Thoughts on book 1

Just finished The Way of Kings (my first Sanderson book not counting Wheel of Time) and don’t have anyone to talk about it with so wanted to share my thoughts here. First, I absolutely loved this book. It was pretty slow for me at first but part 4 was like one of the craziest sequences of bangers I’ve ever read. I can’t pick a favorite character, I like them all so much and maybe even equally. My genuine favorite was Axies the Collector but I’ve been told we don’t see much of him at all in future books so I’m trying not to think about that. Shallan was my favorite character initially and I’ve been told the next book focuses more on her so I’m excited about that. I love her dynamic with Jasnah and the mystery and betrayal of Kabsul was genuinely unexpected for me. I especially loved how Sanderson dealt with the sort of will-they-won’t-they relationship between the two and how Shallan kind of rejected him. I was sort of expecting her to just be madly in love with the guy but was pleasantly surprised at the more realistic, in my opinion, turn it took. I was so heartbroken at Sadeas’s betrayal because it felt like he was finally starting to understand where poor Dalinar was coming from, but turns out he was just manipulating him :( I was however pleased that even though Sadeas was faking interest in the Codes or whatever they are, it seems like Adolin genuinely changed his mind on the matter. It made Sadeas’s betrayal hurt way less to know that someone saw Dalinar’s vision. Dalinar beating up Elhokar made me laugh. I know the next book is a focus on Shallan but to be honest I’m most curious what Kaladin and Dalinar will do next. Is there much progression in their story in Words of Radiance or is it mostly Shallan? No huge spoilers please obviously.

I’m also a little worried about this new revelation that the Parshmen are like spawns of the devil or at least working with the bad guys? To me, the narrative of the oppressed group actually being hellspawn and that’s why we need to oppress them is a little troublesome but I fully trust Brandon Sanderson to flesh this out and treat the topic with care. It’s embarrassing to admit but I was surprised at how progressive the tone and narrative of this book was and after looking into Sanderson as an author, I’m not surprised. He seems to be a genuinely great, forward-thinking guy so I trust him to handle this part of the narrative well. I’m still rooting for parshmen liberation.

This book has captivated me like no other and I’m probably going to start Words of Radiance right after finishing this.

edit: I forgot to mention but probably my favorite part of the book was Dalinar realizing that he’s the only adult in the room and he needs to treat everyone else like a child and slap them around a bit until they get it. I feel like I’ve never really seen this sentiment in major fantasy stories and I absolutely love it. I thought Dalinar was being wise and mature during the earlier parts of the book but when I got to this part I realized this is actually the right way to go about things. This is actual maturity. You can’t expect people to not take advantage of you and you can’t expect them to act selflessly when the whole system is set up to reward selfishness. To make actual change, you sometimes need to get your hands dirty and change the underlying system which I’m hoping is what Dalinar is trying to do in becoming highprince of war.