Words of Radiance

Well, Stormlight Archives have not been disappointing so far. I'm so excited to be invested in this series as it's coming out, and be at least a small part of the fandom madness and speculation. It's like a mix of that excitement and all the speculation over Harry Potter, and the number of easter eggs and cameos as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has. Anyway.

Way of Kings was great because it did such a great job setting up this amazing Stormlight world but Words of Radiance even better because we're finally expanding on what we had and things are developing and happening at last. The pacing, the absolute ridiculous intricacy of the plot, the complexity of the story, the layers upon layers upon layers of storytelling, and the tremendous interweaving of plotlines and backstories and characterwork... I really wonder how he keeps everything straight in his head.

I'm almost at a loss of how to review this honestly. This was a 1,310 page chonker but it went by faster than books less than a quarter of its size. I was speculating every step of the way and I had comments for almost every single chapter.

Kaladin was pretty infuriating for most of this book. He reminded me so much of a hormonal teenager that is just stuck in his “oh, woe is me” rut all the time. In fact, he reminded me of Harry Potter in Order of the Phoenix, where he just mopes for the entire book feeling like the whole world is against him. Kaladin was pretty much like that. The only times I enjoyed his scenes was whenever he was with Shallan, because she's the only character that actually bothered to call out his bullshit and which helped him snap out of his misery jerking for a bit.

Shallan has fast become one of my favourite characters this book. She was okay in the first book but I think I liked Jasnah better. Well, Jasnah was pretty much gone for most of this book (I called it halfway through that she hadn't actually died), so Shallan took over and boy did she grow. She's been through some shit but she still gets up and tries to make it through everyday with a smile on her lips and a quip at the end of her tongue. We spend most of this book thoroughly hating her abusive dad, Lin Davar, only to realise that he had been maligned and that it had actually been Shallan who had killed her own mom instead. It was a truth she had to confront in order to take the final step to becoming a Knight Radiant. What is it going to mean for her development in the next book? What would it mean for her that she had basically murdered both her parents, one of them when she was just six years old? This complicates her character even more and I'm really here for that level of complexity.

Adolin... I didn't like him for the first half of the book but after he finally stopped being a prick to Kaladin and decided to buddy up with him, he grew a lot more tolerable. Poor dude though. He's so intricately connected to all of the Knights Radiant, but isn't one himself. My jaw also dropped when he suddenly, randomly murdered Sadeas in broad daylight at the end. What is that going to mean for him in the next book? Not that I minded what happened to Sadeas, of course. He really had that coming for him.

I'm really excited also at the introduction of Lift. She was oozing awesomeness throughout and I'm excited to see if she's going to turn out as one of the Knights Radiant too, even though she's, what, 13?

I mean, what's there to really say? If you liked Way of Kings, you'll probably enjoy this one even more. If you didn't like Way of Kings, then this one is going to be even more confusing for you. If you haven't read Way of Kings then it's a bit of a no-brainer - go read that one first! If, like me, you need a refresher before going into this one, check out the chapter summary of Way of Kings on Coppermind (fan wiki). It takes a while to get back into the stride of things especially if you haven't read it for a while, but once things get going, they really get going. Couldn't put this one down.