I'm on my second attempt at reading a fantasy series end to end. I picked up Way of Kings a few years ago and found the characters likeable, the world-building unique. But the sheer volume of each novel put me off from the rest of the series.
Two weeks ago, I re-read Way of Kings and started on Words of Radiance.
. . And I find myself liking the plot progression less and less because of the characters. Their arcs loop, they behave inconsistently, and they take astonishing leaps of logic with little to no supporting facts.
Worse still, the magic system has begun to resemble modern video games more and more (though I can't speak to the accuracy of this statement, as I don't play games set in magic settings).
Here's my list of cribs:
Everyone's a Power Ranger: Kaladin and Shallan's unique powers manifesting themselves bit by bit were delicious to read. Sanderson hints at their powers through subtle observations of physics not quite working as it should around them.
But as time goes on, he gets these characters to manifest their skills quite explicitly. And they no longer feel as special. Walk on walls, become extra slippery, create illusions? That's nice, I guess.
And then it's revealed that each of the protagonists gets two power buffs, like in an arcade game. The Parshendi, the antagonists, even get a transformation called Stormform.
All that's left is for everyone to dress up in colored Spandex and shout, "Ninja Storm, Ranger Form".
Kaladin makes for a sucky bodyguard: Despite being characterised as the most paranoid, untrusting-of-light-eyes human on Roshar, Kaladin lets an awful lot of suspicious people slip through his net.
Kings are dying at the hands of a nameless assassin in white. And the one man who helped said assassin during an attempt on the Alethi King, whom he was supposed to be guarding, gets the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because family. Then he gives this man, who has disobeyed his direct orders and betrayed the trust of the man who freed him, a shardblade and shardplate so he can have his revenge against the King. And now, Kaladin suddenly agrees with the assassins that the King is better off dead. What happened to honour and keeping Bridge 4 alive?
And let's not forget the King's Wit, who has repeatedly shown Kaladin that he can slip in and out of the camp undetected, and even pops up inside the prison where Kaladin's being held. So Kaladin's very suspicious of all the people except those who actually might have the ability to kill his wards.
Repetitive character arcs: Every other Kaladin chapter ends with him saying he knows one thing for sure – he'll never put himself in this position ever again. He'd rather die than feel like this ever again! And then he goes and puts himself in the same position with one Lighteyes or the other, be it Roshone, Amaram, Dalinar or Elhokar. Kaladin has a toxic attraction to the light-eyes that can't be explained away as plain misfortune or bum luck.
Dalinar's missing wife comes up again and again with variations of, "I can't believe I don't even think about her for weeks on end while I trollop with Navani. Sounds like his boon from the Nightwatcher is going to be a major deus ex machina somewhere down the line. Maybe he asked for perpetual fresh undies in the middle of battle.
And Shallan's lead-up to the Red Wedding in yearly and monthly flashback intervals gets old very quickly.
Compressed character development and lines of investigation: Sanderson walks a fine line between pedantic world-building and progressing the plot. I understand that sometimes, you must compress a few chapters of background into a few short sentences of flashback.
But not for dear Shallan! Shallan has such a perfect memory that she's able to connect random footnotes in Jasnah's scholarship to something she sees on the walls of Amaram's manor. Did she find it by accident while rummaging around the scrolls in her collection? No, she just remembered the resemblance from her years of being Jasnah's ward. It starts to become a pattern, the epiphanies more contrived and difficult to support. And most often, it just feels like she's being hurried towards a major plot point at the end of book 2.
And let's take Kaladin's Lashing, which develops very suddenly when he's throwing himself against a chasm wall. He does this by placing one foot in the Cognitive Realm and leaving one in the Physical Realm. And he sees a black land under a white sun. Why does he never mention Shadesmar ever again, despite using Lashing so liberally? Why is he not even curious about that place that appears every time he uses this power?
Final thoughts and disclaimers: I don't dismiss the Archives completely. The plot might get better in further books, and the inconsistencies might get explained. But as it stands, the book demands not just a suspension of belief, but also of short-term memory to have the characters make sense.
After I finish book 2, I'm going to get a plot synopsis of the rest of the books before I decide to invest any more energy into this series.
by quiescent_haymaker