Ben reviewed Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive, #2)
Enjoy a Long Read
5 stars
Great read. If you liked The Way of Kings, you'll like this too. It's a long one.
English language
Words of Radiance is an epic fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson and the second book in The Stormlight Archive series. The novel was published on March 4, 2014 by Tor Books. Words of Radiance consists of one prologue, 89 chapters, an epilogue and 14 interludes. It is preceded by The Way of Kings and followed by Oathbringer. In 2015, it won the David Gemmell Legend Award for best novel. The unabridged audiobook is read by narrator team Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.
Great read. If you liked The Way of Kings, you'll like this too. It's a long one.
Words of Radiance is exciting in ways that Way of Kings couldn't be for one simple reason: surgebinding. This book sees our surgebinders diving deeper into their powers and accepting what they are. There are many answers in this book, but more often than not they raise more questions. The climax of Words of Radiance comes at the end of a Sanderlanche of epic proportions, the momentum of which will launch you right into Oathbringer.
sigh
I get it, I get it. Yours is a fully realized world, deep and well-considered, much as the Mistborn world was. I get it.
What I DON'T get is why keeping the full story of your world a secret until the VERY END of the damn series -- just as he did in the Mistborn series incidentally -- if considered such an accomplishment. Barraging the reader with unanswered questions isn't clever, it's just mean.
end grumpy rant Hmph.
A great book two in a great series. This book should be read by anyone who loves a detailed Fantasy Novel.
Fantastic!