This year I made a promise to myself that I'd read fifty novels. At first it started great, with the Marcus Ryker Series, @spectrumecon's Sapiens Loop and numerous other novels.
Then from March till April I had a lull in my reading, a stop.
To be honest, I don't know what caused it, the words were jumbled, the pages looked to long and too plenty, I realized I needed a breather, and thus I took it.
By the last week of June though, I decided to come back and come back right! That meant going to complete previous book series that I had started.
The first one that came to mind was the Stormlight Archives, a book series that I've already mentioned on here once before.
It is a ten book series and so far about five books have been released with two or three novella's (not entirely sure).
Each book is over a thousand pages and there'll be ten of them just to show you the bulk of the project for both the author and the reader.
Regardless, I had started it, and even dropped a review of the first book The Way Of Kings sometime last year.
On this try though, I had to read that book again, and progress to the next.
Words Of Radiance ✨
Plot
In this novel, we follow the journey of Kaladin, Shallan and Dalinar as they move uncover the secrets of the knights radiant.
This novel, although being the second in the series already feels like the climax of the story. The pacing and actions leave you on the edge of your seat while reading.
From the adventures of Shallan as she journeys from Jah Keved to the Shattered Plains, to the experiences of Kaladin as he learns, loses and regains his powers, then the understanding and determination of Dalinar as he moves to unite Alethkar.
These three main characters and their seperate yet intertwined journey and challenges, coupled with other side characters and their own happenings makes this book packed to the brim with incidents, actions and shocks.
With that in mind, it's just easy to say that its an emotional rollercoaster, one where there's no rest down to the last chapter and last lines by Wit.
Brandon carves the story well, with the first book, The Way Of Kings, introducing our main characters, this second book, builds them up.
It opens their insides, spilling their secrets and allows the audience to understand them more. This holds true in particular to Shallan.
We get to learn more about her broken home, learn the truths amongst the lies and understand the nature of her powers and her bond with pattern.
With this revelation, everything becomes clear, to both us the readers and to her. Her powers are fully awoken and she's now a Knight Radiant, we get to better appreciate her as a character and as a person. Best of all, we gain and are able to give a little more love to her father which she killed with her own hands (just a tiny spoiler sneaked in there😂)
The character development didn't happen for only the main characters. We get to see it even more distinctively in the King Elhokar.
His development is one that has been long coming since the first book, and I'm so glad I was able to witness it, or at least a hint of it.
I do hope in the next book, I'd read more about this..
Even with all these happenings, the ending of the book remains the most exciting with multiple events happening at once.
It marks an ending to the prologue and the start of the real battle against the greater evil.
With Dalinar leading the Alethi to the middle of the shattered plains so they can vinish the vengeance pact, then the Parshendi turning to their monsters and gods of old, the Assassin in White coming to kill Dalinar and Kaladin regaining his powers to come and save him, the discovery of Urithuru and the the release of Odium, it simply leaves readers out of breath, waiting in a standstill, minds crazed and expressions euphoric.
At the very end, we get an unexpected revival and a few parting words from my personal favorite character Wit.
This was another great read which drew me in immediately I started with the first chapter.
Once you begin, you wouldn't even notice the entire length until you've hit the last page or middle chapter.
This particular book was a thousand and sixty-nine pages and I loved every single one!
It's a full 10 stars for me.
I've already read the novella of a hundred and eighty pages, Edgedancer, that's chronologically after this book. The review would drop soon too.
This coming week, I'll crack into the third book of the series, I wonder what Brandon has for me next...
❤️
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