Saturday, June 19, 2010

Thoughts on The Way (of Kings) - Prelude to Chap 6

The Way of Kings : The Stormlight Archive
Brandon Sanderson
Tor Fantasy
August 2010

Prelude to Chapter 6 - pgs 15 - 111

The Story
We start out with a couple of the Kings, Jezreil and Kalan, who are deciding they aren't going to continue something called "The Oathpack". They have just finished fighting and they are supposed to go and be re-born but they don't want to so they dont.  Next we me Szeth as he stalks his way to kill the Shardbearer King Gavilar Kholin.  As he ends the king, Szeth is left to fulfill the man's dying wish to tell his brother he "must find the most important words a man can say". Since Szeth's people think last words are sacred -he has to do what Gavilar wants.  So he wrote it on the wall in the King's blood.  Yeah.

Next we are introduced to Kaladin Stormblessed.  He's in the military and his goal is to stop fighting in these outposts and move to the forefront of the war - The Shattered Plains.  Things go awfully wrong for Kaladin and he ends up a branded slave.  But wait, he's actually sold back to the army but on the Shattered Plains.  Except, he's on Bridge Crew Four and Gaz, his leader, has it in for him.  Bridge Crews are first in the line of fire although they are unarmed and usually sacrificed. So, not looking so good for Kaladin.

We also meet Brightness Shallan Davar.  Shallan's father died and they found out he was not only involved in illegal shenanigans but he owed everybody and hadn't left any money to pay them!  So, Shallan has to figure out a way to make Brightlady Princess Jasnah Kholin (hmm, that last name is familiar) take her on as a ward.  If she can make this happen, she can do one last illegal thing and save the Davar house and name.  All before people realize her father died!

The World Building

We are introduced to a busload of people, places, flora and fauna and even religion in these first pages.  The grass and other plants can retract into the ground! It was a little overwhelming but I teased out some stuff for you. This is subject to change as I read more!
  • The Spren - different colors of light that can take a variety of shapes
    • windspren - makes things stay
    • painspren - orange and relieves pain
    • fearspren - purple and shows if people are afraid
    • riverspren 
    • rotspren - shows up when wounds aren't healing
    • hungerspren - around people who need more food
  • The Places - Roshar is the World - these are cities, I think
    • Jah Keved
    • Kharbranth
    • Tashikk
    • Vedenar
    • Nantanatan
  • The People - different Nationalities
    • Alethi - lighteyes and dark hair - ruling class
    • Parshendi - fighting the Alethi
    • Veden
    • Thaylen
    • Vorin - might be a religion too
    • Takers
    • Seley
  • Vocabulary
    • spheres - money - chips, marks, candles, broams
    • stormlight
    • shardblade
    • shardplate
    • shash - dangerous
    • first moon - time period
    • violet salas - a moon
    • palanquin - transportation
    • lait - protects from highstorms
    • months? - Shasin, Tanat, Shashash, Tanates
    • days? - Palah, Chach

What I'm Thinking
Wow, so far I'm loving this and it's hard to stop reading.  Brandon Sanderson has done an extensive amount of world building and I'm just getting the feel for things.  This is the first book in a series and only 1/10th of the book. I can't imagine the planning that has gone into this and can't wait to continue.

What's Next
See you next week for Chapter 7 - Chapter 14.  I hope next week won't be so extensive but we'll see!


Is there a different way to do this?  Let me know what you think!

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