Book · 2010
The Way of Kings
by Brandon Sanderson
A bridgeman slave carries spears through a warzone he's not allowed to fight in, until he decides to become the soldier no one will follow.
What does Reddit think of The Way of Kings?
Eighteen thousand of the mentions sit in r/Fantasy alone, and the sub keeps arguing with itself. The ↑1040 comment credits Sanderson's plotting for the 'Sanderlanch': POV threads breaking their own rules and converging into a high-paced climax, the series' actual mechanical strength. The ↑1285 comment admits there's real Sanderson hate on the sub too, bloat being the standing charge, though using Malazan as evidence struck that poster as a strange choice for what's supposed to be the dense-book yardstick. The ↑995 word-count thread keeps landing it in the same conversation as Varney the Vampire and Atlas Shrugged, which is its own kind of criticism. The ↑973 comment draws a hard line: LOTR, Harry Potter, and A Song of Ice and Fire are 'the Big Three,' and Stormlight, for all its reach into r/suggestmeabook and r/RomanceBooks, isn't one of them. The ↑897 comment calls the backlash to that reach 'the Marvel effect.' Even the fans bicker over what to call it: 'DON'T ABBREVIATE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE HANK!' pulled 1596 upvotes for a reason.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · The Sanderlanch: converging POV threads into a fast payoff
- · Standing bloat criticism and open Sanderson hate on r/Fantasy
- · Broke containment: cross-genre reach into romance, YA, printSF
- · The Big Three gatekeeping debate against LOTR and Harry Potter
- · Overexposure backlash, described as 'the Marvel effect'
Common praise
- + The ↑1040 comment says the payoff is real: converging POV threads and high-paced climaxes are where Sanderson's plotting actually earns its keep.
- + It keeps turning up outside its own subreddit, in r/suggestmeabook, r/booksuggestions, even r/RomanceBooks, which the ↑897 comment attributes to it having 'broken containment.'
- + The ↑973 comment concedes it's inescapable in recommendation threads, even while arguing it hasn't reached Big Three status yet.
Common criticism
- − The ↑1285 comment confirms there's real Sanderson hate on r/Fantasy, with bloat as the recurring charge.
- − The ↑995 word-count thread keeps it in the same conversation as Varney the Vampire and Atlas Shrugged, a longest-book contest rather than a best-book one.
- − The ↑897 comment describes fatigue setting in from overexposure and names it 'the Marvel effect.'
Who it's for
Want the multi-POV structure to actually pay off instead of just sprawl? The ↑1040 breakdown of the 'Sanderlanch' is the pitch: threads converge, rules get broken, and the ending moves fast. Tired of hearing about it everywhere? Fair; the ↑897 comment names the exact backlash you're feeling and has a term for it. If a giant page count is a dealbreaker, the ↑995 thread puts it in company with Varney the Vampire and Atlas Shrugged, so budget accordingly. Coming from r/RomanceBooks or r/horrorlit rather than r/Fantasy? You're not the first; the mentions show up there too.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
- r/Fantasy 18,087
- r/suggestmeabook 6,392
- r/booksuggestions 3,226
- r/printSF 316
- r/YAlit 245
- r/RomanceBooks 120
- r/TrueLit 27
- r/horrorlit 13
Which Reddit comments matter for The Way of Kings?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“HANK! DON'T ABBREVIATE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE HANK!
“I've seen a lot of Sanderson hate on this sub, but I will admit that using Malazan as an example of how Stormlight is bloated is a new one.
“Lots of spear action in Stormlight Archives
“Plotting is one of Sanderson's biggest strengths as a writer, and the hallmarks of a Sanderlanch are his plot threads coming together, often with POVs converging, and thing being resolved in high-paced action sequences. Usually this involves the breakdown of the rigid POV structure he's been using…
“I spent ages researching this a few years ago and came up with the following: 1. *Varney the Vampire* (1845) by James Malcolm Rymer & Thomas Prest: 667,000 words 2. *Atlas Shrugged* (1954) by Ayn Rand: 645,000 (you may argue about whether it's SFF or not, but it's listed in *The Encyclopedia of Sci…
“Sanderson loves to use a ton of words to say very few things of substance. He needs an editor that is willing to tell him no and that he doesn't have to use 300 pages to go over the same character details again and again. I hope he sticks with his new slower pace, so editing doesn't have to get don…
“It's likely an unpopular opinion but I think the first Stormlight book is the best one in the series.
“Oh man finally a thread I can recommend Stormlight Archive without getting flamed
“Yes, the division comes because he is *immensely* popular with his fan base so people who don’t like him are tired of hearing about it. I see both sides to it, I *inhaled* Stormlight Archive and enjoyed every second of it but it’s not like it’s high brow literature.
“Can I take a moment to rant about Shallan? Sanderson is normally good about giving characters with a lot of screentime important things to do, but Shallan has completely lost the plot. Book 1: Mostly setup. She's fine, not groundbreaking. Book 2: Really good. Exciting story, she's proactively pus…
“How is Stormlight already getting votes for didn’t age well. I feel like they just mean that the first 3 books were better than the last 2.
“I've only read Way of Kings and as a woman I thought the female characters were written well. At least, I don't remember anything standing out. The female characters were quite different from each other and had strengths and flaws.
“For me the ending of the way of kings. It wasnt the ending it self that was so great, but the last 300 pages or so were so f****** incredible I NEEDED to read the next book instantly.
“Sanderson always gets hyped for his magic systems, but his portrayal of three different forms of mental illness throughout the **Stormlight** is really freaking well done. **First Law** actually has really great (if subtle) lore and worldbuilding, IMO.
“This, but The Stormlight Archive.
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Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
The Way of Kings — frequently asked
Is Stormlight Archive as culturally big as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?+
No, and r/Fantasy says so directly. The ↑973 comment names LOTR, Harry Potter, and A Song of Ice and Fire as 'the Big Three' and argues Stormlight Archive, despite showing up everywhere, hasn't earned that tier of general-public recognition. It's ubiquitous inside fantasy-reading spaces, per the same comment, just not outside them yet.
Is Stormlight Archive considered bloated on Reddit?+
Some readers think so. The ↑1285 r/Fantasy comment acknowledges real Sanderson hate on the sub, with bloat as the standing complaint, though the poster found it strange that someone used Malazan, itself a notoriously dense series, as the comparison point for what bloat looks like. The ↑995 word-count thread adds that it keeps getting discussed alongside record-length books like Atlas Shrugged.
Why do people call it 'the Marvel effect' when talking about Stormlight Archive?+
Because it got too popular for its own subreddit, per the ↑897 comment. It says Stormlight Archive 'broke containment,' showing up in recommendation lists so often that people who aren't fans started getting annoyed, the same dynamic the comment compares to superhero-movie fatigue.
What is the 'Sanderlanch' in Stormlight Archive?+
It's r/Fantasy's shorthand for Sanderson's plotting payoff, per the ↑1040 comment: separate POV threads that have been running on their own rules suddenly converge into one high-paced action sequence. The comment calls it one of Sanderson's biggest strengths as a writer, distinct from the complaints about length elsewhere in the sample.