinar’s story was his son, his main rival, the widowed former queen, and the King.

I found his relationship with the paranoid king interesting and a little frustrating. While Dalinar was always an Uncle figure to him, the difference in their political power drove a wedge between them. Since their interactions bordered on antagonistic, while also being nurturing, it made sense that Dalinar would play things close to the chest with him. Likewise, Dalinar had no reason to get close to his political rival, Sadeas, but he did. Dalinar and Sadeas’ relationship was my favorite part about his arc. I loved their clash of ideologies and enjoyed watching both compromise to try and achieve their goals. His relationship with the widowed queen had motion but it was hindered by Sanderson leaning on a mystery box.

Dalinar’s relationship with his son was one of the few character interactions that felt like a human being trying to work out their problems with someone they trust. Many of these interactions were meaningful and at least had a temporary impact on his life. The problem was that Dalinar as a character spent so much time going back and forth about the same issues. When Dalinar finally started to solidify his stance, his talks with his son felt extraneous or expository.

Kaladin’s relationship with his fellow bridgecrew was pivotal to not only his arc, but his plot. Yet the characters felt like archetypes or quirks imbued into a person. His supporting cast was that flat and I think a large part of that had to do with Kaladin’s inability to open up. Other characters tell him about their troubled past, or their dreams turned to ash, but Kaladin never shared his personal life with them. Certain passages expressed Sanderson’s desire to make him a leader that’s shrouded by mystery and surrounded by myth his crew invented. I think this decision dramatically contrasted his leadership style in a way that felt forced.

I know for some that introspection is part of a great reading experience. I understand that the term “navel gazing” can be dismissive and elitist, but I think it’s appropriate when the level of introspection is excessive. Like purple prose, it can be subjective, but I think introspection is at its best when it allows a character to process information and we don’t get a lot of that. While the characters are conflicted, the plots don’t give the characters enough new information to warrant so much introspection. The result is that all of the three main characters spend a lot of time mulling over the same facts we heard before. The characters could be more proactive about learning more but instead they spend a lot of time thinking. The regularity it appears makes it feel like it’s a stylistic choice rather than narrative flow or plotting: New chapter, time to spend some time in the character’s head.

Again, there's nothing wrong with introspection, but these characters are on their own when other options present themselves. Shallan schemes and weighs the morality of her actions, but doesn't spend time hunting her mark or following up on clues of deception. Kaladin in the past thinks about his future but doesn't talk to the people that matter. Dalinar is surrounded by a support system, but actively hides his emotions and rarely seeks out council. Kaladin builds up a circle of friends that he never talks to. These characters aren't isolated by circumstance, but rather seem to isolate themselves by choice.

Indulgent World Building

This isn't where I talk about magic systems or map designs. I don't have a problem with Sanderson's world building choices. The issue with this book is that it adds interludes where we follow characters in no way connected to the plot, for the sole purpose of developing the world. This is one of the most common complaints reader's have about Way of Kings. It's undeniably world building for its own sake. Unlike the other problems, this was a decision that I enjoyed.

In addition to a third of the other stories centered around world building, and the plot of all the major characters being intrinsically linked to discovering the magic systems, Way of Kings spends roughly 28,000 words on characters that have nothing to do with the main plot nor character arcs. So why did it work? Well, I think this is where Sanderson's genius really shines. It's not just in his world building, it's in his understanding of the reader's expectations and a deep understanding of story questions.

Something exciting about epic fantasy novels is that there are magic systems, races, and Gods that you don't know anything about. While sword and sorcery fantasy doesn't need to have any of these elements, when a fantasy fan starts a book, they want to know how the story uses these elements. This story question creates a built in mystery and Sanderson doesn't rush into answering these story questions. Instead, he treats it like a mystery that the reader is trying to solve and he does this from page one.

The story does not start by learning about Kaladin or the dark eyes, but rather it starts thousands of years back where we learn that supernatural forces lied. From there every bit of world building must be analyzed with scrutiny. Is it a lie? Is it a half truth? How does this bit of information connect to what we know about storms? It made for some engaging reading around things that are typically exposition and nothing else.

While the set up for many elements were forced, (the shattered plains, the perfect division of labor based on gender, etc.) the development of those ideas were interconnected and handled with care. I liked the small attention to ecology and it got me thinking about the flora of the world in a way that went beyond the acquisition of resources. I put effort into reading the setting as I tried to piece together the rules of the world and was rewarded when unconnected elements and clues came together by the end of the book.

There were still additional mysteries left unanswered by the end of the first book, but that's understandable for a long ongoing series. So while the world building was indulgent, it's the kind of attention to detail that rewards curiosity and deeper analysis. I only wish that same level of detail was applied to the characters or the plot.

Closing Thoughts

Looking at the problems, I think I understand why the book left such an awkward taste in my mouth. There were cool reveals and interesting twists, but I frequently had to slog through slow paced prose to get there. When you're reading a book that's 425,ooo words, it begs the question, was it worth my time? I could've read four or five books with the amount of time I devoted to Way of Kings.

I think that the fame and prestige still justifies the read, but not on its own. If I got no enjoyment out of the book, if I learned nothing about writing or storytelling, than I definitely think it would've been a waste of time. But it wasn't.

I got to see a writer play around with world building in a way that I've never pieced together before. My approach to world building has largely been utilitarian. I'm either setting things up for later, or fleshing out the world, but I haven't used story questions to create a mystery for the reader and the reader alone. I tend to avoid introspection in my writing, so reading an author who loves it gave me a larger overview of what it has to offer and why I detest it. I enjoyed the character that got the least attention and I'm still not entirely sure why, but I think it has to do with the kinds of relationships Shallan had. Reading Way of Kings taught me a lot about a kind of storytelling that I haven't tried to do and that's valuable in its own right.

That's a great high point to end on, but if I ended my review on a bunch of big "as a writer," thoughts, I'd be missing the point of reading. While it can be instructive, if I'm going to read for its own sake, I need to read because it's enjoyable. At the end of the day, most readers don't care about what a story teaches them about the craft. Was it enjoyable? Would you reread it? Would you recommend the book? Will you keep reading the series? These are the questions that other readers want to know the answer to.

This first question is always the most complicated. Most stories fail to deliver a mostly enjoyable story. For me, I'm usually happy if the good outweighs the bad. I'm not sure if I can say that about Way of Kings. Every time I put down the book for multiple days I was on one of Kaladin's flashback chapters. I learned nothing about his personality and very little about the world. The problems were pronounced. They were enough for me to put the book down and rant at the walls, but when it was good I wanted to find someone to gush about the reveal to. Reading the book took me to both extremes, so it's really hard to say if it was an enjoyable book. It was like a hot-cold relationship and I usually knew when I wasn't going to have a good time.

As far as rereading goes, I think if I did I would probably skip a lot of the book. There were parts that were really interesting and several times during the story I thought to myself, "wait, what happened in that earlier chapter? Am I remembering it wrong?" I think there'd be some enjoyment in looking for those moments to clarify things, but not because I loved the book so much I want to experience it again.

Would I recommend it? It really depends on what kind of a book you're looking for. I think you have to be the kind of reader that isn't intimidated by thick books. I think that you'll get a lot more out of the book if you enjoy being in a character's head and/or struggle with connecting with the people in your life. I think that the action on an individual level is great, but the logistics and larger picture of the war are lacking. This is a story about heroes discovering magic in a bleak and selfish world. Way of Kings isn't a feel good story but there are emotionally high moments that might make die-hard cynics give up on the tale. The book does a great job of trying to create a world that isn't like our own and that can stick with readers from a variety of backgrounds. If all of this doesn't tell you if you're going to like it or not, then know that it's a book that people are talking about, so I think if you read a lot of epic fantasy it's worth your time.

Finally, I have to answer the question that I've been struggling with since I put the book down, will I keep reading? I already own the next two books, so I think I will. But if I had only received the first book for Christmas, I don't know. Knowing that the second book isn't likely to have long flashbacks about Kaladin's past is definitely a plus. I want to see where Shallan goes and I'm looking forward to the cast interacting with each other. I still have questions about the world and it's a world that I keep thinking about. I think I would buy the second book, but only after taking a break and reading some other stories. Anyway, thanks for reading my thoughts about Way of Kings. I hope you got something out of this. If not, well, you could always skip the parts you don't like.