justdanreads's Reviews (317)

🐉 THE DRAGON REBORN 🐉

(This review will be FULL of spoilers)

I continued my journey with The Wheel of Time this month and, for the first time, I have mixed feelings on a WoT book.  I still really enjoyed it and it was still a super fun read, but it doesn’t hold up as well as the first two books in the series, in my opinion. 

When I was deciding whether or not to start this series, I saw a lot of people online remarking that Jordan doesn’t write characters very well.  This was the first book where that became apparent. Having finished the book it was very clear that the goal of this book was to have the Two Rivers five really do some deep soul searching in preparation of the “quest proper” kicking off at the end of this installment. They’re all challenged in really difficult and dynamic ways in this book and Jordan really succeeds with some characters and really fails with others. 

We have characters like Perrin, Rand and Mat who continue to grow and change in surprising ways. Perrin’s arc in particular in this book is just *chef’s kiss* amazing. Then we have Egwene and Nyneave....while they grow in their abilities in this book in really spectacular ways, we spend a majority of our time with them watching Nyneave bully Egwene and Egwene be a jerk right back at Nyneave. We spend a LOT of time with them in this book and by the end I found myself not caring about what they had to say at all.

The world building continues to be incredible. I know that by the end of the series I’ll feel like I could step out my door and find myself in Caemlyn somehow. The sequences at the beginning and the end of this book were quick and exciting and had some really incredible imagery. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. But It was definitely my least favorite of the first three. There were too many stretches of the book where I was spending time with characters that I wasn’t caring for. I’ve heard that the series really comes into its own in book four. I’m excited to continue on. 

⭐️ RATING ⭐️
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👑 THE WAY OF KINGS 👑

Have you ever loved a book so much that you just didn’t know how to talk about it to other people?  Well, that’s how I feel about “The Way of Kings.” 

It’s a brilliant book from start to finish and if you’re a fantasy reader who, like me, prioritizes complex character development and strong world building above all else....you MUST read this book.  The characters are so rich and I can’t think of another fantasy world that matches the beautiful strangeness of Roshar. Two of the POV characters in this novel have arcs that would have been worthy of their own trilogies. 

One thing I was surprised by is that this 1,001 page TOME absolutely earns its page count. Sanderson is so precise with his plotting that every little detail has a payoff or is set up to have a payoff in later books. Most notably, none of these payoffs feel like “gotcha” moments in the way that some twists do - Sanderson is so smart with how he layers everything into the story that every moment feels earned. I’m not going to lie - one character’s story had me in tears multiple times. It’s that well done. 

All praise aside - this will NOT be a book for everyone.  If you’re not a character-centered reader and prefer for your books to have an action driven plot this probably won’t be for you. This is a 1,001 page book and a good 750 pages of that is character exploration. 

#QOTD - have you read The Stormlight Archive?  I want to talk to people about this first book. 

⭐️ RATING ⭐️
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✨ LIGHT OF THE JEDI ✨

Let’s get one thing out of the way first - I am a massive Star Wars stan. I’ve loved it since I was a little kid and I’ll always love it. I will admit that it has a lot of faults, but I love it in spite of them. That said, Star Wars books will always get a bigger rating from me. I don’t critique them like normal books. I’ll probably be reading a lot of them this year, so I wanted to get that out of the way now. 

I really enjoyed Light of the Jedi. I had a LOT of fun reading it. The thing I’ve been craving the most out of Star Wars in recent years is a new KIND of Star Wars story and I feel like the High Republic series will deliver that in spades. 

It’s refreshing to see a new era in the SW universe where the culture and feel, while remaining the classic SW feel, is completely fresh. It’s a lot of fun to see the Jedi and the greater Republic through a new lens.

The thing that I feel will set this whole series apart is the villain - I can’t think of another SW villain that’s quite like the villain on display in Light of the Jedi. He’s ruthless in a new kind of way and I loved learning more about him as the book went on. 

I’ve already pre-ordered the first YA High Republic book (which is by my fave Star Wars novelist) and the next book in the adult series. I’m so excited to see what happens next and to learn more about the High Republic. 

My apologies if this review felt like a bit of a ramble - I get that way when talking about Star Wars. 

RATING 

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