Friday, February 1, 2013

THE WAY OF KINGS - A BOOK REVIEW

My family just finished listening to "The Way of Kings."  We LOVED it! In fact, we started listening to it again last night.  We couldn't get enough of Kaladin, the hero.  He has become one of our favorite, all-time fictional characters.

The Way of Kings is a rather thought-provoking, character-driven story that can stay with you for days after you've listened to/read it.  This book got our family thinking about what it means to be a leader, the importance of honor, the importance of learning and how to learn, and the importance of self-sacrifice.  A great part of the story is the codes that are meant for the knights.  They are great truths.  The codes are:
  • Life before death - Seek to defend life, always.  Never kill unnecessarily, and never risk your own life for frivolous reasons.  Living is harder than dying.  Live free.
  • Strength before weakness - All men are weak at some time in their lives.  Protect those who are weak and use strength for others.  Strength does not make one capable of rule, it makes one capable of service.  (The italicized part is my favorite!)
  • Journey before destination - There are always several ways to achieve a goal.  Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means.  Protecting ten innocents is not worth killing one.  In the end, all men die.  How you live will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished.  (This italicized part is Scott's favorite!)
Yes, we loved this book.  Yes, we recommend it.  Thank Ben for recommending it to us!  :-)

4 comments:

  1. The Codes, Self Sacrifice, Service, Honor, and Leadership are the true nuggets to be pulled from that book. There are many others to be found - but those stood out to me as well. I'm glad you guys enjoyed it so much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm right in the middle of this book and I'm LOVING it!!!
    Wish I had it on CD to listen to. :)
    -Shanae

    ReplyDelete
  3. Somehow I failed to pull these ideas from the book when my wife read it to me while we were driving. I see them clearly now. Perhaps I cannot think as clearly as I used to as I age. I had trouble following all the twists and turns of the story and lost the meaning. But as I look back on the story, and with the help of your listing I see the powerful messages contained therein. My son introduced me to the book, but it took my daughter to help me understand it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Like "the greatest**** I ever hated", the longest book I've ever finished! Mil
    p.s. Wish I had time to go again. I'd read it just for those great lessons being taught.

    ReplyDelete