Review: The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson [Part One of the Stormlight Archive]

This is the first book I read by Brandon Sanderson, about whom I’d heard good things. I’ll try to avoid serious spoilers in the review, but obviously there’ll be some small ones.

The Way of Kings is a mighty tome, just edging over a thousand pages (it can be bought in two smaller paperbacks) in physical format.

After the departure from my usual fare with The Night Watch, The Way of Kings is a return to the kind of thing I typically go for. It’s set in a fictional world, has an epic feel to it, and has some interesting touches.

As is quite common, Mr. Sanderson has a number of main characters from whose perspectives the world is experienced and the story advanced. These are interrupted occasionally by short but interesting interludes from minor characters (most of them only appear once, though one is of greater importance).

The Way of Kings tells the tale of what happens after the murder of a king, Gavilar. It leads to war between his kingdom and that of the people who hired the killer, which soon settles down into a war of attrition and stalemate. The nobility bicker and plot and experience little hardship, excepting Dalinar and Adolin, the brother and nephew of the late king. Almost alone of the lighteyes (higher caste members of society) they display a sense of honour and conscience.

If a single character could be said to be the protagonist it might well be Kaladin, whose early success in war and subsequent fall into slavery is the backbone of the story. We also see flashes of his past which help flesh him out as a character. Kaladin’s a capable and intelligent chap but suffers abysmal luck and struggles between doing his best and sinking into despondency.

The world of The Way of Kings is very enjoyable to read about. Mr. Sanderon’s crafted a full-blown history, from mythology to early history through a theocratic dictatorship to the modern era. He also has an interesting approach to magic, and makes an integrated magic system that involves money, elements of history/religion and technology.

Soil is uncommon, and most of the world is stone. Plants, accordingly, have some motion with which to avoid the highstorms, tremendous storms that can recharge the spheres that are used as money. Although the majority of the story takes place on the Shattered Plains and much of it in the city-state of Kharbranth, there are brief glimpses and hints of numerous other lands, and I hope we get to see them in later instalments.

The characters are generally good and three-dimensional, Shallan (a young lady in Kharbranth) and Sadeas standing out in this regard. I found Dalinar to be a little too good. The world is well-described and the flashbacks of Kaladin’s history are well-spaced, but I think a little more pace and urgency here and there would have added to the book.

The story has a great beginning and quite a number of excellent twists at the end (some that are possibly predictable, others that are very hard to foresee). Whenever the second part of the Stormlight Archive comes out, I’ll be buying it. [Cunning research has revealed that the series is intended to be a 10-parter. Blimey].

The Way of Kings has also won the David Gemmell Legend Award.

A lengthy interview with the man himself was recently conducted on fantasy-fiction.com, and is available here:

http://fantasy-faction.com/2011/brandon-sanderson-interview

Thaddeus

Skyrim Q&A

There’s lots of info, and I’ve sifted out the bits I thought were most interesting.

Character creation includes scars and face paint, along with all the other stuff which sounds like a superior version of the Oblivion creator. In fantastic news, every race has a light and heavy build, and it sounds like you can pick something in between as well.

Body armour is done as in Oblivion, save that the upper and lower armour (ie torso and trousers) are now one. So, helmet, gloves, boots are all separate and distinct from the main armour.

Sounds like there are some unique/special items, with Daedric artefacts singled out.

No spears, and armour is light or heavy, there’s no medium option.

It’s possible to get married and own homes, make friends and go adventuring with your mate.

Races are differentiated (besides appearance) by different starting skills, passive abilities and starting spells. Speed and encumbrance (what you can carry) are the same for all races, with the latter based on stamina. There are separate male and female animations, and the beast races (Argonian, Orc and Khajiit) now have some specific animations.

Tavern brawls are included (they’re non-lethal).

Dragons can do lasting damage, but events such as destroying buildings are relatively rare.

Last but very much not least: you can continue after concluding the main storyline, as in Oblivion.

The full 25 questions and answers can be found here: http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1207390-skyrim-fan-interview/

Thaddeus

A Song of Ice and Fire: summary so far, and look ahead to A Dance With Dragons

Dance With Dragons is the fifth instalment in George RR Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire series. It’s been long awaited, and comes out in just over a week (12 July). Given the slightly protracted wait and my own rubbishness with names (I somehow managed to forget several important characters in Best Served Cold and The Heroes) I thought it’d be cunning to have a quick refresher as to what’s happened and who’s who.

Naturally, there are bloody enormous spoilers for the first four books. So, if you just watched A Game of Thrones and are just getting into the series, stop reading. Unless you like spoilers, obviously.

King Robert Baratheon asks Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and his best mate, to become his Hand (effectively, doing all the work of kingship but without the shiny hat). Eddard agrees, despite his predecessor dying rather suddenly.

Unsurprisingly, Robert ends up dead and his son Joffrey (of House Lannister) gets the job. Eddard discovers the three kids are illegitimate and that Stannis, Robert’s younger brother, ought to be king.

Meanwhile, Renly, Stannis’ younger brother, contests the throne and Robb Stark, Eddard’s son, is pronounced King of an independent northern kingdom.

Eddard got the chop in A Game of Thrones (rather predictably), and George RR Martin has a rather splendid bloody red streak running through his plots. Likewise, almost all contenders for the throne (including Joffrey) end up dead one way or another (the death of Renly was pretty damned good even by Mr. Martin’s exalted standards), except for Stannis, who is a miserable bugger (imagine a competent, decent person with the charisma of Gordon Brown).

The throne is sat upon by the unlikely and, if my fuzzy memory is right, quite likeable Tommen, a little boy and brother of Joffrey.

Stannis, being miserable, gets little support from the nobility of the realm and heads north to The Wall, where he seeks to protect the kingdom. It’s an action of both self-interest and responsibility.

The Wall is, er, a wall. A bloody enormous wall erected to keep out horrid things (the Others) from the far north, and manned by the Night’s Watch. Joining the Night’s Watch is meant to be an honour, but quite often people end up there when convicted of a serious crime and given the choice between that and death. Jon Snow, a bastard son of Eddard, rises to become the leader of the Night Watch.

All of this has occurred in Westeros, which is a large continent of Seven Kingdoms, with Winterfell, in the north, being the biggest. The other part of the story takes place in Essos.

Robert took over as king from Aerys II, a Targaryen with the Caligulan nickname of The Mad King. The sole two Targaryen scions remaining, Daenerys and her elder brother, escaped the death of their dynasty eastward. She marries a powerful warlord, who in turn killed her brother (don’t be sad, her brother was an arsehead).

Daenerys, however, lost her husband to sickness and gradually rose to become a power to be reckoned with in her own right. She also has three dragons, a Targaryen tradition.

NB: I’ve obviously missed tons out, and only covered the basics. If you want more info, there’s plenty on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire

Whereas the first three books developed these three storylines together, the fourth (A Feast For Crows) only looked at half of the cast of the series, and I think A Dance With Dragons will do likewise, but for the other half.

There are thought to be two more books that will finish off the series, although it would be a brave man who tried to predict when that would be.

I am really looking forward to A Dance With Dragons. I absolutely loved the first three books, and whilst A Feast For Crows was not quite so excellent, I still enjoyed it.

Went hunting for a picture to use, and came across this post by Mr. Martin. It’s a good reminder that good writers are often rejected repeatedly and may then have a slow-burn success rather than a Harry Potter-style big bang:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/225786.html

Thaddeus

Writing: an update and some musing

Merde, as Comte Charles might say. I’d been planning to call my book either Shadow’s Whisper or Shadows Whisper (or try and use the Latin Umbrae… er, and whatever ‘Whisper’ is in Latin) but a quick bit of Amazon-searching reveals a few books with similar names.

So, I’ll have to come up with a better name. I’m pretty rubbish at naming things, but Rod Stewart did help me out with a short scene I just wrote featuring a maid, Maggie, that my rogue (who happens to be called Thaddeus) was keen on.

I’ve done two of the scenes I needed to add, but they will require some polish and perhaps extending. Continuity needs checking too. Redrafting has helped me in this regard, but I still make little mistakes now and then.

To be honest I’ve been making slower progress than expected or hoped, which could be attributed to any number of circumstantial woes but is really just down to me being a bit lax and needing a slap. On the plus side, I’ve made some good progress already today with a new scene involving a minor but enjoyable chap (Roderick, a lieutenant of the City Watch) hunting down a nefarious fellow of dubious intent. It probably helped taking a few minutes at the start to plan the rough course of the story for that little section, rather than diving straight in.

I expect the sum total of the new scenes to be around 10-20,000 words, so I’ll still need to flesh out other aspects of the book. However, even after the new scenes, I’ve got a reasonably long to-do list, which is mostly adding new bits to the story (but not requiring full-blown scenes).

I think I’ve done a good job in most regards when it comes to giving Highford its own character. The most common sport is cockfighting, lots of people smoke pipes and there’s a healthy dose of snobbery and plenty of dislike between the various races who dwell there. The religious occasions will probably ring a bell with those interested in Roman/Byzantine history. An earlier story I wrote was distinctly lacking in light relief (I was so busy being incredibly gritty I forgot that even MacBeth had a silly porter to lighten to mood after regicide), and it’s not a mistake repeated in my present story.

Still undecided regarding how to sell it. There’s the Amazon/Kindle route, but I do like the idea of giving it away free, with a donation button and chapters being released after certain (modest) sums have been raised. If I do go down that route I’d need to find out how to do it and, more importantly, whether I’m subject to income tax for that sort of thing.

Anyway, that’s how things stand. Plenty to do still, but the lion’s share is finished.

Thaddeus