The Way of Kings

Fantasy

First published: 2010
Print length: 1258 pagesTor Fantasy, 2011

Description

Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings launches The Stormlight Archive with an epic fantasy told through several major viewpoints whose lives initially appear unconnected. Kaladin is a lower-class Alethi slave accompanied by the spren Sylphrena. Shallan, an impoverished noblewoman, seeks an apprenticeship with scholar Jasnah Kholin, while her artistic gifts accompany an emerging ability to Soulcast without a device. Highprince Dalinar faces criticism for following a moral code amid war and experiences visions during highstorms. Elsewhere, the assassin Szeth is bound to serve whoever possesses his Oathstone.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Atmospheric · Descriptive · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Variable

Tone

Atmospheric · Earnest · Hopeful · Tense

Structure

Braided

Focus

Character · Plot · World

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

ClassFreedomMoralityPowerRedemptionTrauma

About Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is an American writer of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult fiction whose largest series share the Cosmere universe. His novels favor direct, descriptive prose, dialogue-driven scenes, elaborate settings, and plots built around supernatural systems with intelligible rules. Mistborn makes that method literal: its Allomancers ingest and burn metals for distinct powers, while a rebellion against an immortal ruler proceeds through the mechanics of a confidence game and heist. Sanderson often enlarges private tests of trust into questions of government, religion, and historical memory. The later struggle to govern the Final Empire’s remains turns magical combat into part of a siege and a dispute over political legitimacy. In The Stormlight Archive, he works on a broader scale, rotating among soldiers, scholars, rulers, and assassins whose separate plots gradually converge. The Way of Kings sets apprenticeship, enslavement, and moral conflict against war and recurring highstorms, while subsequent volumes widen the field to contested histories and alliances among kingdoms.