The Way of Kings
was published twelve years ago at the time of writing this review and thus
began Brandon Sanderson’s magnum opus, The Stormlight Archive. Projected to be ten full length novels, four
released at the time of writing with the fifth currently being written all
clocking in at over 1,000 pages per installment plus two supplemental novellas. As such, when reviewing these books it’s
going to be impossible to say everything I can about each installment unless these
reviews become the length of a novel. The
Way of Kings as a novel has three main plotlines told from four main perspectives,
the others coming from the interlude chapters, the prologue, and the epilogue. Kaladin, a slave on the Shattered Planes
where the human Alethi fight the Rosharan Parshendi; Shallan, a would be ward
from a lesser house attempting to steal a fabrial (a device some can use to
transmute objects into one of ten essences through Soulcasting) from Brightlady
Jasnah Kholin; and Dalinar and Adolin Kholin, one of the Alethi Brightlords and
his oldest son high in the court of the Alethi king Elokhar investigating an
attempt on the king’s life plus navigating the complex court politics are the
three prongs of the plot plus chapters dedicated to Kaladin’s past during the
six years leading up to the main time period of the novel. The flashback chapters are something that are
used for each installment of The Stormlight Archive adding an extra
focus on a particular character or characters for that novel. As such, his plotline will be discussed last
in this review in tandem with the fact that it is also the one with the most
focus for The Way of Kings essentially making him the main character.
Before diving into the three plotlines, time must be
taken to discuss the prologue and its point of view character, Szeth
son-son-Vallano Truthless of Shinovar, an assassin who is essentially cursed
into killing people despite being a pacifist.
The prologue is the first perspective of the assassination of Gavilar
Kholin, the previous king, on the night he was signing a treaty with the
Parshendi which could have ended the war.
This sequence will be revisited in subsequent novels from different perspectives
but the perspective of Szeth is an interesting one as it is caked in regret and
a reluctance to actually kill the king.
Gavilar’s death and final words to Szeth are also integral to what The
Way of Kings is about, an attempt to restore the honor to a people who have
been waging a horrific war against and enslaving an innocent group of
people. Sanderson’s exploration of a
colonial society and how colonialism can replace and degrade other cultures. While not groundbreaking or anything, there
is clearly an attempt to explore it throughout this novel and The Stormlight
Archive as a whole. The prologue is
also one of the few times during The Way of Kings where the magic system
is used, Szeth is technically one of the Knights Radiant, an ancient order who
use Shardplate as armor, Shardblades as weapons, and swear a series of five
oaths to gain abilities based on an order they are fit to be an ideal of. The Way of Kings establishes them in
the minds of the reader as unreliable, abandoning the people of Roshar long
before the book began and Szeth being introduced as a Radiant (though not
revealed to be one until much later in the novel) Sanderson seeds the idea of
distrust of the magic system. This isn’t
to say there isn’t magic, there are magic objects and the currency is infused
with a magic energy which keeps the book at the level of a high magic system though
the true complexities aren’t revealed in this novel, keeping to a basic
introduction.
The plotline split between Dalinar and Adolin Kholin
is perhaps the least involving the magic system and fantasy elements, instead
being more focused on the political elements of Elokhar’s court. Much of the plot is one that Sanderson uses
for worldbuilding, exploring the relationships between the brightlords and highprinces
to show how much of an outlier Dalinar acts on Roshar. Sanderson sets up Dalinar as someone who at
one point was a warmonger and is clearly holding onto previous trauma, trauma
which will be revealed in a later book, but through his experience and the loss
of his brother Gavilar is clearly weighing on him. His two sons, Renarin and Adolin, are clearly
the world to him and he is training the both of them to act with genuine honor
and care for their men. Dalinar also,
and perhaps most importantly, doesn’t use bridge crews as a genuine act of
humanity towards his soldiers. While he
is set up as the one moral highprince, he is still part of a system built on
discrimination, the Alethi nobility and upper class all having light eyes while
the middle, lower, and slave classes have dark eyes and as such are treated in
many cases as subhuman. He also has been
having several visions and believes he may be going insane as they appear often
when a storm is coming and much of his discussions with Adolin are about
eventually abdicating his position so his son can secure it. This means that Adolin’s point of view
chapters are often exploring the quiet uncertainty of a noble character. Adolin and Renarin are a perfect pair of
siblings in construction of their characters, working as foils of one another
with Renarin being less developed since we don’t get anything from his point of
view. Adolin’s uncertainty and paranoia
is especially important as he continually points to Sadeas, the highprince Elokhar
trusts equally to Dalinar. Sadeas is
cruel and clearly antagonistic, but not an unintelligent man as he makes all of
the right choices to further his aims and grabs for power. Taking power is what this plotline has at its
center and it builds to one of the most memorable scenes in The Stormlight
Archive thus far when the mystery of who attempted to kill Elokhar by
cutting his saddle is revealed which will not be spoiled here.
Shallan Davar’s plotline is the shortest of the three
plotlines, mainly because it reveals that all three plotlines of The Way of
Kings are getting chess pieces on the board for the rest of the
series. While this doesn’t stop
Sanderson from developing a character arc for each plotline that has a beginning,
middle, and end, it does mean that Shallan’s plotline feels the most
separate. Geographically The Way of
Kings primarily takes place on the Shattered Plains where the war with the
Parshendi is being fought, except for Shallan’s plot which is in the city of
Kharbranth where she seeks to be the ward of Jasnah Kholin to save her family
which had a Soulcaster which broke shortly before her father died. Shallan is also the character who hasn’t
quite been developed yet into who she will become, mainly because her mind is
so focused on stealing the Soulcaster that while you get to see her interact
with others, flirt, and have a genuinely interesting clever personality, you
miss a lot of her insecurities here as they are mainly pushed down when the
certainty of her task is at hand. She
eventually succeeds in becoming Jasnah’s ward, has this nice relationship with
an archivist, and geos to some desperate places to achieve her goal and escape
unscathed. Where she ends the novel is
brilliant, especially the last few chapters from her perspective and Jasnah as
a character works incredibly well as a foil, but it’s a very simple plotline and
is maybe the one thing from The Way of Kings that falls in places.
The final plotline takes up most of The Way of
Kings, Kaladin Stormblessed is a darkeyes: the son of a surgeon, his father
was saving to eventually send him to become a surgeon but due to lighteyes
discrimination, mistrust in his town, and a series of unfortunate events he
enlists as a soldier under brightlord Meridas Amaram to protect and watch over
his drafted younger brother, Tien. While
Kaladin makes a good soldier, he is eventually betrayed and his brother killed
in battle, something for which he blames himself for. Kaladin is branded as a slave and sent to the
Shattered Plains where he is a runner on a bridge crew: a group of slaves ‘led’
to carry bridges which armies can fight in battles. This is a duty that kills most and Kaladin is
assigned to Bridge Four, a crew that has the most casualties and the least
leadership. Kaladin’s first instinct
after a bridge run is to genuinely end it all, he is at the worst of a major
depressive episode and his situation and undergoing trauma is contributing to
that outcome. On Roshar there are
creatures called spren which are the essence of objects and concepts like sickness
and death which can gather around things and be seen and a windspren which has
gained some sort of consciousness called Syl has attached herself to Kaladin
and through another genuinely brilliant scene convinces him to attempt to live,
not just survive, but live. He uses his
training to slowly bring the rest of Bridge Four into an actual unit and give
them a chance for survival. At every
turn his superiors and those outside of the bridge crews do anything in their
power to bring him down since he inspires hope.
Sanderson is brilliant at pacing out the small victories to make the defeats
feel all the more real and devastating.
Having the other members of Bridge Four slowly come around to Kaladin
means that they all get time to develop.
Teft, an older slave who genuinely believe the Radiants will return, and
Rock, a Horneater who believes in Kaladin due to sensing his potential as a Radiant
and seeing Syl when no one else can. They
are the first two and the most developed, both being great, but the others including
Lopen and even Moash deserve mention.
Finally, a quick note for Cosmere fans, Hoid is here
as King Elokhar’s Wit and is perhaps at his most delightful though I will save
discussion on his role for further novels.
Overall, The Way of Kings is an utterly
brilliant novel. It’s an easy read with
Sanderson’s style with the pace moving throughout the 1,000 pages knowing when
to switch plotlines and change characters.
It’s four main protagonists are among Sanderson’s most memorable and
this is the book that got me hooked on his work long before reading any of his
others giving it a special place in my heart.
All that’s left to say is life before death, strength before weakness,
journey before destination. 9/10.
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