Brandon Sanderson, widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan's Whee
l of Time saga, begins a grand cycle of his own, with The Way of Kings, Book One
of the Stormlight Archive.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tem
pests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they
have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull
in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only
where the topography offers shelter.
It has been centuries since the fall of t
he ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades an
d Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary
men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were
fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape ca
lled the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship
for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a wa
r that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, h
e struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendab
le.
Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his bro
ther, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called "The Way of King
s." Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant,
he has begun to doubt his own sanity.
Across the ocean, an untried young woman
named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Da
linar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives ar
e less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at
secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
The result of ov
er ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, "The Way of Kings" is but
the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the makin
g.
Speak again the ancient oaths,
Life before death.
Strength before weakne
ss.
Journey before Destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore.
The Knights Radiant must stand again.
