The Way Of Kings

The Way Of Kings is Brandon Sanderson's latest (presumably greatest) novel.

Wait.  What's this?  This is a music blog.  Not a book club.  Where's the music?


Whatever.  The advantage of this being my blog is that I can create the conventions I want, I can circumvent them if I want, or I can destroy them if I want.  Essentially, I do what I want, when I want, badabing, badaboom.  Kapeesh?  Besides, the music is coming.  This just comes first.  Suffer through it.  It'll be worth it.  Promise.

Anyway, above I added the caveat 'presumably' before saying this was Sanderson's greatest novel.  There is a simple reason for this.  I am one of the many fans who found Brandon after he was picked to finish The Wheel of Time.  In  fact, when I first heard the title I assumed it would be the upcoming Wheel of Time book.  The title is awesome, and it fits in well with the series.  Moiraine uses a similar phrase towards the beginning of book 4, The Shadow Rising.

Anyway, Sanderson did an admirable job with The Gathering Storm, and I have complete confidence the next installment will be as good  (Bah, in linking to amazon I've been made aware that the prologue to Towers of Midnight is available for pre-order.  Oh well.  I don't have a kindle.  I prefer paper).  Not that his writing is like Robert Jordan's, comparatively the descriptions are bald for one thing, but an admirable job.

Anyway, I actually haven't read much of Brandon's stuff.  I've read Alcatraz and the series associated with that, and anticipate the next installment in December.  Aside from those and The Way Of Kings I haven't read any of his stuff (I'm not counting WoT right now).  Most impressive of all to me though is his sheer prolificness.    By my unofficial count, by the end of the year he'll have had 4 books published within this last year!  Warbreaker, The Way of Kings, Towers of Midnight, and Alcatraz Versus The Shattered Lens.  That is impressive.  Usually I consider I prolific author to be one that consistently produces one or two novels a year.  Terry Pratchett is an excellent example.  His rate of publishing books is about that.  One or two a year, which is even more impressive considering the onset of Alzheimer's a few years back.

Believe it or not I was actually waiting to read this one.  I didn't pre-order it.  I didn't read any of the sneak-peaks or previews that were made available, though I was aware of them and had access to them.  I get the tor.com newsletter every week.  I was well aware.  I was suitably impressed with The Gathering Storm.  I enjoyed Alcatraz, found those incredibly funny.  I wasn't interested in going all out on The Way Of Kings.  I'd wait until I'd got a Logan City Library card, and I'd check it out when it was available.

That all changed last Sunday, when on a whim I started reading the first preview that had been made available.  I was hooked.  I even listened to the second sneak-peak, which was audio only!  That was difficult, as I'd find other things to look at (read) and I'd lose track of things, but with one thing or another I got every piece of that book I could get.  I was still functional, meaning I could get up and do stuff still (apparently Brandon intentionally writes so that readers are hooked, but not so they can't put the book down.  I read it in a post of his somewhere).  I was just hoping that I could hold off buying it until the weekend, so I could remain functional.  I made it until Thursday, which isn't too bad.

Normally I'm not a guy that's greatly into new stuff (this may or may not have changed, but we'll go with that as a premise), whether it's music, or books or whatever.  I like the stuff that's stood the test of time, the classics if you will, both with books and with music.  I don't actually get into much new stuff at all.  I'll reread the same books dozens of times, hear the same old songs over and over.  I'll occasionally branch into new stuff as the fit takes me.  For example I read Twilight (My main issue with Twilight is the pacing.  Three quarters of the book at a deliberate pace, followed by the final pages whirring by at break-neck speed.  Granted she got better:  by the last book it was about 50/50.  Still my general thought is that with more reasonable and consistent pacing the whole series could have been one novel.  Not too mention it would have been much more realistic if Bela had screamed bloody murder upon waking up to find Edward in her room, after which her dad should have burst in with a shotgun.  But I digress), though I don't really remember why anymore.  I've read a lot of contemporary Young Adult Fantasy the past year, Fable Haven, Percy Jackson, Ranger's Apprentice, etc.  The point is that Brandon is a great contemporary author, and I'll probably read the rest of his books.  And you need to understand that when I say great I'm pushing him up into my favorite authors list.  He's up there with Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, Isaac Asimov, Roald Dahl, and Beverly Cleary to my mind.  He has variety too, which I'm not sure I can say about the others.  The Stormlight Archive (The Way Of Kings is book 1) is epic in scope reminiscent of Jordan.  Alcatraz, however, engages in Pratchett-esque humor, albeit targeting a younger audience (I haven't read Pratchett YA stuff).  I'm sure that when I read Mistborn, Elantris, and Warbreaker I'll find differences again.

I guess this is my long winded way of saying:  This book is great.  Go buy it and read it.  And hopefully tomorrow I'll get back to the music.