The Way of Kings presents a diverse set of likable protagonists in a unique world setting and provides 1,000+ pages of enjoyable fantasy epic reading.

The novel is the first volume in Brandon Sanderson’s new epic series, and it follows the stories of three main protagonists:

Kaladin, a surgeon’s son and apprentice, who joined the Alethi army to help protect his younger brother. Kaladin found talent as a spearman, becoming known as Kaladin Stormblessed for his ability to avoid injury and death. But ultimately he failed his brother and many of those around him. Despite his nickname, Kaladin is haunted by the idea that he’s cursed. He’s a complicated young man, who believes in honor and justice, but who sees little of those qualities in his leaders, who reward his great accomplishments on the battlefield with treachery, banishment and slavery. Kaladin ultimately makes his way back to the army, not as a soldier, but as a member of the bridgemen, whose only role was to carry bridges for the army to cross the ravines of the Shattered Plains. Bridgemen were considered dispensable, and aside from carrying the bridges, their role was to serve as targets for enemy arrows before the real army engaged. But Kaladin refuses to accept his role, using his talents – first as a surgeon, then as a leader, to unite the bridgemen and make them believe in themselves. Along the way, and with the help of a “spren” or spirit named Syl, he discovers that he has far greater talents than he ever imagined.

Shallan is the daughter of a minor noble from the Kingdom of Jah Keved. Her family has fallen on hard times after her father dies. The family’s wealth came largely from the use of a magical fabrial, which no longer seems to be working. So Shallan sets off with plans to steal a new fabrial from Jasnah Kholin, sister to the Alethi King, who is a renowned scholar and Soulcaster.

Dalinar Kholin is the uncle and advisor to the current Alethi king. Dalinar’s brother is assassinated in the early part of the book by a lone assassin, sent by little understood nation of Parshendi. He leads one of the larger Alethi war factions fighting the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains. Where most of the other warlords spend their time squabbling, posing and earning gemstones, Dalinar is most concerned with honor and winning the War of Vengeance. He is perceived as weak by his peers, and his old-fashioned ways don’t seem to help. It gets worse when he begins seeing visions, urging him to unite the Alethi princes and bring unity back to Roshar. Like his brother before him, he becomes obsessed with a historical book called The Way of Kings, which teaches about the ancient Radiants and their ways.

What I like about the book

The world set forth in The Way of Kings is unique for its ecology and magical system, both of which are complex, interrelated and unique. The world of Roshar seems completely foreign, consisting of rocky plains and barren wasteland. Its landforms and ecology are shaped by frequent and ferocious storms, which are also the source of Stormlight, which gives the world’s magical gemstones their power. This is a world where grass retracts into the ground to protect itself from highstorms, and where the predominant creatures are crustaceans, ranging from the very small to the humongous.

After the first book, it’s not entirely clear HOW all of these things are interrelated. It’s just clear that they are.

The pace of the book is very good. Even though it employs some classic genre ideas (such as the return of ancient magic and the downtrodden hero), in 1000+ pages, I didn’t get bored with the characters or the storyline.

I would recommend The Way of Kings to anyone looking to begin a new epic fantasy series.

It’s been about a month and a half (both since I blogged and since I worked on my novel). Last night I finished off Chapter 11 with nearly 1,500 new words. Tonight, I’ll go back and see if any of them are worth keeping. I’m sure a few of them are.

Actually, it felt good to get back into the story. I don’t know why I always feel surprised that I enjoy the creative writing process. I spend so much of my time not writing that it often feels like I’m avoiding it. Then, when I start up again, I feel rejuvenated, which makes it hard for me to fathom why I have such a hard time keeping up with it.

But then I realize it isn’t writer’s block, or procrastination, or lack of ideas, or any of the other excuses writers often manufacture to explain why they aren’t writing. It’s that I have a life outside writing. Family, work and other pursuits take up a lot of my time–and that’s not a bad thing, either.

I enjoy spending time with my family. I enjoy going to the movies with my wife, going to three different kids’ sporting events on a Saturday, even helping the kids with their homework.

I enjoy my work (most of the time). Recently I started a new venture, which you can see over at www.greenmfgnews.com . So, in addition to my full-time job as magazine editor, I also am trying to start something new on my own. And when I have a chance, I poke away at this novel of mine.

So I write when I can. I feel good about it when I do, especially when I’m able to make real progress. For example, last night I finished off a chapter. I also passed the 40,000 word mark, which I figure is about a third of the way there.

Fantasy Novelist’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 1
• Chapters complete: 11
• Word Count: 40,582

If you read yesterday’s headline, and then today’s, you can probably guess that I’m back in the writing habit. (woohoo! two days in a row!)

I wrote about 1,000 words last night and got myself about halfway through Chapter 11. After several months of slacking off, it feels good to get back to this project. I found that I’ve missed spending time in the world I’ve created. I’m finding that the more time I spend with them, the more the characters come to life.

So now I’m full of fresh energy and enthusiasm. Forget about what I wrote yesterday. 4.5 years? Absurd! My new estimate is 4.5 months, and I have a track record of two whole days to back me up.

All I have to do is keep writing 1,000 words a day.

Fantasy Novelist’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 2
• Chapters complete: 10 (and a half)
• Word Count: 39,016

Ok, so it’s been a little while since I posted anything here about my novel in progress. I’ll be honest. It’s been a little while since I’ve worked on it. I think I’ve spent about three days writing this whole month.

So I looked at my last post, got out my handy calculator, and figured out how long it would take me to finish this novel if I continue at my current pace…

Today is January 26. My last post about the novel was November 4. That’s 82 days between posts. I’ll admit that I haven’t blogged every time I’ve written. But I haven’t written that much either. One chapter and about 3,000 words in 82 days.

This is where it starts to get scary. Assuming the novel will be about 30 chapters and 120,000 words, I figure I should be able to wrap things up in approximately 1,640 days, which equates to 4.5 years.

Gosh, I hope I don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome from all that typing.

Fantasy Novelist’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 1
• Chapters complete: 10
• Word Count: 38,233

It’s National Novel Writing Month. According to the NaNoWriMo website, “National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel by midnight, November 30.”

So what? National Novel Writing Month appears to be geared toward amateurs. Their focus is on quantity, not quality. Just get the words down on paper. What you do with them after that is up to you.

Except that my goal isn’t just to get words on paper. That part is easy. It’s getting the right words that’s difficult. Maybe that comes from my being a professional magazine editor in my real life. Maybe it comes from the fact that I don’t just want to write a novel. I want to write a good one. I want to have it published and be successful.

I spend far more time planning, editing and rewriting than I spend writing fresh material. To me, that feels like the better approach. I don’t have a problem coming up with ideas or ways to express them. It’s not about writer’s block. It’s about blocking out time to keep making progress.

Like NaNoWriMo, I use word count to track my progress. But they’re not just words. They’re the right words. Counting them just gives me a way to see my progress and stay motivated. Two months ago, I had 23,000 words and six chapters. Now I have 35,000 words and nine chapters.

I hope the good folks at NaNoWriMo will forgive me, but I’m not participating. They had more than 100,000 participants last year, with some 15% actually completing the 50,000 words.

I’m just going to keep doing what I do. My goal isn’t just to have a certain number of words and call it a novel. My goal is to write a cohesive, interesting epic fantasy page-turner. Whether it ends up at 50,000 words or 150,000 words doesn’t matter.

Fantasy Novelist’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 1
• Chapters complete: 9
• Word Count: 35,300

The world’s greatest fantasy novel writer is back on the job. No, not J.R.R. Tolkien, although that would be news, wouldn’t it. No, not Terry Brooks. Who then? George R.R. Martin? Nope, not him either. I mean me, of course. Last night I wrote for about two hours.

Ok, maybe “world’s greatest” is a bit of a stretch, but I am writing fantasy, after all, and half the fun is just making stuff up. The point is, I’m back in the writing habit. Exactly one day in a row. OK, maybe “habit” is a bit of a stretch, too, but I feel a lot better about making progress than the alternative.

I worked on a new scene last night, the last scene of Chapter 9. The main character is about to get himself into a whole new mess, and it should be interesting. But he’ll also meet a new ally, whom I’ve already introduced. Together they’ll be able to get out of the mess, but not in this chapter. All I have to do tonight is finish getting our hero into the trouble. Throw in some bad guys and the scariest fantasy monster you’ve ever come across, and we’re in business.

I should be able to finish at least the rough draft of Chapter 9 tonight, and then get a good head start on Chapter 10.

In the early stages of writing a novel, there’s a lot more planning than writing. I feel like I am getting to the point in the story where the planning has mostly been taken care of, and the action of the story begins to drive itself. I don’t have to think about what is going to happen next, because what happens next follows naturally from what happened previously. That makes the writing part a lot easier.

Let’s hope it continues.

(World’s Greatest!) Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 1
• Chapters complete: 8
• Word Count: 33,808

Ok, so it’s been about a month and a half since I wrote my last post. Not good, really, considering that this blog was supposed to help keep me on track with my writing habits.

Unfortunately, writing every day is a much harder habit to develop than not writing every day.

I haven’t been totally inactive since the last time I posted, but I haven’t written that much either. I am about two-thirds of the way through Chapter 9, which is about a chapter and a half further than I was late in August. I have somewhere around 33,000 words complete, and I hope to get through Chapter 9 tonight.

In the meantime, I finished reading the latest from Terry Brooks a few nights ago ( The Gypsy Morph, book 3 of the Genesis of Shannara series ). It was a good book, well written, with Terry Brooks’s usual style, and I consider my time spent reading his work as studying as much as reading for pleasure.

I admire Brooks for his pace and writing style, and if my writing can come anywhere close to that, then my “studying” time will have been well spent.

So, with inspiration anew, I’ll tackle the rest of Chapter 9 tonight. Wish me luck.

I’m still in the revising, rewriting and editing stage, but I’m close to moving on to the next scene. I’ve spent the last few nights revisiting old chapters and old scenes and my notes and chronology of events.

In the first version, I didn’t necessarily write the chapters in chronological order. But in order to avoid confusing the reader, I’m going to rearrange.

So, what used to be Chapters 7 and 8 are going to become 3 and 4. Not only does this help me keep the sequence of events in the proper order, but it also lets me stay with the first group of characters a little longer before switching to my second main story line.

Moving these chapters meant adding a day to one story line and starting the second one a little bit later, but the changes were minor, and the whole thing makes a little more sense that way. I don’t want the reader to have to figure out that I’ve just jumped back to yesterday, and I certainly don’t want to have to explain it. And time travel is just not possible in the universe I’ve created.

Working on Chapter 8 (now Chapter 3) last night, I reworked a lot of the first scene, resulting in a fair amount of new material, which is good. I’ll be moving on to new stuff over the weekend.

Although I’m nowhere near the initial goal of writing 1,000 words a day, I’ve been working pretty steadily. I think I’ve taken two days off over the past two weeks. And despite all my editing and revising, the word count keeps growing, too, which means I must be getting somewhere.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 7
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 28,206

I’ve spent the past few days going over past chapters and making revisions. Thus, I haven’t added a whole lot of new content over the past week (or at least, I haven’t begun a new chapter during that time).

On the other hand, I’ve made good progress connecting earlier chapters with later ones, filling in holes that allow me to move the story along.

I had to go back to Chapter 3 and create a scene from the main villain’s perspective. It allowed me to provide a little more necessary background and set up some of the events that take place in later chapters. It also allowed me to make this villain more realistic. He’s more complicated than the prototypical “bad guy,” and I needed to get that across.

I’ll probably go back to these scenes and revise again, but over the past two nights, I think I’ve got it in good enough shape to move on.

I also have to go back and add at least two scenes to Chapter 6. It was a fairly short chapter anyway, and I need some things to happen in order to set up Chapters 8-10.

This entire novel takes place over the span of only a few days, but a lot of things have to happen all at the same time. Getting everything synchronized so that it makes sense to the reader has been one of my biggest challenges. I also don’t want to jump around too much, because I’ll lose the readers if I do.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 4
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 27,282

Ok, so maybe 1,000 words a day wasn’t realistic on an every-day schedule. Over the past week, during which I’ve spent productive time writing every day, I’ve discovered that I need more editing and revising time than I previously thought.

I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. Whenever I finish a rewrite session, I almost always feel as though I’ve strengthened the novel.

I’m at a point where certain of my characters are ready to move on, but some others aren’t quite there yet. So, I’m contemplating going back and adding a few scenes into the earlier chapters.

Last night I made some revisions to Ch. 3 to account for what was happening in Ch. 8. I’ve noticed a few other places where my earlier chapters could use a little something extra.

I’m hesitant to make any changes to my overall goals, though. When I am writing, 1,000 words a day doesn’t seem like too much to ask. But word-count isn’t the only measure of productivity. Sometimes, the best way to improve the writing is to strip away the fluff.

Besides, my word count is going up, too. A week ago, I only had about 23,000 words. Now I have 26,000. A week ago, I was only mid-way through Chapter 7. Now I’m mid-way through Chapter 8. 

So, I’m sticking to my goal. Maybe it is fantasy to think I can keep up with it. But making fantasy believable is what my job is all about.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 7
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 26,299