As claimed on the cover of my edition by The Guardian: ‘The Stormlight Archive is epic in every sense’. While I cannot vouch for the entire series just yet, for having only read this first half of The Way of Kings now, I would be exceedingly surprised to find it otherwise. These first almost 600 pages have been mostly about setting the highly unique scene, introducing the great characters and the truly vast and fascinating world while laying out mysteries and seeds of conflict to be unveiled later – and I have never been as deeply immersed. I have not been a particular fan of maps in books before as they are rarely used too well, but even though I was very intimidated by the rather huge map of Roshar and the multiple close-up maps for showing more detail, they are really growing on me, especially due to how integral they are to almost every single element of the story.

The world building is fantastic in every sense of the word, and it is introduced perfectly. The balance of knowledge required for simultaneously sufficient understanding and overwhelming intrigue for impeccable immersion is handled masterfully, using every tool and trick ever invented for fantasy writing at once in what feels almost like a culmination of epic fantasy. This book has it all: preludes, prologues, interludes, maps, illustrations, epigraphs, partitioning, chapter breaks, ornamented and likely suggestive chapter headings, multiple viewpoints, extensive world-specific vocabulary, a hard-seeming magic system that cannot quite be deciphered further yet, time jumps and flashbacks as well as acknowledgements and even afterwords, where Sanderson implicitly apologizes for how long of a book he wrote – just like I now do for this sentence. I am glad he did not cut it down though, as I will definitely treasure every moment I get to spend with the series.

The writing is great where it is easy and quick to read but provides often grand, detailed descriptions of the most intriguing places, people and things with even the occasional philosophical observations of real wisdom. Even the unique fantasy vocabulary has been seamlessly embedded in, such that the reader is fluent in it on the surface level very quickly, but its depth keeps on increasing throughout. Additionally, while seeming entirely separate initially, the extensive number of viewpoints begin to complement each other well in the latter half of the book, further immersing the reader into the world of Roshar. There is no expositional narration or -dialogue or any other kind of handholding other than near perfect writing. The reader is thrown into the world and given just enough crumbs at just the right pace to keep them on track but still wondering about how everything works and what lies in the past, future and beyond the places visited thus far. The key word here is balance all across the board, which I think Brandon Sanderson truly nailed in this grand start for a truly epic series. Thank you Aawez for the persistent recommendation!

As for my own recommendation, it obviously goes out to all fantasy readers, regardless of the level as even though The Way of Kings might initially seem a bit intimidating for its scope, scale, detail and length, it is actually very approachable and one of the most immersive reading experiences I have ever had – even though I have not previously been too fond of maps. That being said, the recommendation extends to all who wish to get into fantasy too, even first timers. Now that the obvious is out of the way, I would not necessarily even call fantasy the main selling point, even though it is definitely among the very best in that category as far as I have read, as the story alone and especially with the level of writing is that good. It gives food for thought for the philosophically inclined – sometimes even explicitly, which demonstrates how Sanderson really knows what he is doing by occasionally nodding to the reader “don’t worry, we will get there and you will like it” –, serves as a prime example of how to build epic worlds and write engagingly, and provides a range of interesting characters ranging from the very likeable to morally ambiguous and despicable, whose adventures I cannot wait to read more about!