Reading The Way of Kings: Heretic
The Stormlight Archive Read-Through
Hello and welcome to my chapter by chapter re read of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. This book begins with a prelude so I have decided to kick things off from here.
Below you will find a brief description of what happens in the chapter, followed by my own thoughts
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The water is warm here.
P.S. For chapter summaries, I am going to be using the Fandom website as well as Coppermind as resources. I will be providing links. Please visit the website if you want more information and resources.
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Chapter Summary
Shallan Davar meets Jasnah Kholin for the first time, noting her regal, unexpected beauty as well as recognizing her Soulcaster bound to her wrist. Jasnah is walking with Taravangian, King of Kharbranth, discussing some matter having to do with the ardents and the Devotaries.  Jasnah agrees to see what can be done and motions for Shallan to join them while Taravangian leads the way.
As they walk, Jasnah allows Shallan to petition her and tests Shallan's level of education in various sciences. Shallan feels vastly unprepared and is barely able to answer Jasnah's questions. As a result, Jasnah seems unimpressed with Shallan's knowledge. She does, however, seem impressed by Shallan's writing and logical arguments, but won't even give consideration to her skills in visual arts, belittling the importance of visual arts compared to knowledge in history, science and philosophy. Shallan begins to lose hope, especially after learning that she is the twelfth woman to petition Jasnah for wardship this year alone.
The party arrives at their destination, a small corridor in which a large chunk of rock had fallen from the ceiling, blocking the passage. It had been knocked loose during the highstorm, and behind it several people were trapped, including the King's granddaughter. Jasnah agrees to remove the rock in exchange for access to the Palanaeum. Jasnah touches the stone, reaching into it, and soulcasts the rock into smoke, allowing the rescue of the people and granddaughter.
Jasnah rejects Shallan's petition to become her ward due to her lack of education in history and philosophy. Shallan realizes that she can't give up, because she has to become Jasnah's ward so she can steal her soulcaster.
My Thoughts
Ooh so Jasnah is a radical thinker.
By that I mean she’s probably normal and the rest of the people in this world are the actual heretics for blindly believing in superstition.
However, I think gods exist in this world so who really is the crazy one? I don’t know.
That’s a question for another chapter.
Talk about a tough interview process. I can totally relate.
I’ve been going through a ton of interviews these last few months and I totally get what Shallan is frustrated about. How are you expected to know everything before you’ve had a chance to learn it?
I’m on your side girl. Give that heretic a piece of your mind.
Although that being said, I get where Jasnah is coming from too. Imagine dealing with entitled high born lighteyes girls all the time who feel like you should be honor bound to train them.
Not saying I agree with the interview questions but perhaps she was just getting a scope of Shallan’s understanding.
So Jasnah is a Soulcaster?
I seem to remember something about Soulcasting from the Emperor’s Soul and I’m sure there are ton of references to that book in here that I didn’t pick up on because I don’t remember that novella too much.
But Soulcasting seems like an interesting magic system to play around with however how do these amulet glide-type things work?
Are they bound to a person or are they just tools that can change hands?
Are they like wands from Harry Potter? I doubt it. It seems like Shallan wants to steal this soulcaster but what happened to her father’s hidden soulcaster?
What does she need a soulcaster for anyway?
I’m sure the answers are flying right over my head but I’ll wait to find out what they are.
Onwards.