4.5 ⭐️

Characters - 9/10
Atmosphere - 7/10
World - 9/10
Plot - 8/10
Emotional Impact & Enjoyment - 8/10
Writing - 8/10

This is a great epic fantasy book. Even though I was intimidated by its >1000 page length, this was a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience from start to finish. I loved the three main character POVs in this story, and there were no moments where I felt disappointed to be leaving one character POV to switch to another - every storyline was interesting and kept me intrigued.

Because of its length you really do become very acquainted with the characters and you come to really strongly care about them. The character journeys in this book were all really rewarding in their own unique ways, and every chapter in the story allowed you to learn something about them, or the world, or to see some development between characters.

While I don’t have a major criticism of how the plot developed, I did feel by the end that I was expecting a little more from the final chapters than I got. There were some truly great moments and reveals at the end of this book (as well as throughout), but I felt like the classic Brandon ‘Sanderlanche’ could have been even more powerful and I didn’t expect some elements of the story to end where it did. Having finished it, I now realise that this whole book was just a massive prologue for the rest of the books in the series.

That being said, I had a great experience reading this book. And it’s safe to say that I’m very very keen to read book 2, Words of Radiance (albeit after a little break)!