Title: Words of Radiance
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: The Stormlight Archive
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 1088
Published: 2014, Tor Books
My Grade: 5 out of 5
Review Summary: I’m stunned. I’ve laughed, dropped my jaw, been wide-eyed, shouting internally (and sometimes aloud), this book put me through everything.

FROM THE BACK COVER

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

The ancient oaths have at last been spoken; the spren return. Men seek that which was lost. I fear the struggle will destroy them.

It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit.  Surgebindings, the powers of creation themselves.  They can brace a broken soul; but they can also widen its fissures.

The Windrunner, lost in a shattered land, balanced upon the boundary between  vengeance and honor. The Lightweaver, slowly being consumed by her past, searching for the lie that she must become. The Bondsmith, born in blood and death, striving to rebuild what was destroyed. The Explorer, straddling the fates of two peoples, forced to  choose between slow death and a terrible betrayal of all she believes.

It is past time for them to awaken, for the Everstorm looms.

And the Assassin has arrived.

MY REVIEW

It’s been a day now since I finished Words of Radiance, and I’m still struggling to understand how it’s even possible to write something like this. Where does this imagination come from? How can Sanderson keep dropping bomb after bomb, relentlessly, with such precision? I honestly don’t know how anyone can say that the Stormlight Archive is slow, because for me, there’s something happening on every single page. Every arc has its own momentum, and in this second book, many of them start to intertwine in incredibly satisfying (and sometimes frustrating) ways.

One of Sanderson’s greatest strengths (though also one of the most frustrating as a reader) is how he weaves so many threads, pulling at every corner of his characters’ lives. You can see the big picture forming, or at least the parts you’re allowed to see at this point. You understand how things could work out if the characters just asked the right questions or opened up to each other, but of course they don’t. And that’s what makes it so gripping. There’s a kind of helplessness in seeing all these missed connections, yet you can’t look away. You need to know how it will all come together. Because, let’s face it, after nine books, I do know that it does come together somehow eventually.

Emotionally, this book hit differently than The Way of Kings. That first book made me feel like I was part of Bridge Four. I was in it, with them, feeling their struggles and triumphs, belonging to something real. In Words of Radiance, things shift. Bridge Four isn’t the same, relationships evolve, and more characters step into the spotlight. I missed the closeness and the sense of belonging at times, but what I got instead was intensity. Deep, layered, pulse-racing intensity.

There were moments I saw coming (at least partially), but still couldn’t put the book down because I had to see if my instincts were right. That duel in the middle of the book? Absolutely wild. I felt like I was holding my breath through the entire scene. The long, hopeless battle near the end? Utterly exhausting and brilliant. And the plot twists in the final two chapters? I thought I was prepared. I wasn’t.

The Way of Kings was probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. But Words of Radiance somehow topped it. It expanded everything I loved about the first book, dialled up the stakes, deepened the characters, and left me in complete awe.

You already know the drill: my grade is a solid 5. But really? This one could easily be a 6.5 or 7 if I hadn’t already decided that 5 was my max.