Words of Radiance

The immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings started is continued in Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive.

Though his adversaries had anticipated that he would suffer the ignominious fate of a military slave, Kaladin managed to live and was granted leadership of the royal bodyguards—a momentous first for a low-status "darkeyes." He now has to defend the king and Dalinar against all common dangers as well as the exceedingly unusual threat posed by the Assassin, all the while clandestinely working to acquire extraordinary new abilities connected in some way to his honorspren, Syl.

Once again at work, the assassin Szeth is eliminating kings across Roshar and utilising his perplexing abilities to evade every bodyguard and escape any attackers. Highprince Dalinar, who is regarded as the force behind the Alethi monarchy, is one of his main goals. While his pivotal involvement in the conflict may seem sufficient justification, the Assassin's master has much more sinister goals.

Shallan, intelligent but tormented, works on a different route. She is shattered in ways she won't admit, but she also carries a heavy burden—that of having to find a method to stop the Desolation that would ensue if the fabled Voidbringers return. The Shattered Plains has the information she seeks, but getting there turns out to be more than she anticipated.

Concurrently, in the centre of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are deciding on a momentous choice. Their military captain, Eshonai, persuades them to take a desperate chance with the same supernatural powers they had previously avoided, since they are under constant pressure from years of Alethi raids and their numbers are steadily declining. The potential ramifications for Roshar, Parshendi, and humans alike are as dire and unknowable as they are frightening.