Wow.


Overall, I really liked the book. The world is incredible, with a nice variety of cultures. Great plot twists, though none were huge. The characters were interesting, and there wasn't anyone that I hated reading about, even the one-shot interlude characters. I really want to read the next book, which I hear is scheduled for 2012.

I find it amusing that in both this book and the Mistborn trilogy both have currencies that are very prominent in their magic systems.


But I do worry that Sanderson has only a few stock characters that he puts in his books with a few tweaks here and there. For a while, it seemed that Shallan could have been Sarene without anyone noticing, making all the snide comments and witty retorts while secretly worrying that her tongue would keep her from ever marrying. Kaladin/Raoden was a powerful man thrown into a hellhole with a bunch of despondent companions, fighting to survive and make things better. This time the character was darker and more conflicted, so maybe he was Raoden with a dash of Kelsier thrown in, (which also matches the "man in horrible conditions finds secret magic that helps him survive" story line).

I could be wrong. And from the way Sanderson talks about this book, maybe these are the original characters and the others are offshoots. Maybe I'm just imagining things. The characters did develop as the book went on, and did move into new territory.

A few other minor things bugged me: I was very tired of seeing every character react to a surprising event or revelation with a: "What? It didn't take long until that jolted me out of the mood every time I read it. Sometimes it fit, but it was overused.

I also got tired of the phrase, "Airsick lowlanders".

At first, some of the spren annoyed me. Anticipationspren? Gloryspren? Really? But oddly enough, I think the interlude chapters about the Aimian scholar and then the two ardents helped. There are a crazy amount of spren, not all of which are widely known, and even the common spren aren't really understood.

There were a lot of little things I liked, but, as usual, it's harder to express and define them. There were some great scenes: All of Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar's chapters, Dalinar had quite a few (like catching the chasmfiend's leg), Kaladin and even Shallan (Jasnah and the four lowlifes) had some awesome scenes.

I'm anxious to see where the series goes. I really liked it, and will definitely recommend this book to people. But it did leave me with a few nagging doubts.