The Way of Kings Read-along Notes & Thoughts - Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter One:

Thoughts:

Nature seems to be very important to the people of this world- The Truthless of Shinovar revered stone, the Alethi seem to reference a "Stormfather" and use "storm" as a prefix for a lot of world-specific vocabulary.

I was definitely right about the tone and this not being a "safe" world.

There are minor skirmishes at home on borders while a "real" conflict wages on the Shattered Plains against the Parshmen. (Not the Parshendi? A different tribe of the same race?)

Not much happens, despite taking place during a "battle" but serves to show Kaladin in charge and showcase his immediate uniqueness.

Notes:

takes place 5 years after death of King Gavilar in the Prologue

Brightlords - "chosen at birth by the Heralds, marked for rule"

painspren -"small orange hands with overly long fingers"

Notable Names:

• Cenn, Dallet - bit characters in a squad
• Kaladin ("Stormblessed") - 19 - Alethi with black hair and a "darkeyes", shown to be compassionate, knowledgeable, kind, etc.
• Brightlord Amaram

Chapter Two:

Thoughts:

Kaladin doesn't wear down easy but 10 trips is enough to turn him into an entirely different man than he was in chapter one (10 escapes from 5 masters in 8 months)

Kaladin certainly has a nasty history behind him - not just the border skirmishes or the running away as a slave.

I really appreciate Sanderson's restraint with telling this elaborate, detailed story. There's a lot of worldbuilding and history but it doesn't mean infodumps and boring chapters - even the backstory is thrilling and interesting. Every book, this is an author that impresses me even more. Unique, complex magic systems in every single book/series he's written? Amazing. Though I do feel the one at play here in Way of Kings with the Stormlight/Shardblades is just as curious as Mistborn's Allomancy or Elantris's elaborate Aons.

The illustrations for chapter three are for "skyeels" and marks the first appearance of Shallan - another important, and first female, main character.  (It's not cheating/going ahead if I just glanced at the next chapter...)

Notes:

• eight months after the events from the first chapter
• windspren - the first with a "spren" suffix to have a personality and awareness - with Kaladin for a few months
• Shash - means 'dangerous' in glyphs - I feel like another word had "shash" within it earlier in the book
• hungerspren - look like small brown flies
• chulls -huge crustacean-like creatures used for cheap labor - used by lesser/common people - horses used by nobility
• rotspren - red
• the art in this is really top-notch

Chulls:

Notable Names:

• Kaladin (the Depressed) 
• Tvlakv - the slaver who now owns both Kaladin and a name I wouldn't dare to try to pronounce. Someone with the audiobook must enlighten me.
• Tien - Kaladin's first "failure"

Ah, I want to read more. This book is so engrossing - even Kaladin's abrupt switcheroo from can-do to hopeless isn't offputting; I just want even more to know what happened to change him so. I also want to know (remember) the deal with the spren - are they just manifestations of feelings/emotions? 1150 more pages in which to figure it out because I know Sanderson isn't going to spell it out for me. I read this first when it came out in 2010 and it's astonishing how much minutiae I forgot, so I'm not as knowledgeable about it as I used to be. Also, I'll be lumping more chapter responses together, not just two at a time so it won't overpower over other things on the blog.