Book Review:
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #2)
This Stormlight Archive sequel is much better and more eventful than the first one, which could seem like just a massive prologue in a lot of ways. (The Way of Kings does have great writing, worldbuilding, and character work, but so very little actually happens to advance the series plot that whole book.) My only real issue is that there are so many new things introduced that are clearly just set-up for future volumes and can’t really get dealt with right now… and it’s a little hard to keep all of the various scheming factions (Ghostbloods, Diagram, Darkness, etc.) straight from one another, since we don’t really get to see that much of them quite yet.
But minor quibbles aside, this story is really great. I like the stuff with Shallan’s powers a lot – I think Pattern might be my favorite character in the series so far, though it’s hard not to love Kaladin on those occasions when he can pull his head out of his rear end. (Lift, the thirteen-year-old girl who can metabolize Stormlight from what she eats, is also pretty fantastic even if limited to a single chapter here. I hope we see more of her!) And this is a bit spoilery, but I’m glad Jasnah’s not dead, although I’m disappointed that Szeth isn’t – and that the next book is reportedly going to center on him.
And of course, it’s frustrating that that next installment isn’t due to come out for another two years, which means not only do I have to wait that long, but also that I’ll probably have to reread the first two novels (which are over a thousand pages each) by the time it finally gets here. At least Sanderson is keeping up his typical productivity, so that I’ll have new Mistborn, Legion, and Steelheart sequels to keep me entertained in the meantime.
★★★★☆
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