A Review: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
So you’ve read The Way of Kings, and you’re not sure whether the second book in Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive worth it. After all, you’ve been burned before, and with the promise of a ten book series, there’s every reason to question whether or not you should invest your heart into a world that may or may not wrap up satisfactorily… or even at all.
Is Words or Radiance worth your time?
The countdown has begun. The Everstorm is coming, and Dalinar struggles to uncover the secrets of the visions that come to him before it’s too late. Kaladin has now joined Dalinar has his official guard. As Kaladin and Bridge Four adjust to their new life, Kaladin struggles with his relationship with his light-eyed masters. And Szeth, the oath-bound Windrunner has been tasked with assassinating Dalinar. Failure is not an outcome that Szeth is accustomed to, and unless Kaladin and his team can work together with Dalinar, the Alethi Highprince of War will fall the same fate as his late brother. Meanwhile, Shallan must take on the full mantle of a light-eyes to survive long enough to reach the Alethi battlefront after Jasnah arranges a marriage between her and Adolin.
Like The Way of Kings before it, Words of Radiance has a large cast of characters but spends the core of its narrative focused one just one of them, and in this novel, it’s Shallan turn. We learn more about her tragic past that was only just alluded to in the first installment. And while I enjoyed Kaladin’s backstory more than Shallan’s, her’s is no less enthralling.
There was a point in this novel where I thought the pacing of the narrative was severely flawed. Just as I suspected something went horribly wrong with how the story was constructed, the midpoint hit with a huge elevation of tension. Because I’m used to reading stories of this length, it hit right as I began to worry. But others who are used to novels a third of the length of this one may find the story stretched too thin.
The added injection of Parshindi worldbuilding in this novel was an absolute joy. Like the first novel, the delivery of the story world is expertly crafted, and with the foundation of worldbuilding behind us, Sanderson has freed himself to dig both deeper and wider, revealing his meticulously woven realm.
I also couldn’t help but recognize that there appeared to be a leveling up in the prose. In this novel, not just compared to The Way of Kings, but in Sanderson’s overall style. While I don’t mind Sanderson’s prose style, I hadn’t expected him to take a step up, and I hope this is an area he continues to develop.
The Way of Kings was an epic fantasy masterwork. Words of Radiance is proof that Sanderson doesn’t intend for the first novel in The Stormlight Archive to be considered a fluke. If you haven’t started this series, get on with it. And if you read the first novel, was satisfied, and now worried about ruining that experience with a sequel, fear not. This novel is possibly superior.
