Well, it’s happened. The fifth volume in the Stormlight Archives officially arrived on Friday, December 6th, completing the first arc. Books 6-10 will be the second arc, which will contain some consistent threads, but will deal with a new set of characters at an undisclosed number of years in the future.
Did I binge the rest of the series over the past few weeks to prepare for this release? Yes. Yes, I did. Was it worth it? Yes. Yes, it was.
Since the first arc is now finished, this feels like a great time to review the series. Many of you already know about the Stormlight Archives, but maybe we can geek out together for a bit.
Not Your Mother’s Novel
Each Stormlight Archives volume is massive, following multiple storylines, adorned with interludes and epigraphs, long enough to be a series unto itself.
I’ll be honest, the first time I read the first four books of the series (plus the two novellas), I thought they were just…okay. Why? Because when I’m going into a novel, I am usually reading to hear about an exciting adventure or follow a specific character on a life changing journey. I like fast-paced stories. I found the interludes and flashbacks to be mostly annoying—and I tend to skip them when rereading—and certain characters I didn’t care so much about.
I start with this because: If you pick up the Way of Kings expecting a fast-paced fantasy adventure story, you’re going to be disappointed.
What makes the Stormlight Archives great is its grandeur. It has deep, complex worldbuilding and fun connections to other worlds and novels in Sanderson’s universe.
Quintessential Epic Fantasy
The definition of “Epic Fantasy” varies depending on who you ask, but here’s my definition. Epic fantasy is fantasy that involves at least one of:
- An epic scope (involving multiple countries, a large cast of characters, etc.)
- Epic stakes (the fate of the world is often at stake)
- An epic world (not on earth, and often involving intricate worldbuilding).
The Stormlight Archives has all three. Sanderson sets up mysteries and characters in the first book that come to fruition much later in the series. The world is huge, and a part of something greater. Sanderson has created the Cosmere, a web of interconnected stories that is the book equivalent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s big and grand and huge…and sometimes slow. The plot is intricate and complex, but sometimes there are pieces that aren’t strictly necessary to the story. They may provide extra context for the events going on in the story or deepen the worldbuilding overall, but they could be removed with little harm to the plot.
There’s a lot going on, which makes it excellent epic fantasy, but sometimes it can be a bit much to keep up with. The first time I read the Way of Kings, I had no idea what was happening in the interludes. There were passing cultural references that I now realize definitely relate to the plot overall, but the first time through, I couldn’t see it, because I didn’t remember many of the proper nouns they were using.
This series is easily the most epic fantasy I’ve ever read, and I highly recommend it—just know what you are getting into.
Now onto a few additional quirks of the series.
Epigraphs
Most of the chapters in the five main volumes (yeah, I can’t even call them novels—they are tomes) begin with a short epigraph from a relevant book, letter, or scholarly notes. Sanderson follows a similar trend with some of his other books, like the original Mistborn trilogy.
I have mixed feelings about these. In some cases, these provide a bit of extra explanation to help explain what is going on. Sometimes, it’s just to deepen the worldbuilding. Sometimes, we learn more about side characters’ motivations and off-world interests. But sometimes, these epigraphs are foreshadowing later events, even “spoiling” them if you’re paying attention. Of course, I don’t know if you can call it a spoiler if the author wants to you to know about it, but I will say that I’m rarely surprised when many of the final reveals occur in Sanderson’s books with epigraphs.
That said, I quite enjoy most of the epigraphs, especially the ones that aren’t strictly related to the plot (especially the letters).
The Not-Novellas
Edgedancer (#2.5) and Dawnshard (#3.5) are not novellas. Sorry. Novellas are commonly defined as 17,000 – 40,000 words. Novels are anything over 40K (some people say they have to be 50K). Edgedancer is just over 40,000 words, and Dawnshard is 55,000 words. Edgedancer, I think you can get away with calling a novella if you really want to, but Dawnshard is longer than some cozy mysteries. They are short novels that are dwarfed by the gigantic tomes that sit on either side of them.
Semantics aside, the “novellas” are quick, fun stories that show the growth of some side characters, as well as a few important plot developments. I think you could skip these if you didn’t want to read them without getting lost in the later books. Edgedancer, I think, is completely skippable as far as plot-relevance goes. Dawnshard has a plot development that isn’t really that important to the first arc of the Stormlight Archives series, but I expect may come into play sometime in a future Cosmere book (and you will be really confused in one chapter of Wind and Truth if you don’t read it, but it’s only one chapter).
Content Rating: Overall, a high PG-13.
Violence: The world is a rather dark place at times. Torture is mentioned, one of the characters is suicidal at times, and there is just a general darkness that can be a bit intense at times. It’s a war story, so there are many, many deaths. But the blood and gore is not gratuitous.
Sexual: Fade-to-black sex scenes, as well as numerous kisses and some sexual thoughts and jokes.
Language: Mostly in-world swear words, but there are some that are also considered swear words in English.