“”Death is the end of all men!” Dalinar bellowed. “What is the measure of him once he is gone? The wealth he accumulated and left for his heirs to squabble over? The glory he obtained, only to be passed on to those who slew him? The lofty positions he held through happenstance?

No. We fight here because we understand. 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.”

And so we come to the end of Part Four of Brandon Sanderson’s novel, The Way of Kings. We are nearly at the end, only the denouement is left (though those of us who have read it know there are exciting things yet to be revealed therein). And whoa! What a breathtaking, breakneck-paced section of reading Part Four turned out to be. For anyone worried we might be left with a cliffhanger-filled, unsatisfying ending to the first volume of The Stormlight Archive, Sanderson knocked it out of the park. A grand slam. And we ain’t done yet!

Kailana had the enviable task of coming up with this week’s questions. Thank you Kailana!

My oft-repeated warnings must be brought to bear once again for those who follow after the jump: “Here there be Spoilers!”

Continue reading The Way of Kings Group Read, Part Four →

A long week affording precious little in the way of reading time gave way to a weekend in which I was able to luxuriate in the written word. That gift of free time meant that I was able to gorge myself on Brandon Sanderson in order to be ready for this week’s group discussion.

Memory took over question duty for the week and you can find my potentially spoiler-laden answers after the jump. I’ll remind you that you can find the answers from each participant by checking in on Deanna’s The Way of Kings group read site.

Before checking out this week’s Q&A, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate artist Michael Whelan on his recent Chesley award for the cover illustration for The Way of Kings! Michael Whelan perfectly captured the spirit of this book with this painting.

With no further ado, let us begin.

Continue reading The Way of Kings Group Read, Part Three →

“It is good to care when you fight, so long as you don’t let it consume you. Don’t try to stop yourself from feeling. You’ll hate what you become.”

A small group of brave souls has come together in the quest to group read the first massive tome in Brandon Sanderson’s epic ten-volume Stormlight Archive. Today finds us at the tail end of the second week of our journey and I was given the great pleasure of coming up with the questions for this section of the book. If any readers who are not participating would like to join in you can find details on the site listed below. And for those of you who may have already read the book we would love to see you join in the conversation.

This is a group discussion, so expect spoilers to be present in the answers to the various questions. I would encourage you to visit the group read site for links to the Q&A for other participants.

Shall we proceed?

Continue reading The Way of Kings Group Read, Part 2 →