Andrew P. Weston

 The Stormlight Archive Review

(Part 1)

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt remember the reviews I completed on Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Series, a thoroughly absorbing adventure stretching over 300 years detailing the exploits of Allomancers on the world of Scadrial.
Allomancers are people with the ability to ingest certain metals, from which they gain enhanced speed, strength, and other powers. Those powers exist, thanks to the existence of two opposing gods, Preservation and Ruin, who strive to counter each other in a never-ending struggle for dominance.
That series also reveals Preservation and Ruin are, in fact, only 2 of 16 opposing creational forces or intents – Shards – which came into existence with the shattering of Adonalsium, the original Supreme Being. Those shards are bound in pairs, and though they bear an aspect of Adonalsium’s original nature, each pair stands divorced from their opposite number while vying for control within the greater Cosmere.

Basically, each fantasy series Sanderson has created is not only an adventure within itself, but, it also forms part of a much greater whole, each facet of which is waiting to be explored.
Consequently, I thought I’d dip my toe into the Stormlight Archive, and the opposing Shards contesting for domination of the world of Roshar: Odium and Honor.

So far, I’ve only delved into the first three of ten proposed books: The Way of Kings; Words of Radiance, and the novella – Edgedancer). As you know, I always do my best NOT to reveal anything important, as each respective author has gone to a great deal of effort to create a story that will keep us enthralled. And where Brandon Sanderson is involved, that creation is truly majestic in scope. So, what I’m going to do is present the blurb from each book and a basic summary of what I thought.
If you want a more detailed exposé of the books themselves, stay tuned for my next item for Amazing Stories, where I’ll delve into each story in much more detail.
Here we go.

The Way of Kings
**************

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

Words of Radiance
****************

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.

Edgedancer
**********

Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older--a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one. Although the young Azish emperor granted her safe haven from an executioner she knows only as Darkness, court life is suffocating the free-spirited Lift, who can't help heading to Yeddaw when she hears the relentless Darkness is there hunting people like her with budding powers. The downtrodden in Yeddaw have no champion, and Lift knows she must seize this awesome responsibility.

**********

The only word of caution I would add, is that you should read the postscript to Edgedancer first – before you actually get into the story. Doing so will allow you to understand Sanderson’s thinking in giving the two main characters of that novella their own special ‘prequel’ as it were. They’re going to be major players at a later stage in a monumental story arc, and will be notable enough that you need to understand their origins.
(And I saw how this worked, firsthand, when I started delving into the third main novel, Oathbringer, as I could relate to their sudden appearance instantly and understood how they would influence the developing story).

So, there you go.
Basically, the opening three books of the Stormlight Archive are epic in every sense of the word. Ambitious, too, with a world full of bizarre plants and animals that have adapted to endure the freakish weather that makes Roshar such a compelling place to try and conjure in your mind. Swords and sorcery. Spirits and demons. A thoroughly believable magic system. Forgotten histories that hold the key to surviving the future. Smokescreens and red-herrings to keep you guessing. It has them all, and serves as an excellent example of what high fantasy is all about.

And don’t forget – stay tuned to the blog’s sidebar for when my in-depth review of these books goes live.