Words of Radiance (excerpt)

Today is going to be a bit of a deviation from a full book because I am excited, and want to share it. The first two chapters of Words of Radiance came out yesterday. Today I took the plunge and read them. And because I am so moved and excited by what I read, I want to count it as a book and blog about it.

Firstly, Brandon Sanderson is my favorite author. I have read a lot of books, by a lot of different authors. Each book, no, each paragraph Sanderson crafts is exact, beautiful, a work of art. The way he can forges characters and worlds is unprecedented. The way he drops the tiniest of hints along the way of the story, tiny little gems for you to pick up, pocket, and they dazzle you when finally revealed again. Sanderson is a genius. And I have ADORED everything I have read by him. Admittedly, I have not read every book he has written, but I am slowly buying each of his books so I can read them all. I have even rethought my refusal to read any more of the Wheel of Time series…just because he has written the last few for deceased Robert Jordan.

Take this segment from the Prologue:

“Jasnah wanted to speak with them, but her appointment would not wait. She’d intentionally scheduled the meeting for the middle of the feast, as so many would be distracted and drunken. Jasnah headed toward the doors but then stopped in place.

Her shadow was pointing in the wrong direction.

The stuffy, shuffling, chattering room seemed to grow distant. High-prince Sadeas walked right through the shadow, which quite distinctly pointed toward the sphere lamp on the wall nearby. Engaged in conversation with his companion, Sadeas didn’t notice. Jasnah stared at that shadow—skin growing clammy, stomach clenched, the way she felt when she was about to vomit. Not again.”

Now, for those of you who have not read the first book, Jasnah and Sadeas are both characters we know well. And this prologue is Jasnah’s view of the event that already happened at the beginning of book one. So. Much. Revealed. I can’t even…

And then there is the artwork. Brilliant, gorgeous, and captures the intensity and fantasy of the world we slip into.

Look at that cover! (which features Kaladin)

And this gorgeous painting which features Shallan. Shallan is, at the moment, my very favorite of characters.

And then there is the length. The Way of Kings was 1,007. My mother laughed at me when I asked her to pick it up from the library on her way home one day. Laughed. Because I was crazy to read such a giant book. Mom, this is book one. Of many. THANK GOODNESS. Know how book lovers never want their books to end? Well these books are huge, there will be many of them, and Brandon Sanderson is young- so hopefully will complete the series before passing from the world as some other fantasy epic authors have done…and George R.R. Martin is feared to do. Anyway, Words of Radiance is 1,088 pages.

Ooch! Look at the beauty of that tall, tall manuscript!

This blog post is summed up by these three words:

I

CANNOT

WAIT.

Period. Exclamation point.