(Interior art from Words of Radiance, painted by artist Michael Whelan)
My first introduction to the seemingly inexhaustible imagination of author Brandon Sanderson was when I joined several other readers in a group read of his novel, The Way of Kings, the first in a series of ten novels that will make up The Stormlight Archive. I was most impressed with the world-building and characterization, and contrary to my usual stance on long series, was satisfied to count myself as one of many who will be there waiting when each new novel is released.
My hope was to continue the group reading tradition with this series and here we are set to kick off the reading of book two of The Stormlight Archive, Words of Radiance.
This time around I have the pleasure of working with Susan Voss, who has taken the reins and done a great job with both planning our schedule and coordinating those who want to co-host along with us.
Words of Radiance is a BIG book, and our intention with this read is for it to be low key, stress free, and above all, great fun. Thus we are spreading this out over the course of ten weeks, with roughly 100 pages of reading for each week. Discussions will be hosted by various readers involved in the event, and the schedule breaks down like so:
[Updated Schedule]
You can begin reading now. Official reading begins March 24th.
Week 1 – April 2 – Prologue – Chapter 8, 110, Musings on Fantasia
Week 2 – April 9 Chapters 9-15, 105 Pages, Over the Effing Rainbow
Week 3 – April 16 Chapters 16-28, 112 Pages Stainless Steel Droppings
Week 4 – April 23 Chapters 29-39, 111 Pages, Dab of Darkness
Week 5 – April 30 Chapters 40-48, 107 Pages, Coffee, Cookies, & Chili Peppers
Week 6 – May 7 Chapters 49-57, 110 Pages, Lynn’s Book Blog
Week 7 – May 14 Chapters 58-65, 102 Pages
Week 8 – May 21 Chapters 66-74, 104 Pages, Books Without Any Pictures
Week 9 – May 28 Chapters 75-81, 103 Pages
Week 10 – June 4 Chapters 82-END, 94 Pages
If you are interested in joining us, we would love to have you. And there are still a few slots left open if you want to host a week of questions.
Feel free to let us know in the comments if you want to take part with us. And thanks in advance to all of you who are sharing the hosting duties with Susan and me. We truly appreciate it.
Here are a few additional banner sizes if you need them:
Oh my….I so want to join this group read. Just not sure I can keep up….maybe with the reading, but not sure about with the discussing. Going to think more on this.
In the meantime, to clarify, am I understanding correctly that in one week from now…March 26…the group will be having its first discussion going over the first 110 pages? So start reading now, not next week?
No, we actually start our reading on March 26th, so you have a bit of time to start now and get ahead of things if you want. Do hope you’ll join us in the reading.
That is a gorgeous banner! You’re awesome for making it. Once I dive into this book, I think the hard part will be not reading ahead.
I have no doubt that we will all feel the same way, but I am super thankful for the reasonable reading schedule with all the work I need to do both for my job and for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live over the next 2 months.
I’ll be reading with you!
Awesome!!!
I’m in 😀 So excited!!
Me too, Kelly! 🙂
I saw this one Grace’s blog yesterday. I have so many deadlines right now, but I’m still thinking of joining. will give it some serious thought this weekend.
I’m in the process of gathering all of Brandon Sanderson’s books. But reading them will have to wait until Summer Vacation. What little I’ve read of Sanderson I’ve liked…a lot! I have WORDS OF RAIDANCE on order.
If I started now, I might be done by October… but isn’t there another ooh I need to read first?
that was supposed to be “another book”…
I am planning to join in. 🙂 I missed the post office yesterday, so it will be Monday before I know for sure if I have my copy! (I should. It shipped while I was away!) For The Way of Kings I wound up reading an e-copy because it was easier to lug around, so might just grab one anyway.
Words of Radiance is a BIG book, and our intention with this read is for it to be low key, stress free,…
Your idea of low key and stress free is WAY different than mine. I bought the ebook version today and I’m going to try but a 100 pages a week me be too much for me with work, scouts, and SFAL3. I will try though… I will try… 🙂
Again, I’ve already finished the book, but I look forward to following along with the discussion of what was a solid book and a good continuation to a series.