He is plagued by visions of the past during every highstorm, and has a strong sense that the war on the Shattered Plains is not what the king needs to be focused on, but rather uniting the Alethi highprinces completely. The flashbacks show his childhood and his surgeon apprenticeship under his father, as well as how he joins the army and why he became a slave.ĭalinar Kholin's story centers around the politics of the Alethi nobility.įollowing his brother Gavilar's assassination, Dalinar took his last words to heart, and began following the Alethi Codes of War and the teachings of The Way of Kings, a book written by Nohadon. Kaladin faces the internal struggles of his inability to save those around him and his distrust of any lighteyes.Īs the focus character of The Way of Kings, Kaladin's past is viewed through the use of flashbacks. Kaladin also plans to find a way to escape from Sadeas's army. He trains them so that the bridge runs won't tire them out so much, saves the lives of injured bridgemen, and slowly gets them to start caring again, and to see themselves as soldiers. After a period of despair, Kaladin works to improve the life of his bridgecrew. He is sold to Sadeas's warcamp, where he is placed in Bridge Four, and made to run headlong into enemy fire with the rest of his bridgecrew to give the army a way to cross the chasms as well as drawing enemy arrows away from troops. His storyline then cuts to his time as a slave. At the beginning of his story, he is a squadleader in Amaram's army. Kaladin is the focus character of the novel. There are also several minor characters who receive viewpoints Szeth, Adolin Kholin, Wit, and Navani Kholin in the main text, and several others in the Interludes. The book is set on Roshar and follows the stories of Kaladin, Dalinar Kholin, and Shallan Davar.
Summary įor a chapter by chapter summary, see /Summary. These four people are key.Īnd one of them will destroy us. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return the magics of ancient days can become ours again. The last is the highprince, a warlord whose eyes have opened to the past as his thirst for battle wanes. The third is the liar, a young woman who wears a scholar's mantle over the heart of a thief. The second is the assassin, a murderer who weeps as he kills.
The first is the surgeon, forced to put aside healing to become a soldier in the most brutal war of our time.
But ignore the steel long enough, and it will eventually rust away. Or was that victory an illusion all along? Did our enemies realize that the harder they fought, the stronger we resisted? Perhaps they saw that the heat and the hammer only make for a better grade of sword. Nothing, it appears, is more challenging to the souls of men than victory itself. A time when there was still magic in the world and honor in the hearts of men. The age before the Heralds abandoned us and the Knights Radiant turned against us. I long for the days before the Last Desolation.