The Stormlight Archive

sharing a few books I recommended in my annual list (recommend reading!) https://rohitjha.com/blog/reading-highlights-2025/ Non Fiction: - Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang (2025) - How to Live an Extraordinary Life by Anthony Pompliano (2024) Fiction: - The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956) - Consider Phlebas (Culture Series #1) by Iain M. Banks (1987) - The Way of Kings (2010, Stormlight #1) & Words of Radiance (2014, Stormlight #2) by Brandon Sanderson

I got deep into the stormlight archive by brandon sanderson. great escapism!

The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson. Started in January, just finished the latest which conveniently released earlier this month. Liked it so much I got a tattoo from it on my arm, lol. Very well written magic systems that are internally consistent with very powerful themes of mental health.

I second the Black Company. I recently turned some friends onto it and got back in as a consequence. It was such a great twist on how a dark fantasy reads. Totally agree for Garret PI. I'll have to add my other fantasy favourites : The Kingkiller Chronicles (though be prepared to be left hanging) and the Stormlight Archives are truly excellent.

Stormlight is significantly easier to read than Malazan and, at least in my opinion, significantly simpler in almost every way. Malazan is really a narrative tour-de-force with an extremely satisfying way of bringing a number of storylines together and to conclusion in each book. It's also an interesting meditation on history, regret, and the arc of empires over time. The complexity and in media res nature of the beginning throws a lot of people off but you just have to keep reading. It's written in a way that has no handholding; the world is already built and ancient and you're dropped into it, while Sanderson, honestly, seems to be kind of making it up as you go along. (This is, in part, because Erikson had the entire Malazan world as a tabletop RPG before writing the books.) Sanderson's books, in comparison, are more like Marvel movies. They're entertaining, but I don't find that they reinvent the wheel or do anything too interesting. Stormlight is also much less grim and mature in many ways than Malazan, which is either a pro or a con for some people.

Fiction - I started reading the Cosmere universe by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn Trilogy, Stormlight Archives, and Warbreaker. Pick 1 - Start with Warbreaker or Mistborn. I'm new to fantasy fiction and his writing totally hooked me. I think of "hard" fantasy as a puzzle. The world has a unique physics and the plot of the story is based around characters figuring out how to operate inside of those physics... what are the bounds, how can it be manipulated, etc? What I've loved about Sanderson is the plot turns are never Ex Machina. Every new development fits inside the rules of the world and deepens your understanding of what can be.

+1 I loved Stormlight Archive so much that I read it twice and I would probably read some chapters over and over. The struggles of various characters with past failures and the way they overcome it gives me hope for myself. Not only the mental health angle is really meaningful, the whole storyline is super interesting. Anyway, I can keep going on and on about these books. You have to read them at least twice to appreciate the intricacies and subplots.

Yes, I spend at least the last hour before bed reading. I alternate every other book fiction and non-fiction. I actually just finished the latest Stormlight book and loved it. Currently re-reading Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor.

My favorite current series is "The stormlight archive". The world building is very good.

Stormlight Archives (Way of Kings) by Brandon Sanderson.

The Stormlight Archives

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankel, it is his experience of how he managed to survive the concentration camps. Book of Mormon The Stormlight Archive series (Way of Kings, Words of Radience, Oathbringer) - Brandon Sanderson, I've heard it compared to the Kingkiller Chronicles in terms of depth, intricacies and overall masterfully executed plot but Sanderson is also one of the best authors at making characters real and captivating that I've ever met. Mistborn Series (The Final Empire, Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages) by the same author as The Stormlight Archives and for the same reasons. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis, even if you aren't religious it has helped me see so much clearly the tactics and obstacles that prevent me from being the person I want to be. I've read quite a few more books more often but these are the books that I have reread multiple times because they have changed who I am and helped me recognize that each time I fall I can rise again a better man.

Agreed. No specific book has every "changed my life", or specifically been the source of positive impacts. But reading stories is fun, and something I do constantly. Currently I'm re-reading Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. Every year or two I re-read Dune, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Amber, and Steven Brust's Taltos series. Always a pleasure. My recommendations would probably echo those already posted, with the addition of small random stories that I remember fondly because they were just fun, interesting, or surprising (e.g. H. G. Wells: The Door in the Wall, or the original Mary Poppins books recently completed after finishing the Dresden Files for the first time.)

Well, I still read them almost every christmas. At least a few of them. I'd also recommend Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn series is very good, and Stormligh Archive is good so far. I really like his world-building, and I think the way he uses magic is something most HNers would approve of. It's often well defined, and the characters try to exploit it the same way a reader would.

I recommend Stormlight to everyone new to fantasy. Such interesting yet easy to read books. With Sanderson writing, reading is fun.

Was light year for me: Confessions of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer Origins of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer The second is a prequel of the first. I haven't read the third in the series. Light reading about a guy's descent into villainy. Yes Please - Amy Poehler: I love memoirs. I just didn't love this one. It read a lot like Leslie Knope was the author, but there was an obscene amount of name dropping that kept interrupting the flow of the book for me. Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir - Eddie Huang: Like I said, I'm a sucker for these things. Picked it up, because the series reminded me of a 90s Asian version of Everybody Hates Chris. The absurdity and random profanity was a little off-putting at first. Remembering how I felt as a black boy doing some of the same dumb things in the 90s really put it into perspective though. The Serpent of Venice: A Novel - Christopher Moore: The follow up to Fool. It's a different take on Shakespearian story-telling. I can't recommend his novels enough.…

A lot of stuff: Asimov's Foundation (I only recommend the trilogy, though; Foundation's Edge is good but will make you want to read Foundation and Earth, which does severe damage to the universe. Haven't read the prequels.) Asimov's short stories Tolkien Ben Hur The Count of Monte Cristo (brilliant revenge story) A lot of Brandon Sanderson's work (The Stormlight Archive is promising to be fascinating) Too long a list of other stuff to put here.