Week 42 Review: Words of Radiance

From Goodreads:

Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.

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.

My Review:
Yeah, wow, this book was just incredible! After that ending of WoK, I had to know what was going to happen next! It was just so incredible to read, all the situations that they got into, all the politics and scheming, but also the warning, that the last Desolation is coming. 

In WoK, we got Kaladin's flashbacks. In this book, we got Shallan's. I both loved and hated these parts, because it was great to see more of their lives, but it was also taking us away from what was happening in the present. I wanted both, though! Learning about what Shallan went through as a child, even knowing it was hard, knowing she killed her dad, watching her as she was experiencing that was heartbreaking.

One thing that I really loved about this book, was that all the interludes had perspectives from the Listeners-what the humans called Parshendi. I really enjoyed learning about their culture, and the mystery of why they had the king killed. But I still have so many questions, because the Listeners themselves don't know, or because it's so part of their world, they don't think about it. 

Like with The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance has a text named the same within. And in the 3rd part, we got excerpts from it (I loved the various epigraphs for each part, but I really enjoyed this one in particular) because Words of Radiance was basically about the Knights Radiant. So I enjoyed learning about them from a book written not that long after the Recreance, 200 years, which itself was only a few centuries after the last Desolation, vs the 4500 odd years since that last Desolation, Words of Radiance is old. So less biased then a more modern take, but still admits that they they too have bias, but it was still great to learn from! 

Oh, man, that ending! These characters went through so much, and to have it end like that, well, I knew it couldn't end too well, given that this is book 2 of a 10 book series with two 5 book story arcs (I wonder if arc two is going to be in the future, with a new cast of characters?) but yeah, it was hard. And I can't wait to see them deal with this in Oathbringer! 

This was such an incredible read, and I'm so excited to see where the series goes from here! 

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: The Stormlight Archive #2, The Cosmere
Read: October 12th, 2020
Source: Bought
Reason Why: Love his writing, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2020 Book! 
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: March 4th 2014 

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars