Author: Brandon Sanderson
Published: 2010
Publisher: Tor Books
Series: The Stormlight Archive #1
1004 pages (hardcover)
Like many other Wheel of Time fans, I became interested in Brandon Sanderson’s works after him being chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series. This is the first work I’ve ever read of Sanderson’s, and it actually is his most recent. The Stormlight Archive is planned to be a 10 book series at the moment, which is kind of daunting given the first book is just over a thousand pages on its own (but wait! you might be thinking. The longest book you’ve read is 1200 pages! Yes, but this book is a large hardcover novel. In paperback, I’m sure this will be about the same, or exceed). My general feelings towards the book is mostly positive, though I did find some issues with it, which I will explain after I attempt to summarize this behemoth :P
To very briefly summarize the setting, a long time ago, the Almighty made Shardplate and Shardblades (magic armor and weapons) for the Knights Radiant who fight against the Voidbringers. One day, the Knights Radiant gave up their Shardplates and Blades and left, abandoning mankind (so the legends speak). The regular humans started fighting over the Shardplates and Blades that the Knights left behind. In present time, there’s a bunch of highprinces fighting on the Shattered Plains against a people called the Parshendi for gemhearts from monsters, as well as trying to claim Shardplates and Blades from one another.
The world this story takes place in has quickly become one of my favourite fictional worlds. There are frequent storms called highstorms, and somehow, these storms give off a sort of energy or light. This light is found in their money, which are spheres. People like to leave their spheres out in the storms so they can be infused with stormlight. It doesn’t really up the value of the money or anything — it’s like the difference between a crisp new dollar bill and a wrinkled one. Anyway, the stormlight also seems to be the thing that empowers the Shardplates, and one of the characters, Kaladin, seems to be able to use stormlight too … Anyway, the frequency of the highstorms in this world has completely shaped the terrain, the flora and fauna, and the way humans live in this world.
There’s many characters, but three I consider the main characters — Kaladin, Dalinar and Shallan. In the context of this first book, I only really consider the first two to be of any significance, but anyway … each character has their own separate plotline for the most part, only vaguely related to one another. Kaladin is my favourite to read about in this book; I found him the most interesting. Kaladin was betrayed by his highprince and sent to work as a slave in bridgecrews. Kaladin has the pleasure of meeting Syl, who he believes to be a windspren (which I think is like a little fairy thing … and super cute). She follows him around and later, they develop a supernatural bond to one another. Dalinar is a highprince of Alethkar, the uncle to the current king, and currently leading his troops in fighting on the Shattered Plains. He gets strange visions whenever there’s a highstorm. And lastly, Shallan is a young woman trying to become a ward of the Princess Jasnah, with an ulterior motive.
One of the issues I had with this book was that for a long time, I wasn’t sure what the overall plot was. I understood the characters’ separate stories perfectly well, but I wasn’t sure what tied them together. By the end of the novel, I have a better understanding, though truth be told, it is still not crystal clear to me (most of all, Shallan’s part of the story). I’m not really sure who the villain is either, if there is one, though to be fair, the characters provide enough internal turmoil to fight against already, haha. The characters are really wonderfully thought out.
This is a very long book, and in my opinion, unnecessarily lengthy. I’m almost positive it can be shaved down to 800 pages or even less.The beginning was quite slow and a little difficult to get into, and there is a lot of background information thrown at you. There are some chapters, scenes and interludes that had me wondering what the point of it was. However, if you remain patient, the book begins to pick up around the 500-page mark (yes, you must be really patient). After that point, it becomes quite exciting and intriguing. The last 150 pages or so? I was glued to the book. For a book that started off kind of so-so, I’m very excited for the second book to be published now.
This is an epic fantasy, but not really in the same vein as Tolkein or Robert Jordan where we have a bunch of characters going on a journey to vanquish some evil. Like I mentioned earlier, this has a lot more to do with characters. The biggest theme in this book was leadership. I was actually quite impressed with a lot of the leadership philosophies presented in this book. Another theme was truth. The characters struggle with themselves for the most part, in trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong, legally and morally. As much as I love a good plot-driven book, I also love stories that deal with humanity trying to differentiate between black and white.
Do I recommend this book? I’m going to say yes, but not to everyone. This one book alone is quite a time investment, because like I said, the beginning can feel drawn out and the lack of a unified plot may be a bit frustrating. However, if you are optimistic like me … or maybe just want to explore a unique world … and believe there’s great things in store for this series, then I think for sure, you should check this out :)
My Rating: 3.5/5
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