Published: 2010
Rating: ★★★★☆
This is more like it.
As I started this memories of my first read-through flooded back. The opening sequence of a banquet where all hell breaks loose is terrific as a hook, as is the introduction of Shallan’s more sedate educational story. Kal is a character for the ages, his journey always fascinating, and the concept of shardblades and armour is brilliant.
Sanderson is famous for his worldbuilding, sometimes to the stories detriment (I don’t need to read that much detail about the plants growing in the rocks) but more often it is justified in the way it grounds the epic story. The Shattered Plains and Kaladin’s journey through them is really something special. Shallan’s story is less successful, often feeling artificially delayed in order to get Kal’s progressed. His writing is vastly improved from those first two books—but he had written Mistborn in between, so his writing chops were now well established. Classic epic fantasy, and just as good a second time.