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Time taken to read: 24 hours 30 minutes

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Literally every single story line was captivating circling around the theme of honor, "the way of kings." God. What a perfecting title for this book. Every single main character exemplifies the theme of honor in some way. The way Brandon brings up "Life before death" in the book hits every single time it comes up.

If I had to choose a favorite character, it would definitely be Kaladin. His sections just hit soooo fucking hard man. God. I love everything about his story and character, his struggle, his childhood, his demons, and he even gets the badass anime transformation scene at the end of the novel that had me so fucking hyped. GOD. I loved it so much.

Kaladin's dad gave me thors vibes, very "You have no enemies" vibes.

Dalinar would be my second favorite character because his struggle with "the way of kings" and conflict between culture and the right thing.

Strangely enough, my third favorite character isn't the third POV character, but is instead Jasnah because she's cool and based.

ALSO THE WORLDBUILDING. Just so good.

MY BOY HOID (who I didn't give a single shit about until this book) FINALLY GETS SOME FREAKING CHARACTERIZATION BEYOND WORLD HOPPER. Also he mentions sigzil is done being his apprentice or whatever but I looked it up and he's not in any of other cosmere books I've read so idk what the point of that was, maybe just a "Hey heads up, this guy is also going to be a worldhopper" ?

AND THE ENDING. God showing up to Dalinar was so hype. It sounded to me like he was hyping up something about the cosmere when the lights were going out across the stars and he mentioned stuff about the origin of humanity? In the context of that, it sounds like "unite them" refers to humanity spread across the stars. He mentions "Conviction" like it's another god with reminded me of "ruin" and "preservation" from mistborn.

God there were so many hard hitting quotes in this book.

“Life before Death.
Strength before Weakness.
Journey before Destination.”

“And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived.”

“Somebody has to start. Somebody has to step forward and do what is right, because it is right.”

“Death is the end of all men! What is the measure of him once he is gone? . . . The end is the same. It is the path that separates men. When we taste that end, we will do so with our heads held high, eyes to the sun.

“This world, it is a tempest sometimes. But remember, the sun always rises again.”

I liked it but... I only loved a few ideas that weren't focused on all that much. Like I really liked the concept of elantris as this hell like state and the way Raoden gives people purpose to avoid their pain. I enjoyed his struggle with the decisions he is forced to make. I FREAKING LOVED HRATHEN AND THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. I loved it. Seeing his struggle with religion, faith, and logic, and his desire to do the right thing but his fucked epistemic framework and situation leading him to make horrific decisions, seeing his conflict in his actions. And then on top of that the religious ideas it is critiquing are explicitly the pitfalls of hierarchy and organized religion. THEN there's the whole concept of how the original religion that all the other religions based off of was based on "unity" which has been interpreted differently by the different branches. Then seeing Hrathen's redemption arc mind view change. And the criticism of blind hatred... And GOD it's so good.

Unfortunately that stuff is basically only 50% of the book if I'm being generous. Seemingly the other 50% is the most mind numbingly boring politics talk ever. And it's not like I dislike politics. I fucking loved dune messiah and Mistborn had it's own massive politic talks. It just feels so hollow in this book. I never cared or felt like any of the characters beyond Sarene were different enough to warrant caring about. The scenes didn't have enough spice to them imo. And ultimately the politic talks don't end up saving the day because Sarene overthrows the king through scandal, not a peasant uprising. Now, that's not a criticism of the plot, I'm just trying to explain why I felt the political sections were lacking, especially coming off of Dune and Mistborn. It was a struggle for me to get through those sections. Like wow that random political guy was the traitor, oh FR? On God? Just like that? I couldn't be bothered to care lol.

I will say though, the except comes when Sarene was outwitting people like when she made the king cry or beat Hrathen in an argument.

For moments I liked besides the religion stuff, the reveal about why the Aon's weren't working was cool and the moment when he puts everything back together with the title drop "Aon Rao. The spirit of elantris" was cool (if maybe kind of cheesy lol).

The part where galladon laments how Raodon gave him hope was cool.

Solid book all in all.

Time to read: 11 hours 47 minutes