Words of Radiance review

I just realized that I didn't do a review on one of my favorite books! Words of Radiance is the second book in the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. If you go back almost a year, you'll see a review for the first book. My opinions are basically the same; amazing plot, fantastic world and great characters.

The plot is, under everything, the basic 'save the world from the Apocalypse'. There is the time limit to get everything in order, and to train people for what is to come. This was seen only a bit in the first book, and now is the most important theme in the second book.

I've said this with all of Sanderson's works, and Words of Radiance is no different. The world building is just baffling. There is so much that's new and different from our world, but it all makes sense. Everything is beautiful and described with just enough detail to form an image, but not to lose the reader. It helps that many of the more important or detailed images are followed by pictures. So yes, this book has pictures.

And finally the characters. All of their voices are great, down to the smallest characters, who only appear for one chapter. In fact, I think it's those characters that have the best voice (though I have to admit that sometimes those characters can be a little boring.) There isn't to much development in the characters between the beginning and end, but most of that development was shown in the first book. What's more, in this book there are some chapters that go back to look at the past of one of the characters. In the first book it did the same with a different character. So I suppose you get the character development that way.

There are only two things I am a little nit picky about. The first one is something that I noticed in the first book, and that's when Sanderson slips into the omniscient narrator, meaning one chapter will be about one person, but once in a while the opinions of a different person will enter the narrative. This can be as simple as just noting the feelings or intentions of someone who isn't the main character at the time. It's not something that would be too obvious by most readers.

And then something I only noticed in this book. This one versus one battle scenes are... lacking. I think it was three times in the book, he said that the character just 'felt' what to do. I understand that battle scenes, especially one on one, can be very hard to write unless you actually know how to fight with a sword, or a spear, or whatever other weapon is being used. I'm just surprised, because I never saw, or at least never noticed it, in his other books. I think this might actually be the first time that he's done the one on one combats in a book.


All in all, a fantastic book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that likes fantasy. It's similar to high fantasy, with a tiny bit of steampunk thrown in.

(I should also mention the humor. There were several times that I nearly burst out in laughter, and only stopped myself because I was in public.)