Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance is a 2014 epic fantasy novel by American writer Brandon Sanderson. The second installment in the series The Stormlight Archive, the story is told by a host of characters involved in a war against the series’ antagonists, the Voidbringers. To drive the series’ plot, Sanderson invents a myriad of neologisms, titles, and locations, building an elaborate and unpredictable fantasy universe. The capacious world of Words of Radiance, along with the other books in The Stormlight Archive, has become widely popular among a young adult audience.

The novel begins with the history of the Assassin in White, Szeth-son-son-Vallano. A civilization called the Parshendi sent him to kill the king of the Alethi, Gavilar Kholin. Little seems to be known about their motives, but it spurred the creation of a treaty called the Vengeance Pact. In the Pact, the leaders of the different Alethi factions declared what became known as the War of Reckoning, and tried to destroy the Parshendi. After many years, rumors spread that Szeth’s political activity is stirring again. The King of Kharbranth, Taravangian, sends him on an errand to kill one of the Alethi high princes, the dead Gavilar Kholin’s brother Dalinar.

The story shifts to the narrative of Kaladin. A former slave, he went on to work on the Shattered Plains as the protector of a bridge at the border of his homeland. King Elokhar recruits Kaladin to protect himself, Dalinar, and the rest of their family. Kaladin is ambivalent about serving because he has a fraught past with a high-ranking member of the kingdom, Brightlord Amaram, and the rest of the Alethi nobility. Kaladin undergoes strenuous training to hone his Windrunner powers, which link him to an honorspren called Syl.



Meanwhile, Jasnah Kholin travels with his protégé, Shallan Davar, to the Shattered Plains. Their goal is to stop the Voidbringers from returning and wreaking havoc on the world. Jasnah sets up Shallan to be married to Jasnah’s cousin, Adolin Kholin. On the way to the Shattered Plains, their ship is besieged by Voidbringers. Shallan lives through the attack, but Jasnah disappears and is presumed dead. Shallan forges on to the Shattered Plains with a motley crew of companions, from bandits to sailors.

As the war against the Voidbringers rages on, a Parshendi named Venli discovers a power called a stormform that enables her to conjure a devastating storm against their foes. The storm is anticipated to greatly weaken the Voidbringer front. The use of the arcane Highstorm magic is contentious, and some Parshendi are convinced that it will ultimately empower the Voidbringers. In desperation, the Parshendi council allows its use. Dalinar is approached by Eshonai, who asks to work together to defeat the Voidbringers before the stormform can be implemented.

Szeth appears again and tries to assassinate Dalinar. Dalinar uses his supernatural strength to stop his shardblade from striking him. Kaladin thwarts Szeth’s attempt by throwing himself from the fray, taking Szeth with him. Realizing that he is not Truthless, Kaladin uses stormlight to vanish from battle before the Radiants appear. As the battle boils to a climax, Eshonai and the Parshendi shapeshift into stormform and conjure an Everstorm. As the storm brews, the Alethi overcome the Parshendi. Shallan helps the Alethi escape after discovering an Oathgate, which permits teleportation using the powers of the Radiants. The army teleports to Urithiru, the Radiants’ central city.



In Urithiru, Dalinar bonds to the Stormfather by taking both the oaths of the Order of the Bondsmiths and the Knights Radiant. His son, Renarin, reveals himself part of the Knights Radiant, a subset of the Truthwatchers. Sadeas approaches Adolin and swears to resist Dalinar’s authority. He and Adolin duel, and Sadeas is killed. The novel ends as Jasnah appears to Hoid. She reveals that she escaped the attack on the Shattered Plains by transporting herself to the Cognitive Realm. While most of its protagonists are redeemed, and their betrayers punished, the central tensions of Words of Radiance remain unresolved, leaving the fates of the Voidbringers, Alethi, and Parshendi unknown.