reading journal: The Way of Kings
So, I’m about 200 pages into The Way of Kings. That’s about 1/5 of the way through for you fraction geeks (I know you exist!), but I don’t feel like doing the actual division because I’m not a decimal geek. So take that! OK, I’m kind of lying. I do like decimals. I like the way they line up and sort properly in Excel, and the way they shift with autoformulas (autoformulae?). What? Oh, right, the book.
It’s good. It’s very, very well written. I’m jealous.
Some of you may have seen that preview chapter from Towers of Midnight. I think that, so far, every chapter in WoK has been better written than that chapter – and that’s not a sloppy chapter by any means.
I’m just kind of meandering my way through it, trying to savor it and rush less than I usually do through these things. Old age? Maybe. It could also be that the more I grow as a writer, the more I’m able to observe about the craft itself. Sanderson does such a great job of building emotional curves over his chapters… I really need to just sit down on my ass, and take notes (like he did, I think he said he did this for a WoT book when he was starting out). But, knowing me, I won’t. Unless I can re-work writing into my obsession… but no luck yet.
It could also be that, no matter how long it is, I know I will be craving more as soon as it’s gone so I might as well savor the hell out of it now.
Anyway. What else about the book?
I really, really dislike the female lead’s plan. I think it’s dumb and juvenile and bound to fail, given everything we know about the world and about power and people in general. So I’m sure this must be intentional. I’m not questioning the writing, as I’m sure he did it on purpose… I’m just not sure what the purpose is yet. All I know is that when her plan is talked about about it I wish she was a man I could punch.
At the core, the book is pure fantasy. The depth that’s poured into the world is impressive, immersive and beautiful (without dwelling on things unnecessarily, he’s also very good at pacing his information injection so it rarely, if ever, feels like a dump) and the growing (as I get further in) depth of social complexity also promises to go interesting places. He’s very directly put in a system of prejudice and caste via something idiotic (eye color) and a slave system – neither of which will be throwaways, I can pretty much guarantee.
The expected completely new and logically bound (within it’s own logic that is) magic system (he creates a completely new system for each series, and he’s quite good at making them compelling) is interesting. I was initially hesitant about it, just based on blurbs and early descriptions, which did not leave me with a good feeling. It sounded too “item based” for how I’m currently feeling about magic in fantasy (but this could change at any moment anyway so who cares!), but I’m happy to see that a) it is not entirely item based (there is something here that feels like a combination of Breath & Allomancy in addition to all the empowered items) and b) it’s damn interesting anyway, so screw my hesitations.
Oh, and I just passed the first chapter that mentions Hoid! Extremely geeky Sanderson geeks may find this amusing.
<.<
>.>
Also, check out Tor’s post on the cover creation process.
Hey, I like that. “So bad, it must be intentional.”
Also. This is not my book. Why are you reading it. I don’t care how many books you can read at once. Stop it! *holds up hand* Just stop.
As long as I’ve waited for this book, I still started yours first, so there.
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