So, I’m trying to figure out how to do a book review on The Way Of Kings… tell you how amazing it is… and not give you any spoilers. It’s actually a more difficult task than you could imagine. The book is over 1,000 pages, and it’s honestly such an amazing ride. Obviously, you have to be a fan of Fantasy (And High Fantasy at that, though this is also Military Fantasy?) if you want to enjoy this (if you wanna try to get into that genre, pick it up!) It’s a really intricately and just extraordinary written bit of literature.
Bit I say… because… again, it’s over 1,000 words.
Chunk?
Honker?
Big honkin’ piece of literature.
There we go, that’s better.
My friend who introduced me to this book was like, “Uh, how would you give a brief description of it?” And… hmm… that’s a good question.
To sum it up, my cheaty little butt is gonna go and get the quote from goodreads:
According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed…
Goodreads description for the novel.
They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.
Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself – and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.
On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn’t understand and doesn’t really want to fight.
What happened deep in mankind’s past?
Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?
So. You’re following the story of three main characters, really. Shallan, Kaladin (KALADIN <3) and Dalinar. I really adore all of these characters, and I look at this book as two different things. First, it’s an introduction to all three of them, as well as a few side characters that I’m fairly certain are going to be important later on…
And it’s also really Kaladin’s story. It’s an amazing, colorful, just overwhelmingly wonderful story. I laughed, I cried, I felt inspired to write. That’s really all that I can ask for as a reader.
I might actually do a spoiler-y review on my blog as well, because I feel like a lot of the things that I want to talk about in relation to this book are just full of things that would completely ruin the story for anyone who wanted to read it. So… if you want to keep an eye out for that.
Otherwise, know that this was a 5 star book for me; I would have given it more if I could have. The plot is amazing, the magic system is great, the creatures are fantastic, and the overall story that was built up in this book is going to be phenomenal to watch unfold.
I can’t wait to read the next one.
Until next time, y'all! Keep writing and writing, and keep being awesome! Author Amanda McCormick Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Page| NaNo Page | Tumblr | Blog Masterpost | My Writing Group |
![Deep Magic: A Contemporary Gothic Fantasy by [St. Kevern, Gillian]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QGSuVCBjL.jpg)
So, let’s talk about what I’ve been reading. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I went into my Kindle Market and flipped through the free books… and I found this.
Oh, so I need to come back in and edit for this. Last night, while my insomnia was being horrible and not letting me sleep, I was browsing Kindle and I ran across Eve: The Awakening by Jenna Moreci. I watch her blog, and I adore it – I downloaded the first few chapters of this book for free… and I actually really enjoyed it. It tells the story of Eve, a girl with a past – she’s a chimera, and that’s apparently not such a good thing in society in the future. I didn’t get to read enough of the book to actually get a decent impression on it, but I’m going to buy it as soon as I can afford to spend a few bucks, and you should see a full and detailed review of it once I do – from what I saw, I really enjoyed it. I do adore self-published authors! They go through so much, and put in extra effort to make sure that what they’re bringing us is quality work, and you can see it in the writing, in the way that the novel unfolds, and in those first three chapters that I got to read.
Finally, I am making progress on A Game of Thrones. I’ve gotten through the first 3 or 4 chapters… and this novel runs pretty parallel to the show. I’m thinking that I might actually do this particular series in its own blog – or I might just save the bottom portion of book thought Friday as my GRRM update. As of yet, we’re just getting introduced to the characters, so I don’t have many thoughts on it thus far; but trust me, I am quite sure that I will by this time next week.
Yeah, I wanted to go ahead and reread this book, because I want to read the entire series. I read this novel a while ago, but I have this thing about starting a series over if I haven’t been on it for a few months. So, I’m a few chapters into this book… and I have to say that I’m enjoying it just as much the second time as I did the first – if anything, having watched the show, I’m enjoying it more. It’s easier to keep up with all of the characters and locations, now that they’ve been given a name and a face in the television series. Maybe it’s not the best way for me to get to know the characters as far as making sure that I keep cannon, but it’s actually been pretty helpful in helping me to follow along with the book. I am, of course, enjoying the writing style that George R. R. Martin has – I’ve always thought that he was extremely clever in his style; though the book is enormous, I don’t feel like he’s wasting a bunch of words, which is fantastic to me.
Secondly, I am reading Frostbite, the second novel in the Vampire Academy series. I read the first one recently, so I’ve been wanting to get into this – I am about 40 pages into it. I just haven’t had that much time to read lately, so I got a little side tracked with everything else. A Game of Thrones, I just read a few chapters here and there, by the way – but everything else, I generally try to focus down on one thing at a time. I will probably finish this before I finish anything else on my list, just in case you’re curious.
Third on my rather large TBR of my TBR list is House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski. Now, I hadn’t actually intended on reading this book – I didn’t even know anything about it until my friend brought it over and told me it was basically creepypasta, novelized. I am a huge horror fan, and I had to have a look at it – I settled down and read about 30 pages of it to see if it was something that I was interested in… and I have to say that I’m really enjoying it. I won’t go too into detail, because I feel like I will have a long blog about this book, once I’m finished with it – so, we will hold off until then.
And last on my enormous list of things that I should have finished reading some time ago is World War Z by Max Brooks. I actually started this book nearly a year ago, got half way through… and now I’ve decided to pick it back up. I couldn’t just start back in the middle where I was, so I’m having to start over. I should be finished with it fairly soon, however. So, look for a review of this as well!
Author Amanda McCormick 