Reviews tagging 'War'

The Way of Kings: Book One of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

229 reviews

aliceruthless's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

With every reread I find new information. It’s a thick and heavy read but feels relevant for the times. 
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random19379's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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thequack's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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nikkihill22's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I overall enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is very slow to start, it took me a month and a half to listen to the audio book on 1.4x speed. I did end up really enjoying all of the characters,
although Kaladin cracks me up a little bit with his “all light eyes are terrible” followed almost immediately by “maybe this one is good tho? I’m gonna devote my entire life to finding out if that’s true”
. I adore Shallan and Jasnah very much. 

I do think the book was almost entirely character driven and set up for the rest of the series, which I tend to enjoy but made it a bit of a slog. Near the very end, it started to make sense as a whole story Sanderson is telling, but the fact it took 40 audio hours to even begin piecing things together into one coherent plot is wild. But Sanderson is an excellent world builder, and that aspect really shines in this story.
That said, I need to know what’s with his fixation of making a race of enslaved, docile people that maybe have some sort of secret and aren’t so docile after all 
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adri_enne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow. Just wow. I was enjoying the character development and stories throughout the book, but those last 200 pages were AMAZING! I swear, I couldn’t put the book down. The pacing picked up so quickly that I’m still sitting here wondering what the hell just happened! The war scenes were incredible, the world-building was out of this world, and the reveals were mind-blowing—I mean, I’m perplexed. 
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haroldtheboogie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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nightmarelized's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's difficult to articulate words for a review on this because of how much I want to say. 
I loved it, and will continue following the series from now on.

When it says "High Fantasy," it means it. If you are not a full on fantasy nerd yet, you might struggle with this book. It constantly switches in POVs, timelines, flashbacks, with 5 main POVs and 18 total. Insanely large scale worldbuilding with several detailed cultures, languages, and life styles. Thousands of years of histories, multiple magic and political systems. It's a lot to handle at once, but never once I felt like the book is info-dumping. The page count is totally justified. 

It starts slow, REALLY slow. I can see many people unable to get through it due to the sheer amount characters and information it tries to present. You either love it or hate it.
It is the first book in a massive 10 book series, and it sure does settle the ground for your entry to this whole new world. The "payoff" really only starts at the last 100 pages, the ending is a rapid fire of resolutions that felt so satisfying, yet still leaving for more to be desired on the next book. I read the book across a month, but read the last part in one day. That says something.

Favorite highlights: Leadership. Justice. Trust. Overcoming mental health and grief. Exploring real world problems in a fictional world. And, of course:
"Journey Before Destination."

If you are planning to step into this series, be ready for your brain to be rewired. Now everything you see will be a Stormlight reference!


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literarydumpling's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

WHEW what a way to end a book!

Lots of rich world building, a wonderful magic system, and very engaging characters.

Did suffer from me wanting to stick with one character's POV but towards the last two parts I was quite invested in everyone's POV.

You can tell it is set up for book two, but the book has enough going on that nothing feels like filler to only set up things for book two; everything has its place and reason. I definitely want to find out more and the world is so immersive, which is what I always enjoy from a good fantasy book.

I also don't think my brain stopped whirring in the last couple parts because so much was happening and it was paced so well. Honestly a very great book once you get into the rhythm of it, but you do need to dedicate some time to it.
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alix_tz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Extremely well written and creative. Hard to put down even though the pace is slow at times. A lot of very intriguing elements that are still not completely resolved by the end of the first book, so this is not a stand alone volume in the series. 
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caitlinemccann's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Listened to this on audiobook during our work commutes, so it was a long slow read with that restriction. But it was fun to have something to look forward to and get sucked into during LA traffic. 
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