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bibliogrammaTwo of the Hugo nominees for best series - Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives and Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities - are by authors I’d never read before and had not had and particular desire to read. But in the interests of due diligence, I embarked on the first novel in each series.
Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, the first book in the Hugo-nominated Stormlight Archives series, is... impressive. The writing is finely honed, smooth, consistently solid in narration, description and dialogue. The characters are interesting, complex, well developed. The worldbuilding is a tour de force of imaginative, carefully integrated detail.
And it bored me. It’s too fond of itself, too precious. And it is very, very long. Someone really needed to take a dispassionate pen and slice about a third of the elegant prose away, leaving a tighter storyline, a more compact narrative in which things happen before you start longing for some action, some new twist to rekindle excitement. It meanders. Beautifully, to be sure, with each scene a set piece in itself, but beauty is not everything. I found that, most unusually for me, whenever I paused in my reading to do something else, I felt no impatience to get back to the book, or curiosity about what would happen next to any of the characters. If I had not been reading this as a Hugo finalist for best series, I likely would not have bothered to finish reading it.
The Way of Kings takes place in a violent and inhospitable world, where energy storms make life difficult, and have strange aftereffects, leaving behind them energy sparks that can be used, harnessed for many things. There are strange creatures, and there is war. The novel winds itself around three main characters: Kaladin, former soldier, son of a physician, natural leader, now a slave leading a crew of ‘bridgemen’ - slaves who carry the wooden bridges needed by the armies of the Alethi to cross the chasm-riddled battlegrounds where they engage their enemy, the Parshendi; Dalinar, highprince, warrior, seer of storm-induced visions and guilt-ridden brother of the former king of the Alethi, who has never forgiven himself for being in a drunken stupour when his brother was assassinated, and now devotes himself to protecting the life of his nephew, the current king, and training his sons to do the same, and trying to fix the problems at his nephew’s court the way his brother’s legacies and his visions tell him to; and Shallan, aspiring scholar, and artist, tenacious and insistent in her quest to earn a place as apprentice to the noble born, and controversial, master scholar Jasnah, though her intent is not to learn, but to steal a powerful artefact in the hopes of rejuvenating the fortunes of her family. They are, of course, connected. Kaladin serves in the warband of Sadeas, a highprince of the Alethi and rival, possibly enemy, of Dalinor, while Jasnah is the sister of the Alethi king, and Dalinar’s niece.
And it only took about one third of the book to show, in great detail, just how talented a natural leader Kaladin is, how guilt-ridden and obsessed with his brother’s legacy Dalinar is, and how very persistent and determined Shallan is to reverse the fortunes of her family. And it only takes just shy of half the book for things to start moving. And even though, finally, Kaladin led his work crew to do something, and Shallan did what she came to do, and Dalinor tried to do something with the situation around him, and they all had consequences to deal with, it really took dedication to read through to the end. And while I did develop some affection for the characters, and once the story started to move, there were some interesting bits, I find I have little inclination to read on in the series. I might look for a synopsis somewhere to see what happens, but I’ve no desire to wade through nine more volumes as slow-moving and over-written as this one.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs was considerably more engaging. Also well written, with interesting characters and situations, it is much better paced and much less indulgent. The setting is the city of Bulikov, once one of the largest cities in the world, still a major urban centre of the former colonial power referred to only as The Continent. Some seventy-five years ago, one of the countries colonised by The Continent, Saypur, staged a successful revolt, followed by its own imperialist drive. Saypur is now the coloniser, The Continent the oppressed colony.
Part of the response of Saypur to its new status has been to completely outlaw all shrines, relics, symbols, and references, written or spoken, to the deities of The Continent - with some justification, as supplication and invocation of these deities can produce miracles, or magic, and it is largely this ability to call on the Divine that gave the Continent its edge in conquering other nations. Ironically, the Continent, despite its imperial history, appears to have been very backward both socially and scientifically, depending almost wholly on the powers of its deities. In fact, it was the death of the Divines at the instigation of revolutionary leader Kaj Avshakta si Komayd that resulted in the collapse of The Continent and the resurgence of Saypur. Since the things created by the Divines ceased to be on their deaths, and much of the greatness of the Continental cities was built through the power of the Divines, much of the physical presence of the Continental culture, from household artefacts to entire cities, vanished when they died, and with them, hundreds of thousands of people living in them.
I feel some sort of commentary on Western colonial imperialism and the role that religion conversion and indoctrination played in subduing and assimilating colonised peoples may be going on here, but it’s not a direct one by any means. Particularly since the Saypuri, now that they are the dominent nation, are quite intent on keeping the residents of the Continent as subjects. There is a real anger among the Saypuri, not just due to centuries of exploitation and slavery, but an existential sense of injustice - why was it just the Continent that benefitted from the power of real divinities? If gods existed, where were the gods who could have protected Saypur?
The novel begins in Saypur-controlled Bulikov, where people resent being forbidden their divinities, and a Saypuri academic (and possible intelligence operative) named Efram Pangyui, who was studying the religious artefacts seized during the conquest of Bulikov and niw forbidden to the native citizens of the Continent, has been murdered.
Shaya Komayd, a Saypuri intelligence operative, has wrangled consent from the Ministry head (who happens to be her aunt; both are descendants of Kaj Komayd) to investigate the murder, at least on a preliminary basis despite her personal bias - Pangyui was a friend of Shaya’s.
As Shaya investigates, she becomes more and more aware that Pangyui’s death was just a small part of a conspiracy among those adherents of one of the Divinities - Kolkan, the most repressive, legalistic, and punitive of the six gods of the Continent - to restore the old ways. And it is possible that Kolkan is still alive.
Shaya is presented as a complex, evolving character with a relevant backstory. She’s both cynical and idealistic, practical and imaginative, highly intelligent and motivated. The other significant characters are equally interesting. Turyin Mulaghesh, the Saypuri military governor of Bulikov - jaded, frustrated, yet courageous and committed to doing the best she can for the people under her authority, Saypuri and Continental alike. Vohannes Votrev, wealthy heir to a Continental family once high in the favour of Kolkan, shaya’s former lover, a gay man in a culture that is fanatically conservative on sexuality, twisted by his family’s religious beliefs but still struggling to bring modern values, and economic stability, to his people. And Sigurd, Shaya’s secretary, bodyguard and covert operative extraordinaire, a lost and deeply wounded man with a dark past, painful secrets, and a devotion to Shaya that is the only thing that keeps him alive.
City of Stairs is a complex and thoughtful story, with many things to say about truth, history, belief, revenge and forgiveness. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the nexr book in the series.
Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, the first book in the Hugo-nominated Stormlight Archives series, is... impressive. The writing is finely honed, smooth, consistently solid in narration, description and dialogue. The characters are interesting, complex, well developed. The worldbuilding is a tour de force of imaginative, carefully integrated detail.
And it bored me. It’s too fond of itself, too precious. And it is very, very long. Someone really needed to take a dispassionate pen and slice about a third of the elegant prose away, leaving a tighter storyline, a more compact narrative in which things happen before you start longing for some action, some new twist to rekindle excitement. It meanders. Beautifully, to be sure, with each scene a set piece in itself, but beauty is not everything. I found that, most unusually for me, whenever I paused in my reading to do something else, I felt no impatience to get back to the book, or curiosity about what would happen next to any of the characters. If I had not been reading this as a Hugo finalist for best series, I likely would not have bothered to finish reading it.
The Way of Kings takes place in a violent and inhospitable world, where energy storms make life difficult, and have strange aftereffects, leaving behind them energy sparks that can be used, harnessed for many things. There are strange creatures, and there is war. The novel winds itself around three main characters: Kaladin, former soldier, son of a physician, natural leader, now a slave leading a crew of ‘bridgemen’ - slaves who carry the wooden bridges needed by the armies of the Alethi to cross the chasm-riddled battlegrounds where they engage their enemy, the Parshendi; Dalinar, highprince, warrior, seer of storm-induced visions and guilt-ridden brother of the former king of the Alethi, who has never forgiven himself for being in a drunken stupour when his brother was assassinated, and now devotes himself to protecting the life of his nephew, the current king, and training his sons to do the same, and trying to fix the problems at his nephew’s court the way his brother’s legacies and his visions tell him to; and Shallan, aspiring scholar, and artist, tenacious and insistent in her quest to earn a place as apprentice to the noble born, and controversial, master scholar Jasnah, though her intent is not to learn, but to steal a powerful artefact in the hopes of rejuvenating the fortunes of her family. They are, of course, connected. Kaladin serves in the warband of Sadeas, a highprince of the Alethi and rival, possibly enemy, of Dalinor, while Jasnah is the sister of the Alethi king, and Dalinar’s niece.
And it only took about one third of the book to show, in great detail, just how talented a natural leader Kaladin is, how guilt-ridden and obsessed with his brother’s legacy Dalinar is, and how very persistent and determined Shallan is to reverse the fortunes of her family. And it only takes just shy of half the book for things to start moving. And even though, finally, Kaladin led his work crew to do something, and Shallan did what she came to do, and Dalinor tried to do something with the situation around him, and they all had consequences to deal with, it really took dedication to read through to the end. And while I did develop some affection for the characters, and once the story started to move, there were some interesting bits, I find I have little inclination to read on in the series. I might look for a synopsis somewhere to see what happens, but I’ve no desire to wade through nine more volumes as slow-moving and over-written as this one.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs was considerably more engaging. Also well written, with interesting characters and situations, it is much better paced and much less indulgent. The setting is the city of Bulikov, once one of the largest cities in the world, still a major urban centre of the former colonial power referred to only as The Continent. Some seventy-five years ago, one of the countries colonised by The Continent, Saypur, staged a successful revolt, followed by its own imperialist drive. Saypur is now the coloniser, The Continent the oppressed colony.
Part of the response of Saypur to its new status has been to completely outlaw all shrines, relics, symbols, and references, written or spoken, to the deities of The Continent - with some justification, as supplication and invocation of these deities can produce miracles, or magic, and it is largely this ability to call on the Divine that gave the Continent its edge in conquering other nations. Ironically, the Continent, despite its imperial history, appears to have been very backward both socially and scientifically, depending almost wholly on the powers of its deities. In fact, it was the death of the Divines at the instigation of revolutionary leader Kaj Avshakta si Komayd that resulted in the collapse of The Continent and the resurgence of Saypur. Since the things created by the Divines ceased to be on their deaths, and much of the greatness of the Continental cities was built through the power of the Divines, much of the physical presence of the Continental culture, from household artefacts to entire cities, vanished when they died, and with them, hundreds of thousands of people living in them.
I feel some sort of commentary on Western colonial imperialism and the role that religion conversion and indoctrination played in subduing and assimilating colonised peoples may be going on here, but it’s not a direct one by any means. Particularly since the Saypuri, now that they are the dominent nation, are quite intent on keeping the residents of the Continent as subjects. There is a real anger among the Saypuri, not just due to centuries of exploitation and slavery, but an existential sense of injustice - why was it just the Continent that benefitted from the power of real divinities? If gods existed, where were the gods who could have protected Saypur?
The novel begins in Saypur-controlled Bulikov, where people resent being forbidden their divinities, and a Saypuri academic (and possible intelligence operative) named Efram Pangyui, who was studying the religious artefacts seized during the conquest of Bulikov and niw forbidden to the native citizens of the Continent, has been murdered.
Shaya Komayd, a Saypuri intelligence operative, has wrangled consent from the Ministry head (who happens to be her aunt; both are descendants of Kaj Komayd) to investigate the murder, at least on a preliminary basis despite her personal bias - Pangyui was a friend of Shaya’s.
As Shaya investigates, she becomes more and more aware that Pangyui’s death was just a small part of a conspiracy among those adherents of one of the Divinities - Kolkan, the most repressive, legalistic, and punitive of the six gods of the Continent - to restore the old ways. And it is possible that Kolkan is still alive.
Shaya is presented as a complex, evolving character with a relevant backstory. She’s both cynical and idealistic, practical and imaginative, highly intelligent and motivated. The other significant characters are equally interesting. Turyin Mulaghesh, the Saypuri military governor of Bulikov - jaded, frustrated, yet courageous and committed to doing the best she can for the people under her authority, Saypuri and Continental alike. Vohannes Votrev, wealthy heir to a Continental family once high in the favour of Kolkan, shaya’s former lover, a gay man in a culture that is fanatically conservative on sexuality, twisted by his family’s religious beliefs but still struggling to bring modern values, and economic stability, to his people. And Sigurd, Shaya’s secretary, bodyguard and covert operative extraordinaire, a lost and deeply wounded man with a dark past, painful secrets, and a devotion to Shaya that is the only thing that keeps him alive.
City of Stairs is a complex and thoughtful story, with many things to say about truth, history, belief, revenge and forgiveness. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the nexr book in the series.