My first adult fantasy book was Eye of The World and my first Sanderson book was Way Of Kings out of spite at people saying they were too difficult to start with
Those are such great places to start, honestly -- I always wanted to enter Sanderson's work through the SA because I love a good challenge, and I hate being told I shouldn't read something! lol
@@ManCarryingThing I've never been part of a book fandom, I just read it as It was recommended it to me, loved the series so far, didn't see it as a "challenging read" - am i wrong? Only time I felt something was challenging was "Malazan book of the fallen" - i don't mean that as an arrogant statement - nobody cares about reading skills lmfao, maybe it is just because i love large world building series that make ya think
@@Mistborn94 Honestly it does not matter. I've read SA first and then I went trough Warbreaker and Mistborn and was like "ooooh, hold up for a moment!" during some moments. As long as you remember what you've read before, you can connect it no matter the order.
i bingeread the first three books in the span of about a week and a half, very much didnt find them too slow was full of suspense just wanting to know what happens next haha
@@ronanward6411 My god you are a trooper sir. I read the first Mistborn book and absolutely loved it. But, I decided to wait on finishing the whole series because I heard about The Way of Kings and how good it was. It took me a whole month to finish it, but I have loved every single page. I'm actually a writer myself, and worldbuilding is by far my favorite part of writing a book. And I'm sure you know how absolutely astonishing the worldbuilding is in twok. The plants, the weather, the geography, everything. I have never felt such love and dedication from a world created by an author. It inspires me to put in the same love and dedication.
"Hmm, I gotcha, huh" The best part is, that this is absolutely something Brandon would say. With about the same inflection, too. Like, that was a spot-on Brandon impression
Same! Besides the Cosmere, I can count on one hand the number of other series I've read in the past 5 years. I'll probably start reading other books again, once I finish with the Cosmere.
Oh my gosh! I was the exact same. I went several years after college not reading and tried several shorter books to get me back into reading, but it always stopped after a week or two. I tried Way of Kings while in a book store on a whim hoping a giant brick would encourage me to read better than the shorter ones, and I was gripped by the first Kaladin chapter
Not to copy every other response, but this is exactly what happened to me lol. Hadn't read a book for pleasure in maybe 5 or 6 years then I blazed through this book in less than a month. Accessible prose and yet such gravitas when it's needed
I guess that sentiment of "Don't start with SA" is really related to that slowness. I've read someone say that ideally you need to "trust" Brandon a bit to understand that it WILL pay off. Which makes sense, because if you've read pretty much any of his other books you know it will. That said, it really depends on the reader, some people have no problem committing to it despite the slowness.
@@Anomanderrake_ That much is true lol Honestly I didn't mind it when I first read WoK either. I'm currently re-reading (well, listening, really, not much time for reading these days so the audiobooks must suffice) SA in preparation for book 5, and it does take a pretty long while to really get going, which becomes very obvious when you start on WoR immediately after.
I began with Way of Kings as well and loved it. The only reason I’d suggest Mistborn first, is because I think Stormlight is far better. I went back and read Mistborn while we were waiting for the 4th book of Stormlight and couldn’t help thinking it was a tier below. Still a good series, but it was somewhat ruined for me by the greatness of Stormlight.
The Way of Kings is my favorite book of all time… at least the Kaladin chapters are. I worked as a librarian for 5 years, and every time I found someone who was a fan of fantasy epics, I would bring up Stormlight. The two things I would say to them are 1) it’s slow. It’s an epic. It’s thousands of pages long. It will take you a while to read. And 2) stick with Shallan. She’s exposition the character in book 1, but she gets so much better in the next books. Shallan was my only problem with the book. Every time Kal was starting to do something interesting, Sanderson dragged me back to Shallan, and I got frustrated with that as a reader. I’ve been reading the book, a chapter or two per week, to a group of friends for the past several months and they all agree as well. So if anyone wanders across this comment who has tried to read Stormlight but was caught off guard by how slow Shallan is, just. Bear with her. She gets better. It doesn’t feel like it now, but her questions and mysteries become important later. It’s only upon reading her chapters out loud, having read all the way to book 4, that I have found some of the smaller details in her story from book 1. I’ve read this book cover to cover twelve times and missed so much because I didn’t know what I was looking for. Anyway, fun encouragement video. Interesting new channel for me to watch. May stick around for a bit, who knows.
I think it's more of a subjective matter that you think of Shallan as boring in Book 1. Rereading The Way of Kings makes me feel really engaged with her intricate depth of personality and there is a little bit more going on in her arc than mere exposition. But I think that there are a lot of people who wants to see her in action very early on but get to read about stuffy philosophy instead :D
@@dramalexi I definitely agree with OP that Shallan is boring in book 1 but that's purely because for most of the book she's an exposition machine who nothing happens to until she goes for a stroll with Jasnah. I didn't appreciate the information we get from her chapters or the more subtle story that surrounded her until my second read-through
Funny, because I felt the drag in Dalinar's chapters. Well, yes, Shallan chapters were kinda slow at first but I really enjoyed her later as much as I did with Kaladin. It was really her personality that made me like her a lot.
@@chantararix Same, when I was reading it, Dalinar was the only character that made me consider skipping ahead. I didn't dare miss anything though, so instead I just slowed to 20 minutes per day, until I got past his chapters and got back to the other characters. Then I read their chapters in one sitting, until Dalinar showed up again. (By the end of WoR, Dalinar was my second-favorite character, but he certainly didn't stand out that way!)
Never really understood people who say Shallan is boring. Shallan was my favorite character from book 1. In her chapters at least there was some intrigue going on and also Dalinar's. But I guess it makes sense that it would be boring if you were reading 2 chapters a week.
We were at summer camp and me and some of my book nerd friends brought a bunch of books for the ride up. My friend Zane brought the first three stormlight books box set. My friend Theo read the entirety of Way of Kings during summer camp, it was a five day camp so that's 200 pages a day! AT FUCKING SUMMER CAMP!!! I will never get over that. There was one point where we were hiking and Theo was just reading on the trail. Also Theo ended up starting Oath Bringer on the trip and just brought the book home with him and Zane didnt get his book back for a week
Dang O_o at my summer camp we hardly had any time to do anything besides camp activities. Welp I guess it wasn't a free roam camp because we had to travel in groups but still
Reason you should start with Mistborn is because after stormlight Mistborn is less enjoyable. That was my experience anyway. I may have liked Mistborn more if I'd read it first.
@@ManCarryingThing Yeah. Maybe it's best to have finished stormlight up till it's latest point and then fully get into Mistborn. I read the first book straight after TWOKs.
@@ManCarryingThing It's a smaller story, at least in the beginning. The characters are just as good, and the magic system is really fun. Once you get into the full cosmere stuff the scope of the story is daunting but in a good way. There's just SO much to discover, it's great fun. Plus he writes at a truly insane pace so you're not left frustrated like with many other fantasy series.
You might be on to something here. I started with the SA. After I was caught up I read Warbreaker and the first Mistborn book. I was very meh on both of those, I have no motivation to continue through the other Mistborn books. I could care less about the Easter eggs, they’re not ground breaking for me. Quality wise they just seem lightyears away from SA.
The prolouge starts off as just another one. But then every book thereafter brings you back to that fateful night --and I'm getting chills just thinking about it-- from another perspective. And you learn something new. Something more. It's better than Rotfuss A way of Three Silence.
Words of Radiance, which is book 2, does everything that book 1 did even better. The joy that you get as the pieces start to come together in the final third of the book is invigorating. And the climax is just grand in every sense.
I always laugh when people complain about the slow pacing because as a speed reader, I'm always frustrated because most books are over too quickly to really enjoy. The pace of the SA is literally what I've waited my whole life for, and one of my favorite parts of the series.
That's true to me too, also the clear way Sanderson give you the stuff not having to search for subcontext is why I like his writing, because I tend to read books that I like mire than one time. I get tangled, don't know if I make my point understandable XD
I get that the books could be hard or boring for some people, but I never found that to be the case for me. I've read all four books in the stormlight archive in the last six months. I had literally never heard of Brandon Sanderson at all, I just saw some big books on the library shelf back in February and went "that. I want to read that." And I am very glad I did. I was hooked by the prologue and just have not been able to put these books down. I can't get enough of the memes and fan culture around it here either.
The Way of Kings. The most interesting book where hardly any major plotlines playout. The entire first book is all setup and yet, somehow, it's fascinating as hell. Slow as dripping glass but somehow keeps you reading. Wait until things really start up in the sequel. O.O
Flowery prose is not necessary when your writing ability is at Sandersons level. He can paint a vivid picture with a sentence! people who critique him for not having flowery prose are so pretentious.
Yes! He’s not a classics writer, he’s making his own classic. His prose isn’t too overly complex too, and honestly that’s what I would prefer with so much information that’s thrown at us in his books
why do Sanderson's fans always use the word "flowery" to describe the prose they think his critics would prefer? I would be happy if Sanderson' prose was simply functional and workmanlike without calling attention to itself. In my opinion it is actively bad to the point that it distracts me from the otherwise compelling narrative. how much you can tolerate bad prose is up to you, but let's not straw man the critiques of his writing
If you don't read the other Cosmere books first you will miss a ton of Easter eggs. Keep in mind these big chonkers are part of an even chonkier universe, and that universe has a timeline, or order of events. Also The audiobooks are much easier (and enjoyable) than the books by themselves for me at least. Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are incredible and do all of the Stormlight Archives, and most of the other Cosmere books as well.
I'm a little late, but just passed page 600 and feel I am finally beginning to enjoy the storyline. There were times I wanted to toss the book aside and read something else. I purchased the large paperback. Didn't want to waste my money.
Whenever someone says stormlight archive is really difficult I tell them "oh, if you want a super easy read thats really beginners friendly, try out Book of the New Sun or Wizard Knight. Both are under a thousand pages, you'll enjoy them, I swear."
Shallan’s part in WoK did annoy the heck out of me the first time I read the book through, but she does get better and her story does get way more interesting… and then when I re-read the books over I find Shallan’s story so much more fun because I know her character improves and grow so much…. Whereas after WoK, Kaladin’s character growth slows down so much that I find myself getting frustrated with how his story drags out. BUT! again, the character growth speeds up for him again in RoW so that is something to look forwards too as well.
Yeah like kaladin is my favorite character in reading ive come across rn because of the growth he goes through in the wok and my biggest issue with wok is, as you said, shallen during wok has very very slow parts, its nessicary for future growth and to add exposition but still sooo slow that it was a struggle to read through those parts grom ger perspective
Dude, I really love your channel. I found your channel and absolutely fell in love and then later discovered that you're friends with Donald Green. But I can look past that indiscretion. I don't mean to do the annoying self-promo thing but since you talked about how slow and choppy Stormlight can be, I thought I'd mention that I'm working on a series of videos where I recap each chapter in a minute or less. The idea is that they are for the people who want a refresher/recap of past books before starting to read the next one in the series. I won't put a link here, but if anyone's interested you can find the whole playlist on my channel. I'll be finishing up with WoK hopefully this month and then moving on to WoR soon after that
I am here. I am back. Three months ago I saw this video, and I picked up the book. Three months later I’m back and I UNDERSTAND. Words cannot express what I’m feeling but I want you to know that this video made me pick up a book for pleasure for the first time in 5 years. Thank you and AHHHHH
It legit took me a year to read this because I kept starting and stopping to bleach my brain with random smut romance novels (it's a curse) then once I hit around 50% everything just clicked and I binged the rest in 2 days and now I'm partway through words of radiance, it started off rough with what felt so damn random (the interludes, describing every piece of clothing and food ever) then it just picked up hard, by the end I was so thankful I had the 2nd book, I can already see this being s new favorite series
Thank you for this. Halfway through and I can't put the book down. Find myself going back and reading earlier chapters. But thanks for the advise about not hyper focusing on details.
This is me, guy who read the Silmarillion twice, read the unabridged edition of Moby Dick for fun in High School. I read those big thick thousand page brick biographies, histories, fantasies, etc for fun. I have tried on 3 different occasions to read The Way of Kings and gave up each time. And no it's not the pacing nor the prose, although the pacing is a problem because I could not tell you what the plot even is. It's the worldbuilding or lack of big picture basic world building but that endless firehose of information that you feel like you're in a college lecture needing to take notes and never allowed to ask questions and always feeling like you missed something even if you read a chapter over and over again.
To me, the slow pace of this book didn’t feel like a negative. Yes, it takes its time, but it never feels boring. I could just listen to these characters interact with each other all day, especially Bridge 4.
It took me like 6 months to actually read the book. I kept starting and then putting it down for months then having to restart. Then I read it in 3 days and holy shit
I am starting Warbreaker now. After reading Mistborn first, then Stormlight recently. How did you like Warbreaker's magic compared to the other two? I am hoping it will be even more mystical in, even, everyday use.
@@JawaharPinnelli I thought it was different (in a good way), but easier to keep track of than the other magic systems. It’s a bit more mystical, considering that the characters are newer to it than, say, the thousands of years rosharans had been using their magic system. Idk if that makes any sense haha but I enjoyed it
In hindsight I realise it was in fact fairly slow but I'm such a character-driven reader that I don't think I noticed how slow it was my first read through. I've come to appreciate complex plots more just through reading the other books in the series but you're absolutely right that Sanderson always rewards well you for your time and patience. Now just finished the second Malazan book and loving it so far so I guess slower plots just never bothered me because I love the character development that gets to take place in that time. Shallan drove me crazy in WoK in that well-written character whose decisions you never agree with sort of way, but now after finishing the rest of the (published) books in the series I've come to love her. I did start with mistborn but honestly just by chance because stormlight only had the first two books written at the time (I believe) so it just made sense to read the complete trilogy first. But stormlight is my favourite because after how good mistborn was I didn't think I could be any more impressed by his writing and yet my expectations were surpassed.
i heard of him when the wheel of time books came out that he authored after jordon passed. i found his writing style to have the soul that robert jordon lacked so i looked for his name at the bookstore and saw the way of kings. a huge book and that was right up my alley so i bought and read it. the book was so good, in particular ;the ending, that after i finished the last page i went right back to the beginning of that 1200 page monstrosity and read it again. his world building is unrivaled. none of his books takes place in medieval england like EVERY OTHER damned phantasy series. but his greatest quality is "the reveal." the staggering plot twists and the way he hides the answer to the main question of the series right on the first page. phenomenal author.
I read all of the wheel of time. And I thought Sanderson’s books were the best WoT books, so I started the Storm light archive. I’ve really liked it. Rhythm of war was a mixed bag though. A lot of good, some bad, but a heck of an ending.
I had a pretty similar experience with starting Sanderson, I'm _very_ introverted and am not on the internet very much so I hadn't heard of Sandersin at all. Then over quarantine I discovered the book side of UA-cam and was like "I've finally found my home!" I heard the name Sanderson pop up several times and thought, oh yeah he must be a really good author to have all these good reviews. But I didn't actually fo any digging on what he writes or anything, it was just a note to self in the back of my brain "Sanderson might be cool." One day I was at Barnes and Noble and noticed Way of Kings and thought, "sure ok" and bought it. It has never taken me so long to get through a book lol, but I'm so glad I did it because now it's one of my favorite series
I pretty much read it in like 1-2 days and i regret nothing. Such a good book honestly and I can’t wait to read Brandon’s other books once I’ve finished stormlight archive
This is really interesting to me that people find this hard to read, I flew through it coz the prose was so simple and there was so much action. I would actually recommend this series as being accessible to people who don't normally read literature
I actually LOVED how slow it was. I often had this visual in my imagination of two distant worlds/clouds/continents/something, moving together extremely slowly yet steadily. And the more I moved forward in the book, the closer they got, the more little tendrils exchanged between the two, like bits of lightning? Like every time the seperate ends of the stories touch, tendrils are echanged, but they're still seperate. And then ... when they finally connect, it is really beautiful. I know this sounds pretentious and needlessly vague, but this is a pretty direct description of what it felt like for me. And I don't know if any book will ever reproduce this feeling. edit: Also, I'm not an avid reader at all, and pretty impatient too. On top, Way of Kings was my first Sanderson book. But I never felt like I was slugging through in hopes for a payoff. I simply enjoyed reading about the characters' experiences and seeing how they live, and I liked all 3 of the main characters (and most side ones too, maybe all), they felt very real.
A year ago somebody recommended Stormlight Archive, and now Ive read every single cosmere book in a year - didnt know I was even capable of reading that many pages in a year
I read the two first books in my teens, then I forgot about the series for a while, but this year I came back and finished the third one I mean I liked what I have read, AND IM NOT TRYING TO PORTRAIT MYSELF AS A INTELLECTUAL but I never thought it was really hard to read o something like that, for me it seems like easy literature to past the time I am really looking forward for the fourth book
I burned through it in about a month. It was slow in parts, but I also got in the habit of sitting down in the evening and just reading for a while, instead of gaming or watching shows and .. I had forgotten how much I MISSED doing that. I honestly found Dalinar pretty interesting from the start, but also that could be partly influenced by me being a 40-ish year old woman and to me I also may have had a bit of UH .. bit of a thing for him. Haha. Shallan took a little longer to grow on me, because I've never been a very timid sort of person and her being a teenager I guess I didn't relate to her as hard? But I did end up finding her more interesting as the story progressed (Jasnah tho? She's perfect. Never change, Jasnah) Kaladin I flipped back and forth between finding him frustrating/annoying and also loving him.. and also maybe finding him at times a little too relatable and hitting a little too close to home, as I also have chronic depression and a WHOLE lot of not so great memories. I actually just started my re-read of the series, trying to time it so that I finish Rhythm of War right around the time the new book comes out. Don't know if I'll manage, but I'm going to at least try, haha. May have to just read some summaries to get it more fresh in my mind if I run low on time. That's another thing about getting old, brain don't work so good as it used to, I tend to lose some details, so I always re-read something I know I loved. I'm also catching SO MUCH more this time around, even in the first handful of chapters I'm regularly going 'oh holy shit' and noticing things that didn't stick out as important the first time. There is SO much foreshadowing I didn't retain because I was just trying to cram all the world building, and remember who was who the first go around.
After years of an aversion to reading caused by years of reading assignments in school, I've given books another chance partially thanks to this video. Thank you, kind sir-carrying-thing, for making me carry an e-book reader (the thing) everywhere I go.
I love your reflection on where you were midway through the book; you're like, "This book is long, I need a change of pace, I think I'll read War and Peace." 🤣
The Stormlight Archive IS full of clues that you can find. Sometimes by re-reading parts. ...if you read the other's first. You can recognize patterns, mechanics, characters and devices. Sanderson's style is to not dwell on those things. If you don't know, then you don't know and the thing will just be treated as any other thing that is different from your everyday earth. Even Stormlight Archive is written so that it can be read without havin read the others first.
I love this book series! I started with The Way of Kings, I listened to it on audible (45.5 hrs) and liked the series so much that I ended up listened to basically all of his books. But I loved this series so much I listed to it two more times. ~212 hours for books 1-4 plus book 2.5
"that smug little, ahh I got ya" Yes! XD Thanks youtube for suggesting this a year later. Hoping you got a chance to jump on the KS! I'm looking forward to a year of Sanderson so much!
Who in heck decided that newcomers to the fandom shouldn't start with the Stormlight Archive? Sure you may not get some easter eggs straight away, until you've read other Cosmere books. But you can piece things together across Sanderson's many books, if you so choose. I started with Mistborn Era One, then started the Wax and Wayne series (Era Two), but I got side-tracked by the fantastic Kel Kade series, The King's Dark Tidings, which I believe is unfinished. I then decided to read the Stormlight Archive, and found it a joy to read. One of the best in the fantasy genre in my opinion. Before people roast the crap out of me, I intend to go back to continue the Wax and Wayne Mistborn books soon (I got to book two), after reading Wind and Truth 👀
There are more reason to read Mistborn before Stormlight Archive, like that it happens before chronologically, and that has in universe relevance. Another thing is that you should get used to sanderlanches, the end of the book where it becomes crazy and the satisfying endings, you will get one of those at the end of the first mistborn book, which is a third of way of kings. The main goal is for you to know that reading through Way of Kings WILL be worth it.
I went into this book knowing even less about Brandon Sanderson than you. I had never heard about him before, and I randomly chose his book from a bargain bin at a local bookstore. I proceeded to read the entire book and... yeah, it good. It real good.
While nowhere near the scale of book, i happened to reread the heroes of olympus series (and percy jackson, thanks disney lol) before starting TWOK. And it weirldly feels like it was meant to prepare for it. The shifting POVs and settings, and training yourself not to get discouraged when you get left on 100 mini cliff hangers was perfect.
My biggest issues with Sanderson's books are with his grammar and diction. "X Character frowned." Always using "more strong" instead of "stronger." And idk why, bc these are interchangeable, but always using "leaped" instead of "leapt" bugs me? I use both but depending on context. Idk. The other issue is he doesn't always have the strongest endings. Like Warbreaker is fantastic. But even he admits the ending was rushed. The endings of Mistborn 1 & 2 weren't bad, but also were amazing. The 3rd book however was a great ending. Took me a while to come around to it. But it's great. Overall, I've decided to eat his entire cosmere collection just bc I do actually like his stories so much
The Wheel of Time series eventually collapses under its own weight. I loved the first 4 books, but somewhere around Winter's Heart, I felt like it was a slog. I made it all the way to the last book, but never managed to get far in the Memory of Light--it was just so many years, I'd forgotten so many characters and kingdoms and factions and plot points. I believe Sanderson did the best he could with finishing the series though. He was the right person for the job--I've been a fan since Elantris. I just finished the Way of Kings this week and loved it.
hi i just finished way of kings. i had chills like four consecutive times today that was CRAZY. it did start off a little slow for myself and i was a little overwhelmed by all the names being thrown around but by god was it all worth it!!!
Haha that's what i did! I went into it knowing NOTHING (seriously, the only thing i knew was its genre, high fantasy) and with WAY too much confidence lol. Now i have 300 pages left to finish it and, i sometimes ask the question "am i finishing the book or is it slowly finishing me?" I started reading english books a year ago, and as soon as i got a bit confident in my english reading i was like "people tell me not to start reading fantasy with this book so i just will i guess." And lemme tell you, i think Brandon Sanderson has some personal beef with me, because he made sure that i'd love Kaladin way too much for a fictional character so that he could ruin his life to make me suffer. At this point i'm just really hoping that he doesn't follow the trend of giving stories sad endings for the sake of my sanity. And idk what's up with that talk about waiting till 700 for the book to get engaging, i was hooked at "Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar..." tbh.
I have not actually sat down and read a book in a long time, none-the-less a fantasy one of this size, I'm halfway through and find my something often rereading the same thing thinking I missed something crucial like you mentioned. So I sought out a review for some reassurance for my struggles... well this definetly helped. Thank you!
I just this morning finished Way of Kings after a random coworker I only saw for like 2 minutes a week recommended it to me with like 0 info, so naturally 3 months later i randomly got it. My first Sanderson work I enjoyed it, I have a lot of stamina when it comes to books (I made it through 500+ hours of Honor Harrinton for example) and will be diving into the next book later today.
I finished books 1-4 of SA last summer, it just sucked me in so quick, and now I have to wait in agony for book 5. It kind of makes me wish I'd slowed down when reading them, but now I'm passing the time by rereading WOK and it is so much fun on a reread because I actually understand so much more and I'm catching all the little details I missed. If you are considering reading or partway through the series, know that it is totally worth it and I don't think any book series has made me laugh or cry so hard as the Stormlight Archives.
So I don't have much time to read anymore so I listened to the audio book and my God it's this good the I'm on words of radiance and tbh I just gets better
I got through The Wheel of Time (up to before Sanderson starts writing) back in 2007, so I thought The Way of Kings was a lovely stroll, and I'd love to drink a large glass of hatorade and rant about that series at Sanderson because of how much he loves it. [inhale] Anyone else ever wanna talk to him about the parts that make you cry? It's like, dude, this is good writing, but I don't want you to understand stuff that sucks this much. 😢 I'm rambling, so I'll just say, good video. 😊
Pro tip: listen to the audiobook at 1.2x speed. Don't give up on it unless you have made it beyond the chapter "The Tower." That's when you get out of the stop and go traffic and Brandon finally hits the gas.
I read this in 10 days and didn't think of it as 'slow' at all... Maybe I'm just weird, but I thought the main characters' plotlines all had plenty of 'movement' in them, so even though the overarching plot doesn't really seem to go anywhere, I still felt a lot of progress was being made. Your review did make me realise not to try and get my husband to read it. He'll definitely agree that it's slow...
I'm about to read this book soon I have already read some of Sanderson books can't wait to read way of Kings the first book I read of his was warbreaker I really enjoyed it 🌈🥰😏😊
I read WoT as it published and when Sanderson finished it was the only of his work I’ve read. The past couple months I read all the MISTBORN books. I am about a 3rd into WoK and loving it! Lots of info to keep in head, but so good.
My first adult fantasy book was Eye of The World and my first Sanderson book was Way Of Kings out of spite at people saying they were too difficult to start with
Those are such great places to start, honestly -- I always wanted to enter Sanderson's work through the SA because I love a good challenge, and I hate being told I shouldn't read something! lol
@@ManCarryingThing For me it wasn't a difficulty thing just there's a suggested reading order and you might miss some easter eggs/tie ins otherwise.
@@ManCarryingThing I've never been part of a book fandom, I just read it as It was recommended it to me, loved the series so far, didn't see it as a "challenging read" - am i wrong?
Only time I felt something was challenging was "Malazan book of the fallen" - i don't mean that as an arrogant statement - nobody cares about reading skills lmfao, maybe it is just because i love large world building series that make ya think
Wait till you get through the entire Wheel of Time series. WOW. I lost count of how many times I've read it.
@@Mistborn94 Honestly it does not matter. I've read SA first and then I went trough Warbreaker and Mistborn and was like "ooooh, hold up for a moment!" during some moments. As long as you remember what you've read before, you can connect it no matter the order.
HONESTLY I DID NOT FIND THIS BOOK SLOW AT ALL. Just when I read the 2nd chpt and was absolutely obsessed with this book series
Neither did I. I read it in like three weeks and was completely engrossed the whole way through
i bingeread the first three books in the span of about a week and a half, very much didnt find them too slow was full of suspense just wanting to know what happens next haha
I felt as if Mistborn was a bit slow tbh. As soon as I finished part 1 of Stormlight in about 3ish days, I finished part 2 in about a single day, idk.
BIG facts
@@ronanward6411 My god you are a trooper sir. I read the first Mistborn book and absolutely loved it. But, I decided to wait on finishing the whole series because I heard about The Way of Kings and how good it was. It took me a whole month to finish it, but I have loved every single page. I'm actually a writer myself, and worldbuilding is by far my favorite part of writing a book. And I'm sure you know how absolutely astonishing the worldbuilding is in twok. The plants, the weather, the geography, everything. I have never felt such love and dedication from a world created by an author. It inspires me to put in the same love and dedication.
“He talks a bit like Ben Shapiro”
Now I can’t unhear it
lol im sorry
What was really good was the Daniel's thumbnail 🤣
I heard it too!!!
He talks like Shapiro and Tarantino, but admittedly more like Shapiro
@@ethanmulvihill7177 that's described perfectly
Do not make a T.V. series until the book series is finished.
Agreed. We don't need another GoT or Full Metal Alchemist situation.
I’m very surprised considering that Brandon Sanderson writes more than we can read 😅
I don’t think one will release because of hoids actor/voice actor aging.
"Hmm, I gotcha, huh"
The best part is, that this is absolutely something Brandon would say. With about the same inflection, too. Like, that was a spot-on Brandon impression
XD
I've read the way of kings after years of not reading anything and it was so fun and accessible it got back into reading
Same! Besides the Cosmere, I can count on one hand the number of other series I've read in the past 5 years. I'll probably start reading other books again, once I finish with the Cosmere.
Same! I was burnt out on reading after college and then read the first three books in a month
Actually Same
Oh my gosh! I was the exact same. I went several years after college not reading and tried several shorter books to get me back into reading, but it always stopped after a week or two. I tried Way of Kings while in a book store on a whim hoping a giant brick would encourage me to read better than the shorter ones, and I was gripped by the first Kaladin chapter
Not to copy every other response, but this is exactly what happened to me lol. Hadn't read a book for pleasure in maybe 5 or 6 years then I blazed through this book in less than a month. Accessible prose and yet such gravitas when it's needed
"he talks a little bit like Ben shapiro" okay do NOT ruin Sanderson for me
im sorry, i cant be the only one cursed with the knowledge
@@ManCarryingThing you will be when i kms over this
thats a win bruh
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought that 😂
Shapiro on slow mo 🤣
I guess that sentiment of "Don't start with SA" is really related to that slowness. I've read someone say that ideally you need to "trust" Brandon a bit to understand that it WILL pay off.
Which makes sense, because if you've read pretty much any of his other books you know it will. That said, it really depends on the reader, some people have no problem committing to it despite the slowness.
It was Brandon Sanderson himself who said that during one of his college lectures on UA-cam.
Yeah, I didn't even realize it was considered slow until now, after reading WoK 3 times.
I have read books 7-10 of The Wheel of Time… The Way of Kings is much faster paced…
@@Anomanderrake_ That much is true lol
Honestly I didn't mind it when I first read WoK either. I'm currently re-reading (well, listening, really, not much time for reading these days so the audiobooks must suffice) SA in preparation for book 5, and it does take a pretty long while to really get going, which becomes very obvious when you start on WoR immediately after.
@@rogthepirate4593 honestly WoR felt a lot slower in the beginning, at least imo
I began with Way of Kings as well and loved it. The only reason I’d suggest Mistborn first, is because I think Stormlight is far better. I went back and read Mistborn while we were waiting for the 4th book of Stormlight and couldn’t help thinking it was a tier below. Still a good series, but it was somewhat ruined for me by the greatness of Stormlight.
The Way of Kings is my favorite book of all time… at least the Kaladin chapters are. I worked as a librarian for 5 years, and every time I found someone who was a fan of fantasy epics, I would bring up Stormlight. The two things I would say to them are 1) it’s slow. It’s an epic. It’s thousands of pages long. It will take you a while to read. And 2) stick with Shallan. She’s exposition the character in book 1, but she gets so much better in the next books.
Shallan was my only problem with the book. Every time Kal was starting to do something interesting, Sanderson dragged me back to Shallan, and I got frustrated with that as a reader. I’ve been reading the book, a chapter or two per week, to a group of friends for the past several months and they all agree as well.
So if anyone wanders across this comment who has tried to read Stormlight but was caught off guard by how slow Shallan is, just. Bear with her. She gets better. It doesn’t feel like it now, but her questions and mysteries become important later. It’s only upon reading her chapters out loud, having read all the way to book 4, that I have found some of the smaller details in her story from book 1. I’ve read this book cover to cover twelve times and missed so much because I didn’t know what I was looking for.
Anyway, fun encouragement video. Interesting new channel for me to watch. May stick around for a bit, who knows.
I think it's more of a subjective matter that you think of Shallan as boring in Book 1. Rereading The Way of Kings makes me feel really engaged with her intricate depth of personality and there is a little bit more going on in her arc than mere exposition. But I think that there are a lot of people who wants to see her in action very early on but get to read about stuffy philosophy instead :D
@@dramalexi I definitely agree with OP that Shallan is boring in book 1 but that's purely because for most of the book she's an exposition machine who nothing happens to until she goes for a stroll with Jasnah. I didn't appreciate the information we get from her chapters or the more subtle story that surrounded her until my second read-through
Funny, because I felt the drag in Dalinar's chapters. Well, yes, Shallan chapters were kinda slow at first but I really enjoyed her later as much as I did with Kaladin. It was really her personality that made me like her a lot.
@@chantararix Same, when I was reading it, Dalinar was the only character that made me consider skipping ahead. I didn't dare miss anything though, so instead I just slowed to 20 minutes per day, until I got past his chapters and got back to the other characters. Then I read their chapters in one sitting, until Dalinar showed up again.
(By the end of WoR, Dalinar was my second-favorite character, but he certainly didn't stand out that way!)
Never really understood people who say Shallan is boring. Shallan was my favorite character from book 1. In her chapters at least there was some intrigue going on and also Dalinar's. But I guess it makes sense that it would be boring if you were reading 2 chapters a week.
We were at summer camp and me and some of my book nerd friends brought a bunch of books for the ride up. My friend Zane brought the first three stormlight books box set. My friend Theo read the entirety of Way of Kings during summer camp, it was a five day camp so that's 200 pages a day! AT FUCKING SUMMER CAMP!!! I will never get over that. There was one point where we were hiking and Theo was just reading on the trail. Also Theo ended up starting Oath Bringer on the trip and just brought the book home with him and Zane didnt get his book back for a week
people who read that fast are likely aliens, not human. be warned
@@ManCarryingThing thank you kind sir, I will keep that in mind and never trust him with a book of such size.
Dang O_o at my summer camp we hardly had any time to do anything besides camp activities. Welp I guess it wasn't a free roam camp because we had to travel in groups but still
@@ManCarryingThing I'm... an alien 😱
@@ManCarryingThingi actually finished WoR pt2 over the weekend😂
Reason you should start with Mistborn is because after stormlight Mistborn is less enjoyable. That was my experience anyway. I may have liked Mistborn more if I'd read it first.
Oh that's a great point -- excited to start Mistborn soon, but yeah, I'm a little worried it won't be as impressive as Stormlight
@@ManCarryingThing Yeah. Maybe it's best to have finished stormlight up till it's latest point and then fully get into Mistborn. I read the first book straight after TWOKs.
@@ManCarryingThing It's a smaller story, at least in the beginning. The characters are just as good, and the magic system is really fun. Once you get into the full cosmere stuff the scope of the story is daunting but in a good way. There's just SO much to discover, it's great fun.
Plus he writes at a truly insane pace so you're not left frustrated like with many other fantasy series.
You might be on to something here. I started with the SA. After I was caught up I read Warbreaker and the first Mistborn book. I was very meh on both of those, I have no motivation to continue through the other Mistborn books. I could care less about the Easter eggs, they’re not ground breaking for me. Quality wise they just seem lightyears away from SA.
I didn't feel that way at all after a friend had recommended both series. I went through 1-3 SA finished MB, then finished book 4
The prolouge starts off as just another one. But then every book thereafter brings you back to that fateful night --and I'm getting chills just thinking about it-- from another perspective. And you learn something new. Something more. It's better than Rotfuss A way of Three Silence.
I'm only on words of radiance but when I saw the prologue was from jasnah's pov!!!! of that event!!! I screamed
@@ceb0lla904 I most certainly squealed with excitement too.
Words of Radiance, which is book 2, does everything that book 1 did even better. The joy that you get as the pieces start to come together in the final third of the book is invigorating. And the climax is just grand in every sense.
WoR is just fulfilling WoK promises. And I love it for that
I don't know why, but Oathbringer's final third struck me the hardest out of the four books. Loved all of them though.
I always laugh when people complain about the slow pacing because as a speed reader, I'm always frustrated because most books are over too quickly to really enjoy. The pace of the SA is literally what I've waited my whole life for, and one of my favorite parts of the series.
That's true to me too, also the clear way Sanderson give you the stuff not having to search for subcontext is why I like his writing, because I tend to read books that I like mire than one time.
I get tangled, don't know if I make my point understandable XD
I get that the books could be hard or boring for some people, but I never found that to be the case for me. I've read all four books in the stormlight archive in the last six months. I had literally never heard of Brandon Sanderson at all, I just saw some big books on the library shelf back in February and went "that. I want to read that." And I am very glad I did. I was hooked by the prologue and just have not been able to put these books down. I can't get enough of the memes and fan culture around it here either.
I first read tWoK in a week and I absolutely loved it. Didn’t feel slow to me.
The Way of Kings. The most interesting book where hardly any major plotlines playout. The entire first book is all setup and yet, somehow, it's fascinating as hell. Slow as dripping glass but somehow keeps you reading. Wait until things really start up in the sequel. O.O
Flowery prose is not necessary when your writing ability is at Sandersons level. He can paint a vivid picture with a sentence! people who critique him for not having flowery prose are so pretentious.
Yes! He’s not a classics writer, he’s making his own classic. His prose isn’t too overly complex too, and honestly that’s what I would prefer with so much information that’s thrown at us in his books
why do Sanderson's fans always use the word "flowery" to describe the prose they think his critics would prefer? I would be happy if Sanderson' prose was simply functional and workmanlike without calling attention to itself. In my opinion it is actively bad to the point that it distracts me from the otherwise compelling narrative. how much you can tolerate bad prose is up to you, but let's not straw man the critiques of his writing
This video is my emotional support getting through this book
Lol
@@cosmicflare_ it worked too
I never thought once that this book was slow. Love to hear other perspectives. I read it again right after finishing for the first time.
Same here. I absolutely adored it and I didn’t find it slow for a second
Ive just read way of kings without ever hearing of it before... one of the best reading experiences of my life
If you don't read the other Cosmere books first you will miss a ton of Easter eggs. Keep in mind these big chonkers are part of an even chonkier universe, and that universe has a timeline, or order of events. Also The audiobooks are much easier (and enjoyable) than the books by themselves for me at least. Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are incredible and do all of the Stormlight Archives, and most of the other Cosmere books as well.
I'm a little late, but just passed page 600 and feel I am finally beginning to enjoy the storyline. There were times I wanted to toss the book aside and read something else. I purchased the large paperback. Didn't want to waste my money.
Whenever someone says stormlight archive is really difficult I tell them "oh, if you want a super easy read thats really beginners friendly, try out Book of the New Sun or Wizard Knight. Both are under a thousand pages, you'll enjoy them, I swear."
Shallan’s part in WoK did annoy the heck out of me the first time I read the book through, but she does get better and her story does get way more interesting… and then when I re-read the books over I find Shallan’s story so much more fun because I know her character improves and grow so much…. Whereas after WoK, Kaladin’s character growth slows down so much that I find myself getting frustrated with how his story drags out. BUT! again, the character growth speeds up for him again in RoW so that is something to look forwards too as well.
Yeah like kaladin is my favorite character in reading ive come across rn because of the growth he goes through in the wok and my biggest issue with wok is, as you said, shallen during wok has very very slow parts, its nessicary for future growth and to add exposition but still sooo slow that it was a struggle to read through those parts grom ger perspective
I'm very close to finishing Oathbringer and I gotta say, this series is the next big thing and I love it
Dude, I really love your channel. I found your channel and absolutely fell in love and then later discovered that you're friends with Donald Green. But I can look past that indiscretion.
I don't mean to do the annoying self-promo thing but since you talked about how slow and choppy Stormlight can be, I thought I'd mention that I'm working on a series of videos where I recap each chapter in a minute or less. The idea is that they are for the people who want a refresher/recap of past books before starting to read the next one in the series. I won't put a link here, but if anyone's interested you can find the whole playlist on my channel.
I'll be finishing up with WoK hopefully this month and then moving on to WoR soon after that
The true final boss is reading Rhythm of War having not read the first three books
There's no point doing so.
Why would anyone do that?
@@Foxholt to be a pro gamer sigma male Gigachad
I am here. I am back. Three months ago I saw this video, and I picked up the book. Three months later I’m back and I UNDERSTAND. Words cannot express what I’m feeling but I want you to know that this video made me pick up a book for pleasure for the first time in 5 years. Thank you and AHHHHH
It's gotta be an anime
It legit took me a year to read this because I kept starting and stopping to bleach my brain with random smut romance novels (it's a curse) then once I hit around 50% everything just clicked and I binged the rest in 2 days and now I'm partway through words of radiance, it started off rough with what felt so damn random (the interludes, describing every piece of clothing and food ever) then it just picked up hard, by the end I was so thankful I had the 2nd book, I can already see this being s new favorite series
This was my first Sanderson book and the world building pulled me in so much that I blew through it in about a week. It's such a good story
i want to start with the BIG final boss!! XD
I need those support groups ASAP!!!!! 😂😂
Thank you for this. Halfway through and I can't put the book down. Find myself going back and reading earlier chapters. But thanks for the advise about not hyper focusing on details.
Bought Mistborn first and it stat on my self for a month. Bought Stormlight and read it within a week.
No regrets.
I always thought the recommendation not to start with Way of Kings was more about not getting the references from previous books
My recommendation: the audiobook. It's long too, but it felt so much more manageable. Listened to about 6 hours daily (during work)
This is me, guy who read the Silmarillion twice, read the unabridged edition of Moby Dick for fun in High School. I read those big thick thousand page brick biographies, histories, fantasies, etc for fun.
I have tried on 3 different occasions to read The Way of Kings and gave up each time. And no it's not the pacing nor the prose, although the pacing is a problem because I could not tell you what the plot even is. It's the worldbuilding or lack of big picture basic world building but that endless firehose of information that you feel like you're in a college lecture needing to take notes and never allowed to ask questions and always feeling like you missed something even if you read a chapter over and over again.
Oof "I picked up war and peace as a break" is so true. Still my favorite book lmao
To me, the slow pace of this book didn’t feel like a negative. Yes, it takes its time, but it never feels boring. I could just listen to these characters interact with each other all day, especially Bridge 4.
I totally did not follow the advice to not hyper focus on details. I TOTALLY loved rereading everytime something came up that I had seen before.
It took me like 6 months to actually read the book. I kept starting and then putting it down for months then having to restart. Then I read it in 3 days and holy shit
Love your channel! Great insight with much needed humor. Hope you keep making more videos!
Thank you!! More to come :)
I started off reading Mistborn, then warbreaker, and once I read Stormlight, my mind was blown.
I am starting Warbreaker now. After reading Mistborn first, then Stormlight recently.
How did you like Warbreaker's magic compared to the other two? I am hoping it will be even more mystical in, even, everyday use.
@@JawaharPinnelli I thought it was different (in a good way), but easier to keep track of than the other magic systems. It’s a bit more mystical, considering that the characters are newer to it than, say, the thousands of years rosharans had been using their magic system. Idk if that makes any sense haha but I enjoyed it
@@ellie-501 That's cool. I'm getting my copy tomorrow. Can't wait.
Brandy Sandy saved my 2020, I ate all his books in the span of a few months it was great.
In hindsight I realise it was in fact fairly slow but I'm such a character-driven reader that I don't think I noticed how slow it was my first read through. I've come to appreciate complex plots more just through reading the other books in the series but you're absolutely right that Sanderson always rewards well you for your time and patience.
Now just finished the second Malazan book and loving it so far so I guess slower plots just never bothered me because I love the character development that gets to take place in that time. Shallan drove me crazy in WoK in that well-written character whose decisions you never agree with sort of way, but now after finishing the rest of the (published) books in the series I've come to love her. I did start with mistborn but honestly just by chance because stormlight only had the first two books written at the time (I believe) so it just made sense to read the complete trilogy first. But stormlight is my favourite because after how good mistborn was I didn't think I could be any more impressed by his writing and yet my expectations were surpassed.
Brandon Sanderson's books read like YA, but have a lot more, plot, detail, I guess? Very good transitioning to wider fantasy as a teenager
I really agree with the comments on Sanderson's prose. Never understood the criticism, it is very clean yet nuanced.
It’s clean and doesn’t hurt the story but it also doesn’t add to it
i heard of him when the wheel of time books came out that he authored after jordon passed. i found his writing style to have the soul that robert jordon lacked so i looked for his name at the bookstore and saw the way of kings. a huge book and that was right up my alley so i bought and read it.
the book was so good, in particular ;the ending, that after i finished the last page i went right back to the beginning of that 1200 page monstrosity and read it again. his world building is unrivaled. none of his books takes place in medieval england like EVERY OTHER damned phantasy series. but his greatest quality is "the reveal." the staggering plot twists and the way he hides the answer to the main question of the series right on the first page. phenomenal author.
I read all of the wheel of time. And I thought Sanderson’s books were the best WoT books, so I started the Storm light archive. I’ve really liked it. Rhythm of war was a mixed bag though. A lot of good, some bad, but a heck of an ending.
I had a pretty similar experience with starting Sanderson, I'm _very_ introverted and am not on the internet very much so I hadn't heard of Sandersin at all. Then over quarantine I discovered the book side of UA-cam and was like "I've finally found my home!" I heard the name Sanderson pop up several times and thought, oh yeah he must be a really good author to have all these good reviews. But I didn't actually fo any digging on what he writes or anything, it was just a note to self in the back of my brain "Sanderson might be cool." One day I was at Barnes and Noble and noticed Way of Kings and thought, "sure ok" and bought it. It has never taken me so long to get through a book lol, but I'm so glad I did it because now it's one of my favorite series
I pretty much read it in like 1-2 days and i regret nothing. Such a good book honestly and I can’t wait to read Brandon’s other books once I’ve finished stormlight archive
Doing audiobooks has changed my life. I was able to just jump into the Way of Kings and conquer it. Working through Rhythm of War now
Way of Kings really puts the *epic* in Epic Fantasy.
It's huge, in literally every sense of the word.
Wow, you got a good vibe man, can’t wait to see more from you!
Fantasy Talk Thanks dude! More to come!
This is really interesting to me that people find this hard to read, I flew through it coz the prose was so simple and there was so much action. I would actually recommend this series as being accessible to people who don't normally read literature
I'll binge all these videos to pinpoint where exactly the youthful innocence in his eyes began to fade...
I personally never felt any kind of slowness. I was completely invested from the very first page and drank it all up like Dalinar at the feast
I actually LOVED how slow it was. I often had this visual in my imagination of two distant worlds/clouds/continents/something, moving together extremely slowly yet steadily. And the more I moved forward in the book, the closer they got, the more little tendrils exchanged between the two, like bits of lightning? Like every time the seperate ends of the stories touch, tendrils are echanged, but they're still seperate. And then ... when they finally connect, it is really beautiful.
I know this sounds pretentious and needlessly vague, but this is a pretty direct description of what it felt like for me.
And I don't know if any book will ever reproduce this feeling.
edit:
Also, I'm not an avid reader at all, and pretty impatient too. On top, Way of Kings was my first Sanderson book. But I never felt like I was slugging through in hopes for a payoff. I simply enjoyed reading about the characters' experiences and seeing how they live, and I liked all 3 of the main characters (and most side ones too, maybe all), they felt very real.
A year ago somebody recommended Stormlight Archive, and now Ive read every single cosmere book in a year - didnt know I was even capable of reading that many pages in a year
I’d say the Way of Man Carrying is no joke 😉🙃
I read the two first books in my teens, then I forgot about the series for a while, but this year I came back and finished the third one
I mean I liked what I have read, AND IM NOT TRYING TO PORTRAIT MYSELF AS A INTELLECTUAL but I never thought it was really hard to read o something like that, for me it seems like easy literature to past the time
I am really looking forward for the fourth book
I burned through it in about a month. It was slow in parts, but I also got in the habit of sitting down in the evening and just reading for a while, instead of gaming or watching shows and .. I had forgotten how much I MISSED doing that. I honestly found Dalinar pretty interesting from the start, but also that could be partly influenced by me being a 40-ish year old woman and to me I also may have had a bit of UH .. bit of a thing for him. Haha. Shallan took a little longer to grow on me, because I've never been a very timid sort of person and her being a teenager I guess I didn't relate to her as hard? But I did end up finding her more interesting as the story progressed (Jasnah tho? She's perfect. Never change, Jasnah) Kaladin I flipped back and forth between finding him frustrating/annoying and also loving him.. and also maybe finding him at times a little too relatable and hitting a little too close to home, as I also have chronic depression and a WHOLE lot of not so great memories.
I actually just started my re-read of the series, trying to time it so that I finish Rhythm of War right around the time the new book comes out. Don't know if I'll manage, but I'm going to at least try, haha. May have to just read some summaries to get it more fresh in my mind if I run low on time. That's another thing about getting old, brain don't work so good as it used to, I tend to lose some details, so I always re-read something I know I loved.
I'm also catching SO MUCH more this time around, even in the first handful of chapters I'm regularly going 'oh holy shit' and noticing things that didn't stick out as important the first time. There is SO much foreshadowing I didn't retain because I was just trying to cram all the world building, and remember who was who the first go around.
Brandon Sanderson's books are an excellent audiobook experience :)
The ending of Mistborn threw me so bad I had to go take a nap
After years of an aversion to reading caused by years of reading assignments in school, I've given books another chance partially thanks to this video. Thank you, kind sir-carrying-thing, for making me carry an e-book reader (the thing) everywhere I go.
I love your reflection on where you were midway through the book; you're like, "This book is long, I need a change of pace, I think I'll read War and Peace." 🤣
The Stormlight Archive IS full of clues that you can find. Sometimes by re-reading parts.
...if you read the other's first. You can recognize patterns, mechanics, characters and devices. Sanderson's style is to not dwell on those things. If you don't know, then you don't know and the thing will just be treated as any other thing that is different from your everyday earth. Even Stormlight Archive is written so that it can be read without havin read the others first.
I love this book series! I started with The Way of Kings, I listened to it on audible (45.5 hrs) and liked the series so much that I ended up listened to basically all of his books. But I loved this series so much I listed to it two more times. ~212 hours for books 1-4 plus book 2.5
Exactly! People say he has no prose but the clarity it beautiful
"that smug little, ahh I got ya" Yes!
XD
Thanks youtube for suggesting this a year later.
Hoping you got a chance to jump on the KS!
I'm looking forward to a year of Sanderson so much!
2x speed makes the video so funny.
I started Sanderson with WoK. I regret nothing 8 months later.
Who in heck decided that newcomers to the fandom shouldn't start with the Stormlight Archive?
Sure you may not get some easter eggs straight away, until you've read other Cosmere books. But you can piece things together across Sanderson's many books, if you so choose.
I started with Mistborn Era One, then started the Wax and Wayne series (Era Two), but I got side-tracked by the fantastic Kel Kade series, The King's Dark Tidings, which I believe is unfinished.
I then decided to read the Stormlight Archive, and found it a joy to read. One of the best in the fantasy genre in my opinion.
Before people roast the crap out of me, I intend to go back to continue the Wax and Wayne Mistborn books soon (I got to book two), after reading Wind and Truth 👀
There are more reason to read Mistborn before Stormlight Archive, like that it happens before chronologically, and that has in universe relevance. Another thing is that you should get used to sanderlanches, the end of the book where it becomes crazy and the satisfying endings, you will get one of those at the end of the first mistborn book, which is a third of way of kings. The main goal is for you to know that reading through Way of Kings WILL be worth it.
I went into this book knowing even less about Brandon Sanderson than you. I had never heard about him before, and I randomly chose his book from a bargain bin at a local bookstore. I proceeded to read the entire book and... yeah, it good. It real good.
The first Brandon Sanderson book I ever read was the way of Kings
While nowhere near the scale of book, i happened to reread the heroes of olympus series (and percy jackson, thanks disney lol) before starting TWOK. And it weirldly feels like it was meant to prepare for it. The shifting POVs and settings, and training yourself not to get discouraged when you get left on 100 mini cliff hangers was perfect.
My biggest issues with Sanderson's books are with his grammar and diction. "X Character frowned." Always using "more strong" instead of "stronger." And idk why, bc these are interchangeable, but always using "leaped" instead of "leapt" bugs me? I use both but depending on context. Idk. The other issue is he doesn't always have the strongest endings. Like Warbreaker is fantastic. But even he admits the ending was rushed. The endings of Mistborn 1 & 2 weren't bad, but also were amazing. The 3rd book however was a great ending. Took me a while to come around to it. But it's great. Overall, I've decided to eat his entire cosmere collection just bc I do actually like his stories so much
I went from Wheel of time directly into way of kings I was fine
The Wheel of Time series eventually collapses under its own weight. I loved the first 4 books, but somewhere around Winter's Heart, I felt like it was a slog. I made it all the way to the last book, but never managed to get far in the Memory of Light--it was just so many years, I'd forgotten so many characters and kingdoms and factions and plot points. I believe Sanderson did the best he could with finishing the series though. He was the right person for the job--I've been a fan since Elantris. I just finished the Way of Kings this week and loved it.
I didn't think it was slow, but I read 800+ page books back to back for fun.
hi i just finished way of kings. i had chills like four consecutive times today that was CRAZY. it did start off a little slow for myself and i was a little overwhelmed by all the names being thrown around but by god was it all worth it!!!
Haha that's what i did! I went into it knowing NOTHING (seriously, the only thing i knew was its genre, high fantasy) and with WAY too much confidence lol. Now i have 300 pages left to finish it and, i sometimes ask the question "am i finishing the book or is it slowly finishing me?"
I started reading english books a year ago, and as soon as i got a bit confident in my english reading i was like "people tell me not to start reading fantasy with this book so i just will i guess." And lemme tell you, i think Brandon Sanderson has some personal beef with me, because he made sure that i'd love Kaladin way too much for a fictional character so that he could ruin his life to make me suffer. At this point i'm just really hoping that he doesn't follow the trend of giving stories sad endings for the sake of my sanity.
And idk what's up with that talk about waiting till 700 for the book to get engaging, i was hooked at "Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar..." tbh.
I have not actually sat down and read a book in a long time, none-the-less a fantasy one of this size, I'm halfway through and find my something often rereading the same thing thinking I missed something crucial like you mentioned. So I sought out a review for some reassurance for my struggles... well this definetly helped. Thank you!
"Im being a little too hostile, and i dont understand why.." 😂
Me to myself basically every day
I just this morning finished Way of Kings after a random coworker I only saw for like 2 minutes a week recommended it to me with like 0 info, so naturally 3 months later i randomly got it. My first Sanderson work I enjoyed it, I have a lot of stamina when it comes to books (I made it through 500+ hours of Honor Harrinton for example) and will be diving into the next book later today.
I finished books 1-4 of SA last summer, it just sucked me in so quick, and now I have to wait in agony for book 5. It kind of makes me wish I'd slowed down when reading them, but now I'm passing the time by rereading WOK and it is so much fun on a reread because I actually understand so much more and I'm catching all the little details I missed. If you are considering reading or partway through the series, know that it is totally worth it and I don't think any book series has made me laugh or cry so hard as the Stormlight Archives.
So I don't have much time to read anymore so I listened to the audio book and my God it's this good the I'm on words of radiance and tbh I just gets better
I got through The Wheel of Time (up to before Sanderson starts writing) back in 2007, so I thought The Way of Kings was a lovely stroll, and I'd love to drink a large glass of hatorade and rant about that series at Sanderson because of how much he loves it.
[inhale]
Anyone else ever wanna talk to him about the parts that make you cry? It's like, dude, this is good writing, but I don't want you to understand stuff that sucks this much. 😢
I'm rambling, so I'll just say, good video. 😊
"I'm being a little too hostile and I don't understand why".
Same bro, same.
Pro tip: listen to the audiobook at 1.2x speed.
Don't give up on it unless you have made it beyond the chapter "The Tower." That's when you get out of the stop and go traffic and Brandon finally hits the gas.
Stormlight really isn't too overly complex compared to WoT in my opinion
I read this in 10 days and didn't think of it as 'slow' at all... Maybe I'm just weird, but I thought the main characters' plotlines all had plenty of 'movement' in them, so even though the overarching plot doesn't really seem to go anywhere, I still felt a lot of progress was being made. Your review did make me realise not to try and get my husband to read it. He'll definitely agree that it's slow...
I started with Stormlight. No regrets! Best series I have ever read!!
I'm about to read this book soon I have already read some of Sanderson books can't wait to read way of Kings the first book I read of his was warbreaker I really enjoyed it 🌈🥰😏😊
I read WoT as it published and when Sanderson finished it was the only of his work I’ve read. The past couple months I read all the MISTBORN books. I am about a 3rd into WoK and loving it! Lots of info to keep in head, but so good.
Hint! The audiobook is amazing! The narrators are two of the best narrators in the world!
Where your reading journey started was in Alethkar.