Words of Radiance
The Stormlight Archive, Book 1
Brandon Sanderson
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: The storm-swept world of Roshar stands on the brink of destruction... but few are aware of the danger, and fewer still can stand against it. The Knights Radiant, people bonded to the elemental spren and powered by Stormlight, long ago abandoned the world, and in the centuries since knowledge of them has been lost and deliberately obscured. If the world is to survive, the Knights Radiant must be reformed... but how, and by whom?
Highprince Dalinar's visions of past cataclysms drive him to seek the Knights, but an incompetent king and petty, infighting nobles stand in his way. His former friend Sadeas has shown his true colors in a betrayal that turns the highprinces against each other, even as unity may be the only key to salvation. But Sadeas is more than just a selfish, short-sighted man, as so many lighteyes princes are; indeed, he may know more about the coming cataclysm than even Dalinar.
Kaladin Stormblessed, once a slave doomed to die as part of Sadeas's disposable bridge crews, finds himself elevated to the rank of captain, unthinkable for a darkeyes... but he finds no peace in his new rank. His ability to inhale and channel Stormlight, and his bond with the windspren Syl, have changed him irrevocably, though even as he hides his true nature from his new lord Dalinar, he struggles to determine what to do with his powers - just as he struggles with his own hatred every time he sees Dalinar with his new ally Highprince Amaram, the man who slaughtered Kaladin's former companions and branded him a slave when he stole the Shardblade Kaladin himself had earned in battle. Syl insists that he cannot indulge his vengeance, that he must find a higher calling, but Kaladin cannot let injustice stand unanswered - even if it costs him everything he has gained.
Shallan's plan to steal from her mentor Jashah to save her failing family ended in disaster - but Shallan's accidentally-discovered abilities prompted the scholar to keep her on as a student, believing the would-be thief to be an important key to her own research. When disaster strikes and leaves Jasnah dead, Shallan and her newly-bonded spren Pattern must take up her research and mission: to find a lost city on the war-torn Shattered Plains. There, perhaps, humanity might find safe harbor from the coming Everstorm. But first Shallan must master her own Stormlight-fueled skills, and confront secrets she's been hiding from herself for most of her life.
Meanwhile, the seemingly-unstoppable Assassin in White strikes down rulers around the world, sowing chaos and bloodshed and confusion, as another force hunts down the emerging Knights Radiant even as they begin to feel their powers.
The Everstorm is almost upon them all...
REVIEW: Sanderson evidently does not believe in recaps or easing readers back into a world; he drops them in the deep end to sink or swim. Since I didn't reread the first volume before picking this one up, that made for some floundering and confusion, as I struggled for my bearings. Once I regained the feel of the world, though, Words of Radiance proved to be another enjoyable entry in this truly grand and sweeping epic fantasy series. All manner of peculiar cultures and creatures populate Roshar, tied by a deep history whose echoes still shape societies long after the original truths and roots have been forgotten (or deliberately obscured; the dominant church of much of the region did much to distort and destroy that which disagreed with its teachings, as churches are wont to do.) As for the characters, they continue to grow richer and more complex, revealing unexpected strengths and weaknesses that usually ring true. A few developments here and there felt forced, one or two of the new characters didn't quite fit in, and something that occurred in the epilogue (no spoilers, sorry) helped shave a half-star from the rating, but overall I enjoyed this one nearly as much as the first one. I'll have to remember to read the third book sooner rather than later, however, so I don't have to spend quite so long re-immersing when I next return to Roshar.
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