I am in my seventies and hope that I live long enough to finish this great series. Ten books, please Mr. Sanderson, don't take as long to finish the series as this book did to finish. I know great books take a great deal of time to write but at my age, I don't know how much time I have left to enjoy pleasures such as these novels.

I am a voracious reader, mostly action, spy, counter terrorism etc. My daughter reads like I do and she reads these fantasy epics. Her son, my grandson, gave me a copy of the Way of Kings for Christmas 2012 saying it was his favorite book of all time, and he is a chip of the ole' block. He is a huge reader also.

I so enjoyed that book that I couldn't wait until this second in the series came out, bought it for my Kindle the day before and it was ready to read the next day.

I haven't finished it yet, but, almost. I have not been disappointed in any way except that I will soon be finished and then what? My daughter has suggested that I start on another of Mr. Sanderson's novels and I believe that is what I am going to do.

So, thanks to my grandson Victor and his mom, Stephanie, I am now a fan of fantasy fiction and especially, Brandon Sanderson.

I'd given up hope. I buried my self in my text books. So many horrible, horrible writers have sprung up & the editors have disappeared. Misspelled words, bad grammar abound. Characters that get easily distracted and wander off predictably and become heroes. This is the world I thought had become ours with the rise of digital books. Then I heard a rumour... first from my father-in-law whispered over the Thanksgiving chatter.."I've found a series...no listen.. a real series, a master piece." I rolled my eyes silly old man doesn't he know that art has been dead several years now. Fast forward a year later when my dentist held me hostage, hands in mouth making statements I couldn't physically respond to... "This series I'm reading, it's amazing, refreshing, and real" I roll my eyes, it's all I can do.. "I am amazed at the authors wit, his use of transitions, I'm captivated"... I grunt "no, this is real Jessica, a real author, I feel like I've found the holy grail of books"... Still I didn't listen, fast forward more wasted time, I was stuck outside another dance practice of my daughter's, half listening to the idle chat of the other moms. Facebook couldn't hold my interest and I was between classes so no mandatory reading to do. I flipped open my kindle dusted it off and searched for this holy grail.... I am happy to report that I have just now come up for air after reading the first two books back to back. I feel the need to pause, relish in my new found friends (the amazingly well developed characters of this book) and write this review with my two thumbs on this small kindle. You have to read this book! The first book was a tiny bit slow, it had to be, it was stroking the anticipation, this book however takes that anticipation and flares it into an all consuming feeling of "need to know". I need to know what's going to happen next! Forgive my grammar and spelling on this review, I'm not going to edit, I need to buy book #3 and check in on my friends. I never know what their up to next. I. Love. It.

At this point, Words of Radiance has been out for a year and a half, and I suspect most of Sanderson's fans have read it. I've bumped into them at cons, book stores, signings, and, frankly, almost every other place where you might find readers. I bump into them at the most unlikely of places and find them in the people I would least have suspected of being fantasy fans. In fact, for a lot of them, this is the only fantasy that they read--indeed, to them, fantasy IS Brandon Sanderson.

There are a lot of explanations for this, but the simplest one is really this: Sanderson writes some pretty awesome stuff. Broad appeal, female protagonists, good writing, high productivity, the absence of foul language and "on-screen" sex, and highly creative world building are all parts of that, but really, Sanderson has a formula that instead of being predictable focuses on storytelling fundamentals and innovative plot, character, and world-building...

But enough rambling: let's get to Word of Radiance. It merits its own dose of praise.

When the first book in The Stormlight Archive was released (The Way of Kings) back in 2010, I found myself waiting at a midnight release to get Sanderson's signature--and yes, I still shake my head that I did it, but I digress--he had just finished the last three books in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. While I agreed with most readers that Sanderson's touch had actually improved the Wheel of Time, I wanted assurance that I wouldn't have to wait a generation to see the end of the next epic fantasy series I would start, of which Sanderson was at that moment signing the first installment in front of me at the table.

"There will be ten books," he said. "And I promise not to die on the way."

All of this is just to say that after finishing #2 in the series I am more than even after the first eager to read the next. And I would read as many as Sanderson writes, be they a thousand pages or more...

Words of Radiance surpasses The Way of Kings and sets a path for the series that hints at as much, or more, as it actually reveals.

As Words of Radiance opens, our two heroes--Kaladin and Shallan--find themselves moving towards a purpose, having over come the obstacles that they surpassed in The Way of Kings. Kaladin is no longer a slave, but wields the power of the Knights Radiant, if secretly from all but a few of his closest soldiers of the newly formed military unit he heads in their task to protect the King. Shallan finds herself en route to the Alethkar war camp on the Shattered Plains, learning but slowly to recognize her own growing powers. And yet, neither will foresee what they must do--what they must become--if they are to survive the coming storm, as well as the treachery that awaits at every turn.

Meanwhile, the mysterious Assassin continues to spread chaos across the land, killing heads of state across the continent, commanded by an unseen hand, a shadow power manipulating the nations.

Sanderson has learned how to develop his characters, good and evil, and to make them hurt in a way that accrues sympathy from the reader. For example, it's hard to see Kaladin's choices, watch him pay the price, and see how he digs himself out of the results. Yet Sanderson finds a way, proving that he is in command of the story, not the other way around. At a thousand plus pages, building one character might seem easy, but he does it with every character who earns any time on the pages, even during one of the shorter interludes that fill the gaps between sections, both with color and hints of what is going on across the continent beyond where our main story is happening. Every character is individual, creatively rendered, and vibrantly alive. Just when I think Sanderson couldn't possibly make Roshar more real, he creates another culture, unique and colorful, and adds another layer to what is also a highly developed interplay of characters, countries, cultures, and mythologies.

It's a 'wow' factor that makes Sanderson's writing--already carrying a strong story--that much more gripping and hard to put down.

Words of Radiance is fantastic, and almost anthropological at points, in its scope. I can't wait to read Oathbringer (hinted for a 2017 release, which is so far away as to be almost a depressing thought), as well as anything that Sanderson manages to punch out in the intervening time between his finishing writing and the publisher's release to shelves.