For those of you that enjoy reading epic fantasy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson is giving away free copies of The Way of Kings, book 1 of The Stormlight Archive, an expected 10-part series (epic indeed).
The free ebook is available from iBooks as part of a promotion for the launch of iOS 8, and it will remain free until the end of the year. Of course Amazon always price-matches ebooks so The Way of Kings is currently free for Kindle too, but even Brandon Sanderson himself doesn’t know how long that will last, as mentioned in his newsletter.
Unfortunately other ebook retailers don’t appear to be on the same price-matching bandwagon, but the good thing about The Way of Kings is that it is sold DRM-free, so you can get it from Amazon or Apple and read it on whatever device or app you choose, although the Kindle version would need to be converted to ePub with Calibre for non-Kindle ereaders, which is probably easier than trying to get the ePub out of iBooks.
I read this book when it first came out in 2010. It’s a good, well-written book. Even if you don’t typically read fantasy you should give it a shot (it’s free, after all). The characters have more depth than some of Sanderson’s earlier work, and there are a lot of interesting plot elements and a deep intriguing world. The book is well-reviewed at Amazon, with 4.7 stars and 2,531 reviews. On iTunes it has 4.5 stars with 1,941 reviews.
The only problem is the second book in the series, Words of Radiance, is priced rather high right now because it was just released earlier in the year. It currently goes for $10.99 (oh, but they try to make it look like you’re getting a killer deal by putting the list price next to it for $28.99). Granted the book is over 1,000 pages, but $11 is still pretty steep, and the library only carries the audiobook version. I guess I’ll just wait until next year when book 3 is released and book 2 becomes cheap (or maybe even free). 🙂
The Kindle version of Way of the Kings is no longer free
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Stormlight-Archive-Book-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/
It’s still free on my end. It’s probably a US-only promotion.
It is only for the US,here in Denmark you have to pay for them.I tried both options and neither was free.
Google Play Books has it too if you want to get it cheap. It’s not free but it’s marked down to $1.57 (at least in the US).
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Brandon_Sanderson_The_Way_of_Kings?id=OHclhBVv-X4C&hl=en
I enjoyed his Mistborn series, but find this book slow going. I’m 1/5 of the way in have lost the desire to read anymore/
I seem to recall it being a slow starter, but I can’t remember exactly after 4 years. I’m going to have to read it again. I liked Mistborn too, but the characters felt too flat to me, especially Vin. The characters seem a lot more real in The Way of Kings.