[Oathbringer] Just finished reading The Way of Kings for the first time. I have some questions/concerns.
I enjoyed this book overall, but I have some moral qualms with it regarding the Parshendi/Parshmen.
At the end of the book, Jasnah reveals that she suspects that the Parshendi are actually the Voidbringers, and when they were defeated long ago they were enslaved and domesticated to become Parshmen. Therefore, with the appearance of the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains, the world should fear an uprising.
If Jasnah is correct, and if one of the central conflicts of the series is essentially a slave rebellion in which the heroes are the slavers and the villains are the slaves, I don't think I should continue reading this series.
If there is more to it or it is intended to be morally complex, then I may still be interested. If the story had a Parshendi protagonist so that we could see their perspective, that would help as well. My issue is that they were mostly just a faceless threat to be feared in this first volume. However, Kaladin's expression of sympathy for them at a few points throughout the book was somewhat reassuring.
Anyways, I just wanted to check with the community here to see if, given my concerns, I would have a problem with the rest of the series. I'm ok with general spoilers but I don't want to dig into a detailed plot synopsis, so that's why I'm here instead of Wikipedia. Again, I found the book enjoyable. The world was fully realized and unique, the characters were interesting and well formed, and Sanderson's writing is engaging. I just don't want to get a thousand pages into Words of Radiance before I give up on the series out of moral turmoil.
Btw, this is my first post on Reddit. Be nice, please :)
Posted Mar 12, 2018, 9:06 PM UTC