Words of Radiance is the second installment in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive epic fantasy series, published by Tor. This novel picks up where The Way of Kings left off. Those of you who have read the first book know that it ended with many unanswered questions and tons of foreshadowing. With the first in the series having been published in 2010, it has been a long four year wait pondering the ways everything could play out. On March 4th, we finally got what every Sanderson fan has been waiting for. Since this is the second novel in the series, I will not go through a summary of the world as I assume anyone looking to read this should have read the previous one. If you have not, I strongly encourage it, it is worth the read. I also will not go into much of a recap in case anyone reading this has not read Way of Kings, though there may be spoilers from that book here.
I think most people would agree that Sanderson is an expert both in characterization and in creating magic systems. While most of the characters were established in the first book, they are further expanded here. Some of the bridgemen who were more ancillary characters see stronger stories and deeper roots. Where the character depth really shines is with Shallan. This is absolutely her book. Don’t get me wrong, Kaladin and Dalinar are still major part of this story. I simply mean that while Way of Kings really focused on Kalidin, his back story and his growth, Words of Radiance does the same for Shallan. She really transforms in this book from the way we perceived her in the previous novel. Both her past and her development make you see a different side, which is that of a much stronger, and frankly bad-ass, young woman.
The magic system also shows some growth from where we left off. We more or less understand the significance of stormlight in the magic through not only Szeth, but Kaladin as well. Much of Jasnah’s and now also Shallan’s research expands upon both our and the charter’s understandings of this system. You will see more of it and in a much more developed sense. The other aspect of this system that we see a deeper understanding of is the nature of spren. These strange, semi-natural, yet somewhat mystical creatures do have origins as well as parts to play, as we have seen with Syl and Kaladin.
Another great things about this is story is that it never gets stale . There are perpetual turns which are largely unexpected. Even the expected ones tend to keep you on your toes. The many shifting vantage points of the same situations is another great strength here. You can see the same events happening from multiple perspectives. It really puts an interesting spin on things wen you see the different ways an event is seen as well as how different characters are viewed. I wish I saw this more often. The only really complaint I had with the stories was the same one I had in Way of Kings. I can’t say that I really love the Interludes. There was only one that I really enjoyed, that of Eshonai. I know that most (certainly not all) of these come together at the end, but I tended to find myself pushing through them to get back to the meat of the story.
Though is book is huge, like the previous one (1088pp for the Kindle version, this is why I have not posted in a while), I still manged to read it in less than a week. I could not put it down. I would get home from work, read it within an hour of settling down, and then got to bed way later than I should because I just couldn’t stop. To me, that separates a good book from a great one. I know I am slightly biased as a fan, but I honestly felt this was phenomenal. I easily give it 5/5. I just hope we do not have to wait nearly as long for the third Stormlight Archive novel.
You can find out more about this book, series and author by checking out the corresponding pages at GoodReads, as well as Brandon Sanderson’s own web page.
