“Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before destination.”
Once upon a Capricon (not to be confused with Once Upon a Capricon, which was a couple years later), I met a gentleman who said I should read some books by Brandon Sanderson. To be clear, he gave me specific titles, though in the end, it really was just a “read everything he wrote” recommendation. (He also warned me that Blake would try to sell me books, and here I am, eagerly awaiting the next one in that series.)
Had I planned better, I would have re-read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance before the November release of Oathbringer. But my fall months were somewhat unusual, and certainly not as I had planned, so here I am, a month after buying Oathbringer, just finishing re-reading the first book.
The danger of getting hooked on Brandon Sanderson’s writing is that he doesn’t have just one good series. At any given time, he is working on three or four books, updating his website with the progression. At the moment, it shows a first draft, a second draft, and a release (Oathbringer, yay!) at 100%, and a mystery project at 62%.
In The Way of Kings, we follow the stories of Kaladin (a slave), Dalinar (a lighteyes, uncle to the King), and Shallan (a lighteyes hoping to become ward of the King’s sister). The world and the characters grow through the book, learning about themselves and making discoveries that could impact the entire world as they know it. The thing to see, in this and the subsequent nine novels, is what they do with that knowledge, assuming they manage to survive.
Oh, did I forget to mention he’s not even halfway through writing the series? It’s epic, and totally worth reading (and re-reading).