2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Words of Radiance, the second book in the Stormlight Archive Series by Brandon Sanderson.

Pages: 1087 pages

Length: 2 Months (May & June)

Participants: Alexandra, Alison, Dominique, Franci, Ilona, oshizu, Scott.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

Yay! I'm very eager to start Book 2!
I might need to check that Copprmind Shards (or whatever it's called) website to remind me what happened in Book 1....

The first chapters make it pretty clear where things ended in the last book, so no need to worry oshizu.
You are in for a treat!

Ilona wrote: "The first chapters make it pretty clear where things ended in the last book, so no need to worry oshizu.
You are in for a treat!"

@Ilona
That's great to know! I really appreciate you sharing that or I would have spent an hour googling Book 1 summaries instead of just starting Book 2!
Lol, you finished it already!

P.S. I'd like to recommend Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, Ilona. It's Book 1 of the Farseer Trilogy and I think you would enjoy it. :D

oshizu wrote: "Ilona wrote: "The first chapters make it pretty clear where things ended in the last book, so no need to worry oshizu.
You are in for a treat!"

@Ilona
That's great to know! I really appreciate yo..."

I heard good things about the series. I do plan on reading it next year.

oshizu wrote: "P.S. I'd like to recommend Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, Ilona. It's Book 1 of the Farseer Trilogy and I think you would enjoy it. :D "

Thanks for the recommendation. You are right! I should read these books. *Off to find a copy*

I honestly wouldn't mind rereading this even though I read it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I loved it, and I am not over it. I still dream about the events of the book

@Ilona

And when you finish the Farseers Trilogy, if you find that you enjoyed it, we can consider starting a Buddy Read of Robin Hobb's next series (in order of publication): The Liveship Traders series. Haha

Mena wrote: "I honestly wouldn't mind rereading this even though I read it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I loved it, and I am not over it. I still dream about the events of the book"

@Mena
You don't have to reread the book to join this discussion, as long as you use spoilers. :)

Tor is giving away free ebook editions of The Ways of Kings.
Didn't know where to share this, so I'll put it here. (I already own the Kindle edition....)

https://www.tor.com/2020/05/01/sign-u...

Just finished The Way of Kings. Even better than the first time I read it. Seeing how this fits with the larger Cosmere. Started on book 2

Starting by the end of the week.

I'm planning to wait until the last week of May to start this book, with the hope that I can finish the whole book by the start of June.

This topic has been moved to the June Buddy Reads folder.

I know Ilona already finished this book, but how's everyone else doing?
I just reached Part IV this afternoon.

I won't use spoiler tags, because my vague comments don't spoil the plot for other BReaders.
By the way, while reading Words of Radiance, I could no longer remember any of the other Bridge Four crew, except for Rock, but I'm too lazy to google them.
I like how the author is taking so long to unfold Shallan Davar's backstory. I'm on page 725 and I still don't know what happened in Shallan's past...

I am starting this today and looking forward to it!! 😊

I didn't read that much. Going back to work and picking up where we left off means rushing like crazy. Will get back to it this week.

I read to the beginning of the fifth and final part this afternoon.

I just have a few random comments on Parts 3 and 4
Part 3
(view spoiler)[Shallan & Wit: In Chapter 55, Wit shows up as Adolin's coach driver and Shallan hugs him, saying she never had a chance to thank him. I had no idea when they'd met before so I googled.
Apparently, Wit was the messenger in Chapter 45 (Middlefest) who visited Shallan's father with a message from Heleran. I do remember that messenger asking Shallan about whether she'd ever seen spren. But, otherwise, how were we to know that the messenger was Wit?
Wit: Will we ever learn more about Wit? How does he know so much? He fascinates me, plus I love his insults.
Parshendi culuture: I'm sure they play a crucial part of the story but I'm not really feeling that whole singing to different emotional songs a bore.
Chapter prefaces describing Parshendi forms: These poetic intros made me cringe. Hello? "Bear" and "fear" do not rhyme! (hide spoiler)]

Part 4
(view spoiler)[Kaladin & Shallan stuck in the chasm together: Please, no! Spare me a love triangle between Shallan, Kaladine, and Adolin.
Surely the author can scare up a different love interest for Kaladin? (hide spoiler)]

Only 160 pages to finish this book, sez Kindle! It's been a great read so far!

Response to oshizu's questions about Wit, possible spoiler for the whole Cosmere, but something I think adds to the enjoyment of reading these books:

(view spoiler)[Have you heard of Hoid? The character that jumps between worlds and is present in almost every book? In Warbreaker Hoid is the story teller, in Elantris he is a beggar, in Mistborn an informant. In Stormlight Archive he is Wit. If interested I suggest reading this page, which explains some stuff, but is also spoilery: https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com/...

I knew that Hoid would be in the Stormlight Archive books before starting and I enjoyed "searching" for him! :)
That said there are also some crossovers with Warbreaker in this book, keep your eyes open ;) (hide spoiler)]

I'm almost halfway

I just finished this book and I am going to have to let it sit with me and think about it a while! I loved the book...High Fantasy at its Best... but in places, I found myself googling things such as the Day of Recreance! The whole history and backstory was a bit mind boggling to me and I needed to read an explanation because I felt a bit lost in sections of the book. That being said, I loved the story, I felt that the characters were developed so much more from the first book, to my satisfaction, and the ending makes me look forward to the third book, Oathbringer!! Thank You for allowing me to join in this Buddy Read with You! :)

Finished. I love how the stormlight series is totally enjoyable but also fits into the larger cosmere series. And it does it without felling repetitive with the other series like Mistborn. Can't wait to start Oathbringer.

(view spoiler)[
Apparently Sanderson had an idea a long time ago to create a series of seemingly unrelated stories but with a central mystery story. Wit/Hoyd is a central character to mystery story. Sanderson is also slowing revealing...

this was actually my second read and I think I have more questions now...

one question is who is Teft and what is his story?. In the first book Teft was the one that gave Caladyn the sphere before he was hung out in the high storm. He also gave Caladyn spheres during the recovery. Teft must have known he was helping. ...

(hide spoiler)]