Much ado about nothing!

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Whew!  I finished the darned thing.

It's really only 2.5 stars, but figured I'd be generous as the ending was pretty good.  Dalinar finally started acting like a man.

But as far as I'm concerned it was a lot of to do about not much at all.  There were inconsistencies, and I was so aggravated throughout by some of the insanities of the society that I didn't enjoy it.  And there was no explanation for a lot of it, mainly the reason women had to cover their left hands.  Ridiculous.  And no rationale at all.  Most stories that have screwy rules like that at least try to explain them, even if the explanation is lame.

I certainly have no desire to read another Sanderson.  It was my first and last, thank you very much.



View all my reviews

Another reader made this comment:
I'm sorry you feel that way about Brandon Sanderson, he's my favorite writer and I've read everything he's written and loved every single one. I'm halfway through this book now and having read the entire published set of Wheel of Time books, understand the kind of foundation necessary for a multi-volume epic series. *shrug*

To which I replied:
I understand the foundation necessary for an epic series. I found his characterizations dull. They felt shallow and simplistic. I like a little more complexity. The artificial rules of this culture and their mostly unquestioned acceptance by the characters was annoying to me. Dalinar and Kaladin were the most interesting characters, but Dalinar's prudishness was silly and Kaladin's excessive guilt annoying. Shallan was so naive as to be unbelievable, and the whole issue with the stolen soulcaster had holes so big you could walk through them. There were things about it that were enjoyable - his battle scenes were great, the whole concept of the bridge crews and the shattered plains were intriguing. Since I am obviously in the minority about this book, I don't think Sanderson has to worry about losing one fan.

And here are my updates while reading:
page 864
86.0% "Aw, Dalinar's in love. But he's such a friggin' prude." 2 comments
09/26 page 844
84.0%
09/26 page 700
69.0% "I hate it when authors think I'm stupid. Shallan confessed to stealing the soulcaster, then doesn't tell her her father owned one, and no one wonders where the other one came from? The broken one she replaced her theft with? C'mon."
09/26 page 666
66.0% "All these pages and we still don't know what happened to Tien and maybe we'll find out what happened to Cenn. I'm sure Kaladin is blameless in both deaths and is wallowing in self flagellation."
09/23 page 665
66.0% "Holy Mackerel! Everyone's getting magic!"
09/22 page 644
64.0% "Something's happening to Kaladin and Shallan."
09/21 page 591
59.0% "I'm expecting big things after p. 600!"
09/20 page 591
59.0% "Almost 600 pages."
09/19 page 455
45.0% "A little better. A few are scoffing at the stupid rules."
09/18 page 409
41.0% "I'll be back in a bit."
09/16 page 369
37.0% "Maybe I'm being picky, but would Dalinar really ask himself if his visions are coming from his subconscious mind? Does such a concept exist in such a primitive society?"
09/15 page 356
35.0%
09/15 page 356
35.0% "'His father was there still there.' Another error." 2 comments
09/15 page 325
32.0% "I don't much like this society. Hopefully there will be major changes in the series." 5 comments
09/14 page 181
18.0% "This advanced read copy sure has a lot of mistakes. Hope they got edited out in the final version." 5 comments
09/14 page 141
14.0% "169 must be a typo." 2 comments
09/12 page 169
17.0% "There's something naive about the way this is written."
09/12 page 85
8.0% "It's reminding me of G.R.R. Martin the way each chapter goes to another person and POV."
09/11 page 15
1.0% "My first ever First Reads book. Hope I like it. It's a friggin' brick."