Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure.Īs she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called "The Way of Kings." Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.Īcross the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.īrightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains.
Wars were fought for them, and won by them. It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike.Īnimals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground.Ĭities are built only where the topography offers shelter.
While The Way of Kings Prime will be available online on July 7, physical editions of both Prime and the new novella likely won't ship to backers until early 2021.Brandon Sanderson, widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga, begins a grand cycle of his own, with The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive. The alternate-version novel and novella join a number of other bonus items to be offered during the crowdfunding campaign. Sanderson will release the novella in an e-book and physical edition for Kickstarter funders. The new novella will be set between Book 3 Oathbringer and the upcoming Book 4 in the series.
#WAY OF KINGS HARDCOVER ARCHIVE#
Sanderson described the as-yet-untitled novella as "in the vein of Edgedancer," which was released in 2016 and "bridges the gap" between the second and third books of The Stormlight Archive series. The Way of Kings Prime and the leatherbound edition of the novel will also be joined by a new novella. "We can't guarantee we'll ever reprint it once the campaign is over." " The Way of Kings Prime is what we're calling a Sanderson Curiosity," Sanderson wrote. Sanderson has previously published chapter excerpts from the Prime version of The Way of Kings, both on his blog and in the Altered Perceptions Anthology.
Characters from Prime were renamed and the timeline of events was substantially restructured. The Way of Kings Prime was written before the 2005 release of Sanderson's first published novel-one of approximately a dozen novels Sanderson completed by 2003. On July 7, The Way of Kings Prime will be available to everyone on the Online Library section of Sanderson's website.
#WAY OF KINGS HARDCOVER FOR FREE#
While The Way of Kings Prime will be released in hardcover to certain tiers of the Kickstarter, Sanderson will also release the novel for free in e-book and PDF on his website. Brandon Sanderson / Dragonsteel Entertainment In addition to a printed version, Sanderson will release 'The Way of Kings Prime' for free online.