Series: The Cosmere

Words of Radiance

Laura4 Comments on Words of Radiance
Words of Radiance
,

, Book # 2
Tor Books
March 4th 2014
Hardcover
1087
English
April 5, 2020 April 19, 2020

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.

About the book

Words of Radiance is the second book in the epic saga The Stormlight Archive by Sanderson. This book begins right where the first ended with Kaladin who moved to Dalinar’s army and is no longer a bridgemen even though he and his team continue to be called as such, especially by Adolin, Dalinar’s eldest son.

Shallan, on the other hand, is traveling to the Shattered Plains with Jasnah to find the legendary city of Urithuru, the ancient place of the Knights Radiant. In addition, they must bring a message to the King because the Voidbringers are returning and when they return they could trigger the Everstorm. We also have different points of view in this book, but the main ones are always Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar and Adolin.

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The Way of Kings

LauraLeave a Comment on The Way of Kings
The Way of Kings
,

, Book # 1
Tor Books
August 31st 2010
Hardcover
1007
English

I long for the days before the Last Desolation.

The age before the Heralds abandoned us and the Knights Radiant turned against us. A time when there was still magic in the world and honor in the hearts of men.

The world became ours, and yet we lost it. Victory proved to be the greatest test of all. Or was that victory illusory? Did our enemies come to recognize that the harder they fought, the fiercer our resistance? Fire and hammer will forge steel into a weapon, but if you abandon your sword, it eventually rusts away.

There are four whom we watch. The first is the surgeon, forced to forsake healing to fight in the most brutal war of our time. The second is the assassin, a murderer who weeps as he kills. The third is the liar, a young woman who wears a scholar's mantle over the heart of a thief. The last is the prince, a warlord whose eyes have opened to the ancient past as his thirst for battle wanes.

The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days become ours again. These four people are key.

One of them may redeem us. And one of them will destroy us.

From Brandon Sanderson-who completed Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time-comes The Stormlight Archive, an ambitious new fantasy epic in a unique, richly imagined setting. Roshar is a world relentlessly blasted by awesome tempests, where emotions take on physical form, and terrible secrets hide deep beneath the rocky landscape.

Speak again the ancient oaths
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.
and return to men the Shards they once bore. The Knights Radiant must stand again!

About the book

It is a little difficult for me to summarise this monumental book. Partly because I didn’t like it as I thought (but I will explain why later) and partly because it’s long and remembering everything is impossible and it would be an understatement anyway.

The book is the first in a series of 10 books called The Stormlight Archive and is divided into parts, like all Sanderson’s books apparently and each part it is divided into chapters narrated more or less by a single character. The main characters are essentially 3 or 4 and we follow their story independently of the others or while it is intertwined with the others.

We have Shallan who has an independent story but who intertwines with Jasnah who is the King ‘s sister Elhokar. We have the king’s uncle, Dalinar Kholin and his son Adolin, we have Kaladin to whom a big portion of the book is dedicated and a murderer, Szeth, with whom the book begins, but apart from a few scenes he doesn’t have much space in the story.

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The Hero of Ages

Laura2 Comments on The Hero of Ages
The Hero of Ages
,

, , Book # 3
Gollancz (Orion)
March 30th 2010
Paperback
748
English
March 3, 2020 March 12, 2020

Who is the Hero of Ages?

To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness—the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists—is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.

Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. She can't even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!

About the book

And here we are at the end of Mistborn, “the first era”. We have reached the end of the saga, the world is dying, it’s continually shaken by earthquakes and the mists that usually appear only at night, begin to remain even during the day and together with the ash that falls from the sky, they obscure the sun that no longer grows crops. Emperors Vin and Elend are trying to follow the clues that the Lord Ruler left in the food storage to save humanity. But the emperor must also deal with kings who don’t recognise him as emperor and therefore must conquer their cities.

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Mistborn: The Well of Ascension

LauraLeave a Comment on Mistborn: The Well of Ascension
The Well of Ascension
,

, , Book # 2
Tor Teen
August 21st 2007
Paperback
748
English
October 17, 2019 October 25, 2019

The impossible has happened. The Lord Ruler is dead. But so too is Kelsier the man who masterminded the triumph. The awesome task of rebuilding the world has been left to his protege Vin; a one-time street urchin, now the most powerful Mistborn in the land.

Worryingly for her Vin has become the focus of a new religion, a development that leaves her intensely uneasy. More worryingly still the mists have become unpredictable since the Lord Ruler died and a strage vaprous entity is stalking Vin.

As the siege of Luthadel intensifies the ancient legend of the Well of Ascension offers the only glimmer of hope. But no-one knows where it is or what it can do...

About the book

Second book in Brandon Sanderson’s epic series, Mistborn. Please if you haven’t read the first book stop here. I have to say some things that happened in the first book.

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Mistborn: The Final Empire

LauraLeave a Comment on Mistborn: The Final Empire
Mistborn: The Final Empire
,

, , Book # 1
Tor Teen
July 17th 2006
Paperback
672
English
October 7, 2019 October 17, 2019

Following on the heels of Sanderson’s successful launch into the YA market with the New York Times bestselling Rithmatist comes Mistborn, now repackaged for the teen audience

Once, a hero rose to save the world. He failed.

For a thousand years since, the world has been a wasteland of ash and mist ruled by the immortal emperor known as the Lord Ruler. Every revolt has failed miserably.

Yet somehow, hope survives. Hope that dares to dream of ending the empire and defeating the Lord Ruler. A new kind of uprising is being planned—one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the determination of an unlikely heroine: a teenage street urchin named Vin.

Once, a hero rose to save the world and failed. This time, can a young heroine succeed?

About the book

This book is set in a particular fantasy world, called The Last Empire. The sun is read, ash falls down from the sky and dense fogs fall down during the night, fogs of which humans, called skaa, are scared of. At the beginning it may seems a world full of pain and darkness, but it isn’t really like that. Through the characters we are “distracted” from the darkness and with them we can see the positiveness in the Last Empire.

In this world, there is a distinction between nobility and skaa, people who count less than nothing and who must serve the nobles. Everyone is ruled by the Lord Ruler, a mystical figure who is more than 1000 years old and who defeated the Deepness, of which no one knows what it is. The Lord Ruler is compared to a divinity and for this reason he may be immortal.

Some of the nobles have powers and those come from burning some metals inside their body. This is called allomancy and who has the allomancy is called Allomancer. Usually only one metal is burned by an allomancer to have only one power and this person is called Misting, but there are people that can burn all the metals and can have multiple powers. These people are called Mistborn. Nobles can kidnap women skaa, do whatever they please with them and then kill them. In fact the Lord Ruler forbids that a child with noble blood is born by a skaa, so the skaa must be killed. But not all the nobles kill the women after using them and this means that some Mistings and Mistborns are skaa, too. Just like our main characters.

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