The Way of Kings

There is something about the way Brandon Sanderson writes that leads you from page to page, not wanting to put the book down until you find out what happens next. But at the end of each chapter, you are faced with that same question, and the question repeats itself over and over until you've hit the last page. In a way, books involving a point of view story with multiple characters, good or evil, are perfect examples of driving you to finish the story. Each chapter is several hours out of the character's day. By the end, there's an event that causes you to desire greatly to read what comes of the event. But you don't get to, because the next chapter is about another character. And yet, you don't skip that chapter, because that chapter focuses on a character that experienced a cliffhanger event as well. Sanderson's skill is apparent in that he can write suspense into his chapters. The suspense builds slowly in the beginning, but increases in a rapid crescendo as everything comes together. Then in the last two hundred pages or so, the climax is an awe-inspiring event, only possible through years of revision and planning.

This is not to say I am anywhere near finished with The Way of Kings. I am just trying to explain (possibly to myself, so that I may be able to better understand it) how an author can move a reader through a story with conviction on the part of the reader.

In other news, a big storm hit the northeast today, and I woke up this morning to a peaceful, snow-covered landscape. My brother and sister still hadn't gotten on the bus to go to school, was school canceled? Then I remembered that it's Saturday. Silly me.

Personal Blog Day.

The book I had been waiting so long for finally came to the local library. The Way of Kingsby Brandon Sanderson. It didn't just miraculously appear, because I told them to order it for me. The weighty feeling of a large tome of a book by a great author is always reassuring, since the adventure waiting in the pages will be a grand one. The fact that this 800+ page opus has received hail from authors such as Orson Scott Card is even more reassuring. I spent the morning (12:00 PM for me) reading it. It definitely has promise. But an hour before I go to work, I get an alarming text from my girlfriend. Now, I love her. She's very precious to me. She's beautiful beyond measure. Yet before she went to sleep last night, I told her I would surprise her by coming over and cooking breakfast for her. But then I thought about the snow storm encroaching where I live, the forecasts saying it would start in the wee hours of morning. Thinking that the surprise would have to wait till Saturday, I didn't wake up very early. By 3:00 PM, there was no snow on the ground. By 3:00 PM, I have a mad girlfriend, who had been expecting a surprise all day. I tried to explain, but my explanations sounded like just a lot of words.
" Saturday," I said. "I was planning for Saturday, I thought it was going to snow today."
"Baby, I love you," I say again.
Both of us upset, we hung up, both having received words we didn't want to hear. I think back to yesterday night, Tuesday, and Sunday. I brought her to dinner on Sunday. To lunch on Tuesday. A chef came to cook a special meal for us last night.
I love her, and hate that we have to be angry at each other for miscommunication. I'm angry at myself for not clarifying my words before I hung up on her last night, before bed. But how can you surprise someone by telling them the day you wish to surprise them? Does that not ruin the surprise? Confused, I sit here writing this.
If she's reading this now, or if she reads it some time in the next month, I would tell her I love her. I would tell her she means the world to me. But I've treated her to lunch, dinner, and dinner this week. Its unfair to be angry at me for not returning the gesture of bringing over breakfast in the morning when I have given her something thrice over in the last week.