First thoughts on Words of Radiance

Just finished Words of Radiance as a first time reader and wanted to give some thoughts as I did when I finished book 1. It only took me 3 weeks to finish this book which is a short amount of time for me who is usually pretty slow. I can't quite decide if I liked this one better than the first or not. They have both been really really good. I think the biggest comparison I can make is that I liked the big plot points of the first book better than the second, but I liked the small details of the second book more than the first.

The ending of book 2 was not quite as exciting as the end of book 1 in my opinion. I have a bunch of ideas on why this might be but the biggest one is that I think I was a bit too confused to fully appreciate everything that was happening. I don't think this book was super dense necessarily, but I do think I missed more details than I did in book 1. For example, in the middle of the final battle, I was just wondering how Shallan knew there was a portal in the middle of the plains, how she knew where to find it, what Storm seat was, and trying to map everything in my head, instead of focusing on the battle. To be fair, I was a little less than sober while reading parts of this book (part 3 mostly) so I definitely could have missed some crucial details that would have explained some of those things.

There also wasn't as much unexpected things that happened at the end of this book compared to book 1, in my opinion. I kind of knew the army was going to venture out, there would be a battle, they would find the ancient city and hide out in there when things got bad. I knew Kaladin would choose not to kill the king, I knew Syl would return to him and I knew he would use his new powers to fly to the battle to save Dalinar. That being said, I'm not even complaining because the way those events were executed was AMAZING. BUT, I think that is why I appreciated the climax of book 1 more than the climax of book 2.

It would also be a crime for me to not mention the end of part 3, which in my opinion was way more exciting than the end of the book and may have also been my favorite sequence of events in the series so far. The Kaladin/Adolin duel against the four shardbearers was insane and really speaks for itself. Absolutely incredible action writing. Part of my feelings on the ending of this book could also be explained by the fact that I thought that Sanderson was keeping the best for the end, but that didn't end up being the case, in my own opinion. Part 3 was the highlight of the book for me for sure, although part 4 had great character moments.

I absolutely loved the small details of this book. Sanderson has a way of writing dialogue and inner thoughts that makes the main characters SO believable and feel so real. The best example of this for me was Kaladin. I relate to him so much (in a depression way, not a hero way) that his POV scenes just really hit home. I LOVED when he was at the zoo with Shallan and Adolin just wondering to himself "these people are really happy, why am I so grumpy about that?" I love when characters are self-aware and Sanderson really nails this. Shallan's POVs are also great for this reason. There's just a way the characters conduct themselves that is really convincing to me. The emotion of the book also hit me way more than it did in book 1. Shallan's backstory was truly heartbreaking and seeing her smile in the chasm with Kaladin after exposing her pain to him was amazingly beautiful. I just wish that didn't lead to Kaladin seemingly getting a CRUSH ON HER >:( although I talk about that later.

Another thing I love about this series as a whole is that, so far, it hasn't gotten super dark. Obviously, there is death and destruction and the world is at stake and whatnot but there is still a sense of optimism and joy in the tone of the writing that I really like. I'm hesitant to even write this because I could be 100% wrong, but so far none of the main characters have betrayed each other and I don't really get a sense they will. Obviously there is betrayal in characters like Moash (although he was always sus to me), but I have a feeling (and i HOPE) that Kaladin will always recognize the "good" in Dalinar, as will Shallan recognize it in Kaladin as will Dalinar in Shallan and so forth. It would be pretty easy for Sanderson to write a scenario in which like let's just say Dalinar had to punish one of the bridgemen or something like that and even if he's justified in it, Kaladin wouldn't forgive him and it would create this long-lasting tension between them. Something like that could easily happen in any other series, but it hasn't in this one (except for the Amaram thing but that was resolved) and i REALLY appreciate that. I'm not great at describing this, but there's a ton of realism to be found in positivity and mutual trust that many authors shy away from to create tension, in my view. There's tension in these books, but it feels more real and more earned than those sort of conflicts that can be solved with an open and honest conversation. I feel super vindicated in writing that especially because Kaladin and Dalinar were able to have an open and honest conversation about their tension regarding Amaram pretty early in the book and that didn't get solved until later on. One part of this theme of positivity did make me laugh at the very end of the book, when Dalinar was talking to Kaladin, Shallan, and Renarin at the top of the tower. He notices Renarin is like trembling and thinks to himself something like "god what is my son so worried about...... anyways guys the world is ending"

This post is super long and I'm almost done but i have some PREDICTIONS for the rest of the series:

• first of all, i REALLY REALLY do not want Shallan and Kaladin to have any sort of romance. There was a little sense of what could be a love triangle in this book that I really did not like at all. I want Shallan and Kaladin to be FRIENDS nothing more! please dont do this
• despite that previous point, I have a prediction that Adolin is going to die, maybe not in book 3 but perhaps book 4. This theory of mine had a lot more credibility before I found out that Jasnah is still alive in the epilogue, somehow. I know not everything has to be symmetrical, but there's a certain comparison I was making between Navani/Dalinar and Shallan/Kaladin. Both could be couples, with a previous partner being dead and, towards the end of this book, Shallan was filling what could become a sort of "adoptive daughter" role for Navani, replacing Jasnah. In the same way, I pictured Kaladin filling that "adoptive son" role for Dalinar, replacing Adolin. Again, not everything has to be perfectly symmetrical like this, but I did have that theory while reading this book. I really hope this is not true because I don't want a Shallan/Kaladin romance and because Adolin is one of my favorite characters
• I've been thinking for a while that Szeth is going to have some kind of redemption arc, but with the events in the last chapter, I'm not so sure. Apparently that blade he got has some significance outside of the Stormlight Archive, but I don't know anything about that. Still, if one of the heralds is guiding him now, I might be right about his redemption because the heralds are supposed to be good right? I honestly don't know lol
• This is kind of obvious but I think the next book is going to deal with a lot more Surgebinders and have a sort of recruitment phase where we're introduced to a lot of new characters with powers.

Obviously please don't tell me if I'm right or wrong about any of those predictions. I'm super excited to get started on what is probably the longest book I've ever read.