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I finished the prequel, Words of Radiance at 2018 January. At that time, Oathbringer had just been published (2017 November), and I knew I would have to wait perhaps a year or more if I decided to wait for the Chinese translation. I was also pretty confident about my English skills at that time, so, I decided to just buy the original version online.
I thought I would finish before the translation was out.
I was wrong.
The 1233 pages took me 16 months to finish. When I saw the Chinese translation in the bookstore at 2019 March (13th month), I was so shocked, and even a little irritated. And it’s even published 2 months before that time. So, if I waited until the translation was out, I would have finished it at 2019 February, 4 months before my actual finishing time.
What took me so long? Well, the English in this book isn’t really that hard, but the Stormlight Archive series is pretty slow paced, as it’s huge, and if you won’t be motivated to binge-watching it if you read at an even slower speed, with maybe like 60%-70% of understanding of the story.
Is it worth it? Probably not. The only rewarding thing I got from this experience, is that, I’ve read a 1200+ pages novel, in English. I mean, it’s pretty impressive itself if I read in my native language, not to mention my second language. But other than that? …… no, not really. Reading in Chinese is just far more rewarding and comfy. That’s why I’m currently waiting for Rhythm of War, which is published in 2020 November, to be translated,
So far, I didn’t really review the book, but my journey on reading the book. So what about the book itself?
Well, it’s just like the other books in the series, I would say. There are many major plot-wise developments in this book, and is a bit crazy at the end of this book, but they aren’t really that exciting to me. The whole series, is just a bit …… messy. Brandon Sanderson is known for his well-crafted, physics-like magic systems, but I didn’t really see that in this series. The magics in this series is just …. everywhere. There are no governing rules, nor are them inter-connected. They are just there because they’re …. fun? The same reason I dislike Mistborn Era 2. The magic system in Mistborn Era 1 is just perfect. It is simple, clearly ruled, well explained, fun, and has a “classical” kind of feeling. Era 2? Not so much. Brandon Sanderson just added so many crazy magics that wasn’t explained, and I don’t buy that. If I want to see that kind of magic system, I’ll just watch a fucking light novel (or Harry Potter).
Anyway, it still a pretty decent book, despite the not-so-good magic system of this series.