The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) [MM0034]

2011 TOR MMPB, 1258-pages, in nice clean condition. Book One of the Stormlight Archive, begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion. Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. A war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity. Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

From the many recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "It is amazing. Brandon is a genius of writing. I went into the book expecting great things. And great things it was."; "Epic quest begins! Such a fantastic book! So much lore and world building it's unreal. Highest praises for this masterpiece. Sanderson is truly a master at his craft."; "Wooof, ok I'm about to be obsessed with another long ass series. But it was so good."; "I have loved the stories from Sanderson, and this is just another that fosters a joy for reading."; "Now I get why everyone recommended it."