Review that devolves into a manic rant for The Way of Kings, a novel by Brandon Sanderson. Occasional expletives.
When I started this I didn't know what I was getting into.
The e-book for it was given for free during one of Tor's monthly promotional newsletter thing, which I signed up for. I thought, I have a Kindle, plenty of free time, and I was almost done reading the SF/F book I had, so it was about time I get a new one. Where's the harm?
Where's the harm, I said. Where's the harm indeed!
I've never read a Sanderson novel before. I knew he's a big-shot in fantasy novel circles, that he finished The Wheel of Time, that he posted an observation about soft and hard magic systems in fiction which helped me solidify some concepts in the novel I'm writing. But otherwise, I didn't know anything about the book I just got. I didn't even read the synopsis. I just loaded it into my Kindle and started reading.
The first chapter in, I was tired. So many words, and so much of those are weird fantasy words! Stormlights? Parshmen? The people of Shin and Alethi? If I wasn't already a fantasy fan, and since I am I just drank all this fantasy nonsense up with glee, I would have ran away. I barely grasped what was going on as the action started. There's an assassination or something with supernatural blades? And then the next chapter switched to a completely different character in a completely different setting that seems to have nothing to do with that. Okay then. Okay then.
But I still keep that first chapter in the back of my head as I read the next chapter. And the chapter after that stars another character in another setting, and on and on, the story switching between multiple perspectives that seem to have nothing to with each other, but all taking place in the same world, connected by thin strands of lore. Slowly I let all these strands build a world in my head, a world bound with some Weird Fantasy Rules that are nevertheless consistent. By the time I'm midway through and Weird Fantasy Things happen, I already understood the significance and implications of them. Gasp! That happened! That's what it means! And if that happens then, oooohhhh!
And then I see one reason why Sanderson is so highly regarded. He doesn't just write fantasy novels, he designs them. His story is built out of the most fantasy of Fantasy Nonsense, but instead of just pulling the knife out of the dark he lets you hold the knife and teach you how to swing it, before then letting you stab yourself. Everything in the story is an investment for the future, from the most non sequitur to the most character-driven scenes.
There's a design in that, I feel. The design of set-ups, of building anticipation and then having it pay off but little by little. It's almost frustrating how it does it. Reading the book, I feel like I'm a ping pong ball being thrown across the table and back again. Everything is set-up for future arcs, and then you realise that you've passed the point when that set-up has paid off, and it paid off well, but then there's more set-up for the future and you can't wait to see how they pay off too. And suddenly, fuck, it's two in the morning but I can't stop reading because I need to see how this goes on.
But gosh, this sure is taking a long time. The narration takes a billion years getting anywhere. So many little scenes filled with little details, always with more crumbs of lore for the world that's being built in your head. Just absolute disregard for the reader's time and patience in favour of more set-up, more set-up, build more anticipation.
And yet, I can't deny that they're very well-written. You'd think a story that "takes too long" would be sluggish, but the many action scenes are excellent: battles are thrilling, every movement is described with enough precision you can choreograph it in your head, and yet they're written in such a way that you still care about the individual actors. They're dense and exhausting, but still exciting. Fucking sorcery.
Halfway through the book I realised that despite the rocky start, I really, truly, enjoy reading it, and that I probably won't read the next book because reading it is exhausting. I'd be satisfied with just this, I said. There would be dangling plot points, but I'm sure a major plot point will be resolved by the end of the book; I'd be satisfied with that.
About three quarter in I realised a horrible truth: I won't be satisfied with that. I'm taken in. They have me. They have built so much momentum that there's no way they will all resolve by the end of the book, and I have to see how they all do. I want to see how all these set-ups are resolved, I want to see every single one of those investment paying off. Goddammit. I'm going to want to read the second book, don't I?
Do I look like I have the time to read MORE of this?
My God, what was that? This is planned to be a TEN BOOK series?? A thousand pages each? Goddamn.
The climatic scene of The Way of Kings is exciting and satisfying, a culmination of a lot of things that happened before it, and it resolves in a way that warmed my heart and watered my crops and made me thrive. A lot of things, bu not all of them. Not even nearly all of them.
If the story was designed as a stand-alone, it would focus more on the things that build up to that climatic scene. The book would be less voluminous, it would be leaner, it would be easier to read. And it would work! We can take out a whole swath of scenes, and it would be just as good! It might even be better!
But no. The Way of Kings is meant to be a prologue to a grand and epic story that lasts ten bloody books long, and so it's a bulky, exhausting, and full of build-ups for things in the future. And you'll like that and you'll want to read all the next books to see what happens next.
And honestly? I can respect that. Some fantasy novels are stand-alone and some has the damn audacity to be like this. Would it be better if it's not a thousand pages monstrosity? It might. Would it be the same? Yeah, I mean, it can be leaner and still retains its identity.
But I suppose the world needs a massive, grand, sprawling, epic fantasy that's a million million words long, and if that's the case I believe Mr. Brandon Sanderson is very capable of delivering it.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to go buy the second book.
