I've read through WoK 2-3 times now, and it's definitely top on my reading list. Depending how the rest of the series turns out, I might rank it right up with Ice & Fire. Plus, Sanderson plugs out books at approximately 6x the rate that GRRM does, with a pretty consistent level of quality.

Although people complain about "extraneous details" like Spren etc, I think it's an essential part of world-building. Sanderson is far more ambitious than GRRM (or any other author I've read) in this regard, creating a totally new universe that is vivid and detailed. I find myself wanting to read more just to explore the world.

The thing that traditionally bothers me about world-building books, is that the authors tend to launch into lengthy lectures about how the world works and what it looks like. Sanderson is more artful about it, with little details slipped into the narrative, or tongue-in-cheek interactions between characters and their environment ("She was not going to ruin a good dress for a pot of drooling, wall-staring, imbecile grass."). Other nice touches add to the effect, like full-page annotated illustrations of creatures from Shallan's "notes".

I characterize WoK mostly as a book of discovery; there isn't a clear enemy or goal, and the characters mostly just muddle along trying to live their lives. However, we are given hints of greater forces at work, and I find the attraction of the story is largely the amount of speculation that it creates. The plot is driven forward by characters' discoveries and revelations, and the reader learns things precisely as the characters do, with no more and no less certainty.

Why does a book need to add something new to the genere to be good? So what if the characters have an unambiguous morality? Just because in Martin's (great by the way) books every one is pretty much either evil or dead (or both) does not mean that every book now has to adopt the 'modern doctrine' or be cast out for being cliche. I happen to like both new and 'old' school fantasy and I see nothing wrong with some of the characters falling into the classic role of heros in fact I like it a lot. This is a great book, with some very intersting characters (who by the way have moral dilemmas all the time) and the world he is buliding for the series seems original and awesome, can't wait for the next book.

How anyone can say this book is not incredible is beyond me but to each his own. I am addicted to reading and listening to books. I have read thousands of books and truly this is my favorite. When I began it I did not think I would like it at all. I was not a fantasy fan and I was lost a bit in the first chapter or so. After that though I was hooked, I went and bought the rest of his books. He is an incredible writer. Now it is just waiting for the next book and finding something in between.

I really didn't like this book at all to be honest. I picked it up unhesitatingly because I love the Wheel of Time (especially how Sanderson was able to get it out of the rut that Jordan had put the series into after about book 6 and make it interesting again) and I rather enjoyed the Mistborn series even if it did get a bit weird towards the end...but I honestly made it only about 1/2 way through the first book before I just couldn't take it anymore. Chapter after plodding chapter of boring people talking about boring, pointless things with almost no action, intrigue or adventure of any kind. I see in the review of it above he says that it take a while for the action to start, so maybe if i'd stuck with it for a few more hundred pages I could have gotten into it but I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm totally ok with epic fantasy series taking a while to get going but this book exhausted my patience.

If the author of the rankings is praising series like A Song of Ice and Fire and Malazan for being so original and groundbreaking, then it baffles me why he/she ranked this book so high (#8 all time, really?! Especially above Bakker all the way down at #21, whose series should really be in the top 3 with Martin and Erikson in terms of depth and mind-fuckability). I can't really fathom how Rothfuss made it all the way up there either.

I'm just trying to be honest when I say Sanderson's The Way of Kings offers absolutely NOTHING NEW to the genre. The characters are complete cookie-cutter genre cliches with no moral ambiguity whatsoever and in particular the scenes with Shallan and Jasnah are just embarassing to read. Two examples are when Sanderson devotes an entire chapter to some silly word Shallan made up (I can't actually remember as I don't have my copy at hand but it was something along the lines of "perplexpectation") and the scene in which Shallan tells Jasnah to believe in god simply because "she feels it in her heart that god is real" (clearly Sanderson trying to add some Mormon touches to the story).

I am always a sucker for epic fantasies and right now Sanderson tops in my favorite author's list. This book is finely written and I just loved the way the climax is presented. Eagerly anticipating the next book in the series. Though Kaladin seems a fine protagonist, I found Shallan's perspective the most engaging part in the book. Wished there was more space for Shallan.

I was struggling in the beginning to get into it, because the characters needed to grow on me, but they all eventually did. Especially Kaladin, I just loved to read his parts! Other main characters were fine, don't get me wrong. In other books they might have been excellent, but they kind of got stuck in Kaladin´s shadow. To a point i became annoyed when the storyline switched characters. But as soon as the other characters were properly introduced and their part in the story unfolded, it didn´t matter anymore. And a great story it is, i am pressed on reading time, but i exchanged some proper sleep for this one.. Just excellent story and character development in a wonderfully detailled world.

As i neared the end of the book i grew more and more anxious, because i did not want it to end. It builds up to a great climax, which considering the scale of this series, is probably just a setup or minor plot twist. In that case i can´t even imagine how epic this is going to become. Anyway, i will be following Brandon´s progress closely. Don't miss out this one!

PS.
About the spren, i don't really get why people didn't like them. I pretty soon got used to them and accepted them as a natural part of this world. Didn't even notice them anymore. I think that's what Brandon wants, if he would only mention them on occasion, you would wonder about them everytime or it may even distract you. It's obvious they play a very importany part in the storyline, i think for their part to work you need to see them in the same way the world is seeing them.. And Syl is special, but absolutely Spren, someone said she wasn't, but nearing the end she tells Kaladin.

There is only one book written and therefore it should not be on the list.

Totally enthralled by this book, finished it in a week, amazing. I’m very excited about this series. Sanderson has created a world unlike anything I’ve read before. This book has all the makings of a brilliant fantasy. The most important trait I feel in a fantasy novel is that the world it is set in feels fully realized. That it has depth and a sense of history and age; that the world extends beyond the characters. And this novel for sure meets the requirement. My only concern is that he, in a very Jordan-like fashion, has created a lot of filler characters, characters that appear once and are ever mentioned again. Also, the spren, LOVE THEM, but they are approached in a very cartoony way, almost anime like. But I do think that that at least is probably going to change as the story progresses.

I had my reserves about Sanderson finishing the Wheel of Time, but after reading this I wish he had written even more of the books...particularly ten. Struggling to slog through it in order to get to the books he took part in.

This book needs to be ahead of the King Killer Chronicles. I and evidently many others commenting are confused as to why those books have been placed so high. Particularly with the publication of the second novel, which was largely filler.

Great book. I don't understand complaints about the book being slow. It is a first in a series and Sanderson takes the time to present his original world to the reader. I don't recall feeling bored at any point while reding the book. It feels like Sanderson is ready for greatness after his good first novels. His role in Wheel of Time is also impressive and with all due respect I think he is doing a better job than Jordan ever did (mostly because of injecting some much needed humor into the books). The way of kings is his best book yet and I can only hope that future books will be as good. As for the spern comments, I think that some of the comments made some good points and it does seem that he needs to think through this a little more but there is a lot more to write so I expect it will make more sense in the future.

I fully recommend this book

I'm quickly becoming a huge Sanderson fan. After being greatly impressed with his contribution to the Wheel of Time series I read Mistborn (which really deserves its own spot, by the way) and just finished The Way of Kings about a week ago. I can't think of any series that I've ready that has had a better start then this one. True, the book doesn't really pick up until around half way through it, but once it picks up speed it never slows down.

I did find the Spren to be a little over the top. I kept wondering, if there are Glory spren and Anticipation spren, why aren't there Lie spren and Betrayal spren? They would have made things a heck of a lot easier on Dalinar and a heck of a lot tougher on Shallan. I did enjoy Syl's character though. There is just something endearing about her. Sanderson has a great sense of humor and a lot of his Wit and Shallan comments had me snickering out loud (which earned me some confused looks in the break room at work.)

I like action in my fantasy and Sanderson never disappoints when it comes to the action scenes. Part of why I didn't like A Game of Thrones (besides the depravity, incest, rape, and child molestation) was the story was boring. Martin would go into disgusting detail when it came to murders or executions, but with the exception of one or two fights with the dwarf Lanister, Martin never really described any battles. It was always "After an intense battle... that side won." Sanderson describes every detail and makes you feel like you're in the thick of it. Every time I saw Shin's name in a chapter, especially in the second half of the book I had to stop myself from skipping ahead. I’m thinking about devoting a sacrifice to the literary gods in the hopes that the next book will pit Kalladin against Shin.

Get the book, you won't be disappointed.

At the present point, the concept of Spren seems a bit pointless, I can aggree to that. However we do not know where he is going with it, and honestly.. does it really matter? He describes them as a part of the environment, just as we would describe our insects for example. However, I do wonder why he keeps such a huge focus on them and I also aggree to the fact that there are "too many" of them. It could have been enough with the elementary ones, like Windspren, Firespren, Waterspren, Deathspren, Lifespren and so on.. Painspren and fearspren...they seem pointless.
Other than that I believe the first novel is a great book and a fine piece of litterature. He paints the whole picture very well for me and I am able to visualize things the way I THINK he wants me to. Although, I must say that there are many loose threads, all of them leading towards something I HOPE will make sense. This could be his biggest problem. Keeping the proportions.

Great work though. Haters; Write your own goddamn novel

If the admin of this website ever revamped the top 3, Way of Kings should be there. Merely replacing Mistborn at #8 doesn't do this book justice. As good as Mistborn was (especially the ending of book 3) WoK is far better.

I don't understand the infatuation with Name of the Wind (if anybody wants to see a very good review, read what rahien.din posted), and the Malazan books fell flat at the end. As far as I'm concerned, this book could very easily be #2 on the list behind ASoIaF. (Assuming the upcoming book is like 1-3, and not 4)

The only criticism posted is that somebody doesn't like one of the characters (not even a main one) and therefore rage quit before finishing the book. Syl, by the way, becomes smarter throughout the book, so she isn't particularly annoying.

Great book. Everything Sanderson writes is great and the fact that he is finishing the Wheel of Time series is awesome. Sanderson is able to create new worlds and types of magic like no one else. Definately worth reading.

I have never read a book by Brandon Sanderson before, but I have been very impressed with the Way of Kings so far (still got about 100 pages to go). The world is very unique and well thought out. Violent storms (highstorms) wrack the world of Roshar, causing the environment to adapt accordingly: grass retracts back into the ground, animals have evolved carapaces to protect against the harsh winds, etc. It's pretty cool, innovative world building.

The magic in these books is equally well executed. Shardplate and Shardblades, powerful armour and swords from ancient times, basically turn a common man into a super-soldier. And there is another form of magic that essentially involves manipulating gravity so that one can run on walls or stick objects to ceilings. It's such a simple, elegant idea and leads to some incredible fight scenes.

One of the other things I liked about this novel is that, even though it is the first of a projected 10-book series, Sanderson keeps the cast of characters small. There are only 4 or 5 major characters - with a few interlude chapters with minor, new characters - and so we really get to delve deeply into each one. This leads to not only some great character development, but a faster paced read than say, the Malazan Book of the Fallen or A Song of Ice and Fire, which are made cumbersome by the constant switching between dozens of POVs.

My biggest gripe with this book is that, despite the small cast and tight focus, it can still be a bit plodding at times. This is mostly a result of Sanderson's writing style, which is very long-winded, but also, the story-arc of the main protagonist, Kaladin, becomes a bit repetitive and imo is weaker than some of the other main characters, such as Dalinar and Shallan. On the other hand, it's kind of refreshing to read an epic fantasy in which the author is so straightforward in his descriptions (the previous book I read was the Crippled God by Steven Erikson, who is anything but straightforward.) It really is an easy (but enjoyable!) read for a book of this size.

All in all, a great read and I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.