The Way of Kings: Book One of the Stormlight Archive (The Stormlight Archive, 1) Mass Market Paperback – May 24, 2011

I made a very unusual, very serious mistake in reading this book. The series is not finished, and likely won't be for... oh many years yet. Typically, I make sure that a series is complete before I start it. Not so in this case, and boy was I disappointed to find out that it's actually an in-process event.Nevertheless. This book is fantastic. Incredibly well written, with unusual and well thought out world building, it engages from the very first. Unlike some other epic fantasy series, like the Malazan Book of the Fallen, for example, the story takes off from the beginning. In the Malazan series, the reader is thrown immediately into the action but in a way that made me wonder at first if I missed something and started on Book 2. It was difficult to keep up with the characters at times and hard to understand exactly what was going on; though I still count the Malazan series among my favorites of all time.This series distinguishes itself by keeping the cast of characters fairly simple. Don't get me wrong: there is a plethora of interesting characters here, but we spend enough time with them to really get to understand them, and the way they are organized (with specific chapters of perspective) keeps it logical and allows the reader to flow from one perspective to the next without any disturbance. We don't know just yet, since this is the first in a ten book series, how exactly these characters will all come together - but we know they will. As with most of the great fantasy novels, these are characters that are difficult to assign a simple "good" vs. "evil" description - they all seem to have a little of both.The world building and the magic is phenomenal. The descriptions of all of the plant life makes me see this world as one that is constantly filled with movement: almost as if the flora has been moved from underwater to above ground. The illustrations throughout help the reader to visualize some of these descriptions, and are really well done (though it's hard to read some of the notes on the illustrations on my Kindle - in this case, a hard copy may be better). The non-human creatures are inventive and original. The use of magic - the stormlight - is incredibly unique and captivating. I find myself holding my breath as they breathe in the stormlight... haha!I'm in love with Kaladin's character, and I keep thinking "please don't kill him off, please don't kill him off..." :)One other note: I've read Sanderson's Mistborn series and while I thoroughly enjoyed that, it seems that the Stormlight Archive is so far beyond the Mistborn books with regard to quality that it almost seems like they were written by two different people.If I had to nitpick to find any negatives about this book (very hard to do), it would be the form of cursing used. It didn't take long for me to be annoyed with phrases like "Storm it!" and "Storm you!" and "That's storming idiotic!". This seems to be a common problem I have with most fantasy novels, though. I just wish they'd stick to normal cursing. But like I said, this is an extreme nitpick and really the only negative thing I could think of.Love, love, love this book and hope I don't have to wait TOO long before #3 comes out.**ETA: I alluded to this above, but one point should be underlined: the Kindle version will NOT do justice to the illustrations in this book (and the next). If you don't want to get the full effect by buying a hard copy version, you can check out Brandon Sanderson's website for the illustrations. I highly suggest you do this, as the color in some of the pictures changes everything.**ETA: I actually forgot to mention something I feel is very important. While the rest of the series won't be published for a while, I really do appreciate that Sanderson has left the series (and now I'm really talking more of the second book rather than the first but felt it appropriate to include here) on a good note. While there are of course unanswered questions, and we as readers want to know what happens to all of these folks and how they come together, it still has the sense of a complete ending. I love that he didn't really end with a cliff hanger, at least as far as the action is concerned, and we are not stuck in frustration for the duration. It left me feeling satisfied with the ending, while maintaining my curiosity about the future of this world. On a similar note, I also appreciate that the beginning of the second book wasn't TOO much of a recap of the first. I really hate it when a book within a series repeats the previous books as if the reader is picking up with that version - it just seems a little condescending. I like that the author assumes (as he should) that the reader has already waded through the history prior to arriving at the present and only includes brief references as appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Sanderson, for that.

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a good epic fantasy. The operative word being "enjoyed."The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson may have been over 1,000 pages long, but it didn't read like it. He's one of my favorite authors - I've read Elantris 7 or 8 times by itself - and I'd been looking forward to this book for some time.The main storyline revolves around the war sparked when the black-and-red-skinned Parshendi assassinated the Alethi King. Ten years after the war began, it has devolved into a competition between the Alethi princes for the gemstone hearts of the giant crustacean-like monsters who inhabit the battlefield. Only one of the princes, the Brightlord Dalinar Kholin, sees a problem with this, but his nightmarish visions of the end of the world have alienated him from his peers and made his judgment suspect.The plot was incredible complex, mostly following the stories of several main characters: a former soldier turned slave, forced to labor under the infamous "bridge crews" who are essentially human shields to protect the real warriors from enemy arrows. A thief masquerading as a scholar to steal a priceless magical artifact and save her family. A paranoid young king who sees assassination plots in even his most trusted of advisors. An enslaved assassin with the ability to manipulate the forces of gravity who despises the murderous acts his masters force him to commit. A spren - largely unintelligent, fairy-like creatures attuned to very specific elements like pain, wind, or glory - who is becoming sentient as the human she is fixated with grows back his soul.All the worldbuilding is detailed and very well done, but it does make for a somewhat slow start. So if you mean to dive into it, bring your patience.There was a good amount of repetition throughout the book; for example, I lost count of how many times Sanderson repeated that the Parshendi were not the same creatures as the enslaved parshmen, even though they looked exactly alike. I kept waiting for that to become relevant, but it didn't - at least in this book. There isn't much action for it being 1,000 pages long, and, as it is apparently the first novel in an anticipated 10-novel-long series, nothing is really wrapped up by the end. It's a thousand pages long, but at the end you feel like nothing's happened yet.That being said, it was brilliantly written and engaging, I cared about all of the characters, and it read very quickly despite its length. I'm definitely going to read the next one even if it's 2,000 pages. The world itself was staggering in scope but not so unfamiliar that it alienated the reader; humans are humans and dogs are dogs, although most other life forms seem to be giant crustaceans (which is actually kinda cool; the last time I encountered any kind of giant crustacean was in Stephen King's The Drawing of the Three). Each nation was well-crafted and explored, and each vastly different that the last. One nation is plagued by 'Highstorms' so powerful that they whip building-sized boulders through the air likfe confetti and the plants themselves have learned how to move out of the way. Another is filled with creatures who consider all forms of stone holy.I could go on for a long, long time about this book. But if you enjoy epic fantasy, you'll enjoy this. I really liked it, and I'll probably read it again just before the next book comes out.