…No matter your race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or belief system, you will find something to love in “The Way of Kings”. There were pirates, ninjas, monkeys, fireworks, grand journeys, infidels dragged through streets by dragons and a fair amount of buckles swashed. There were ladies romanced, men romanced, sheep romanced and one scene where even two mice get it on. And if you can forgive an inordinate amount of abuse aimed at Canadians, this just may be the book for you. Be forewarned, however, if you can’t abide graphic depictions of sexual content that would make Laurell K. Hamilton blush and cover her naughty bits, you might want to skip this book…
…The way Brandon Sanderson breathes life into this story is inspirational. The characters, the storyline, the magic — seemingly woven (as only Brandon can) from sheer nothingness. One of my favorite parts of the book is where the Wizard Ooflar divides one rather simple system of magic into five complex subsets, each with its own arcane history and labyrinthine steps. Who would have thought the apprentice Pemberly could put an entire village to sleep by tapping out a quadrille in her clogs? Although it would seem implausible, somehow his magical system works, especially the dance-off. I also enjoyed the ten-day feast in section two, chapter 85. I don’t know if I’ll ever forget the scene in which we see King Horag the Midleth eating live grunthyean orbs. (gag) I loved this book and can’t wait for the sequel…
What’s up with this?
Ha. These are some of the amusing fake reviews for KINGS that readers used to post on Amazon. For some reason, Amazon put up a page for this book years and years ago, when I got my first contract. Somehow, they heard I was working on a book called THE WAY OF KINGS, and jumped the gun in adding a page for it, even though I was still working on the book (I’d been planning, writing, and wrestling with this story for some ten years before I finally wrote it).
Anyway, readers noticed the page and began having fun with it. None of them have read the book, but that hasn’t stopped them from reviewing it. There are even pictures of it, including photoshops of me holding a fake book. It’s rather amusing.
When The Way of Kings finally got published, we had to ask Amazon to take them down so that readers who weren’t in on the joke wouldn’t get confused. I did archive them somewhere so they wouldn’t be lost to posterity. In honor of them however, we asked Twitter users to write 140 character fake reviews.