Gergroy and I decided to see whether anyone had read this series.

Two books of a planned ten have been release thus far: The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance.

If you have even a passing interest in epic fantasy, I can strongly recommend it. Unlike so many fantasy epics, it has no dull segments numbering in the hundreds of pages describing leaves blowing in the wind and no thousands of side characters to keep track of. There are brilliant twists in practically every chapter, a multitude of points of view in different locations and time periods, and a massive overarching story that encompasses all of Brandon Sanderson's novels.

Each book is around 1000 pages long, but they are so engrossing you'll be unable to leave it longer than a couple of weeks to finish reading each of them.

So, go read the series, and come back once you have, because posts below contain unmarked spoilers. You have been warned.

lol, it is like I can hear crickets when I enter this thread! come on people! These are awesome books!! If you haven't read them yet then you should! Immediately!!!

Now, what should we discuss? Should we talk spoiler stuff first? or just talk in general, see if we can get people interested in reading the books so we can facilitate a larger discussion?

How about this, out of the main viewpoint characters? which is your favorite and why?

Personally, I think characterization is one of Sanderson's strongest points in his writing and I feel like all his characters are amazing, especially in this series. I think Kaladin is one of the characters that is really hitting his stride after the first two books. He has grown a lot as a character and I especially liked all his interactions with shallan.

I think Dalinar is my favourite. Kaladin, Adolin and Shallan are more typical fantasy heroes, I think: the loveable underdog who came from nothing, the noble knight in shining (shard) armour, the fiercely bright and independent young woman. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, and they're all brilliant characters.

But Dalinar just feels more unique: a reformed drunkard, used to living in his brother's shadow, and suddenly the most powerful man in an entire kingdom. He's no longer a brilliant and energetic warrior, so he has to use his mind to solve problems. Plus, he's the one who gets to hear Tanavast, and he bonded the Stormfather.

That was pretty epic when he bonded stormfather!  I do enjoy dalinar as well, perfect example of a flawed yet powerful character.  Like I said, this series really has some awesome characters.  Adolin turned into a freaking badass in this last book too!

It's interesting that Adolin is now the only main character who isn't a Radiant. Plus, his once-helpless little brother is one too.

Yeah, it kind of makes me think adolin will also become a radiant.  What do you think of sveth?

I think Adolin is too perfect already. He's used to being the best: good looking, a brilliant fighter, the one everyone respects and looks up to. I think it would be more poignant if it turned out he wasn't part of the race of superhumans.

As for Szeth... well, he tried to kill Dalinar and Kaladin, so he's got that again him. But hopefully he's not just an indiscriminate killer now. Plus, he now wields Nightblood (from Warbreaker if you've read it).

I read it... A long time ago... I actually really need to go back and reread way of kings and warbreaker pretty badly. I usually reread the previous books before a new book like this, but I have been pretty busy lately.  Thats one reason I really like the idea of doing a book club on here, then I can reread the older books with a bunch of people and discuss. 

Anyway, back to Sveth, I actually like sveth.  I also thought he was a very sympathetic assassin, which is pretty rare. 

Also, i was going to ask if you knew about the cosmere or not. Should be interesting to see how sanderson brings that all together, if he even intends to. Right now it is just small things like nightblood connecting them.

ok, well it appears nobody has read these books... so I have some time now so I'm just going to go full spoilers

First of all, I'll give my thoughts on some of the different groups

ghostbloods:

This shadow group seems to be directly behind some of the assassinations going on. The name is kind of interesting, I don't think Sanderson would name them ghost blood without a reason. I think that they may end up being somekind of antithesis to the radiants. They also may be directed by taravangian... but I think the more likely leader of the ghostbloods is the jah keved bastard. He was the messenger that came to shallons house to meet with her father and they kept talking about how dark and emotionless he was. Plus, a lot of the ghostblood story seems to be tied to shallans family back in jah keved.  I think he, and possibly other ghostbloods can wield a dark power, kind of the opposite of stormlight. There is no basis for that in the books, that is just me guessing

Shallons Family:

Her family appears to be in deep with the ghostbloods. Her father and brother certainly were members of the group, and since jasnah was having her mother watched, perhaps her mother was too. Her brother may have tried to break away though, because her father was trying to have him killed before he was actually killed by kaladin.

Taravangian:

Taravangian appears to be someone who will be very important in later books. Someone who will oppose Dalinar in unifying everybody. I'm curious if his intelligence is somehow affect by stormlight. Perhaps he is somekind of radiant without knowing it? His diagram seems to plot a path that would put him in charge of every country so that he can save everybody from desolation or something like that. I think there is a chance he is tied to the ghostbloods, because they seem to have similar methods, but I think they are different because he has access to sveth, and the ghostbloods are just using random assassins. If you had access to sveth and needed somebody killed, I think they would just use him.

The parshman/voidbringers:

I'm still not entirely sure that the parshman are the voidbringers. They certainly brought about the everstorm when they turned in the storm form, but I'm still not convinced. I remember jasnah finding a picture of a voidbringer and it was a chasm fiend...

sveth:

Well, sveth is reborn now and no longer has to do the will a taravangian and he has nightblood. He is being set to bring "justice" to the shen who didn't believe him. I think we will find him capturing all the honor blades... perhaps he will be able to combine all that power to confront the radiants at a later date.

Adolin:

I think Adolin is actually in a position to be the most interesting character in the next book. He is poised for huge fall. He murdered sadeas in cold blood and didn't tell anybody. He is in love with Shallon, even though it seems she has a much stronger bond with kaladin so he is primed for a break up there. He is also the only person in his family left that isn't a radiant. So, I see Adolins going down three different paths in the future.
1. Super dark path. Shallon breaks up with him and it is found out that he murdered sadeas. Dalinar is forced to order his execution. He runs away. Broken and abandoned by people he loved, he falls further down the dark path, possibly joining the ghostbloods or another group like that to kill kaladin.
2. The rough path. He admits he murdered sadeas which prompts shallon to break up with him. He is imprisoned, but eventually set free and allowed to continue fighting. His presence is lessened and he is resentful of others.
3. The redeemed path. He admits he murdered sadeas, but shallon sticks by him, choosing him over kaladin. He is imprisoned and tried, but in the end he is freed. He is either given the honor blade or becomes a radiant in his own right.

Wooh, thats a lot. I'll write some more later.