Words of Radiance, for those who are unaware, is the second book in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series, following Way of Kings. Due to this, this review will contain spoilers for Way of Kings. Consider this your warning if you want to remain unspoiled for Way of Kings, although I'm unsure why you'd read a review on the 2nd book if you hadn't read the 1st but I don't presume to know your life, nameless reader. Anyway. 
 I always feel a little guilty reviewing a series because inevitably I compare the book to past installments and cannot properly judge the book on its own merits outside of the series. And when you consider that the Stormlight Archive is a 10 book series split into two major story arcs (the split happening at book 5) it becomes even MORE difficult for me to view Words of Radiance as anything other than a section of this immensely larger story. In doing so, I went into Words of Radiance with certain expectations on what promises made in Way of Kings would be made good upon, where our previously established characters would go, what lore would be expanded upon, etc. 
 And as always, Brandon Sanderson took the plot in places I didn't fully expect. I tend to pride myself on being able to guess plot points before they happen and frequently when discussing books with either my brother or boyfriend (much to their joined chagrin sometimes) I will voice concerns over certain plot threads and make predictions as to where the story will most likely be heading. My track record with Sanderson books at this point is probably at 30% accuracy. So many times I found myself assuming the story was going to go a certain way only for Sanderson to decide "nope!" and take the characters to places I was not expecting. I've always loved this about his work (among many other things) and he continues the trend with Words of Radiance. 
 But what is the story about really? Well, following Way of Kings, Shallan is now continuing her scholarship with Jasnah, attempting to learn about the potential return of the voidbringers. She's discovering more and more of her magical powers and eventually discovers a spren of her own, similar to Kaladin's spren friend Syl. Kaladin meanwhile is now a captain of the guard under Dalinar and has to try to develop his surgebinding skills in secret while also dealing with his internal fears stemming from his distrust of light-eyes. Dalinar is still trying to help unify the kingdom and outmanuever Sadaes (who is still as rude and horrible as ever) but Dalinar's son Adolin plays a much bigger role in the story this time around. Sveth is still killing people. Like ya do. 
 Even though the characters are much less spread out and unified in their goals than in Way of Kings, I found Words of Radiance to be less cohesive than its predecessor. There often were times that I felt a chapter or subplot overall was unnecessary in terms of information we eventually gained. For example, at one point Sadaes gets a whole chapter to himself and all it really tells us is 1. Sadaes is a bad dude and 2. Sadaes is plotting against Dalinar. Both of these things we already knew and didn't have to waste an entire chapter reenforcing. And spoilers, the book is 1088 pages long. At this length I feel that redundant text is frustrating padding and what small information it gave could have been picked up in other places. Because Way of Kings was more insular in each of the character's goals, and also had the benefit of being the introduction into this world, we were learning a lot more per chapter than in Words of Radiance. The interludes still frustrate me. At first I was concerned that some vital piece of information would be introduced in them and I would miss it because I did NOT care about these short stories, but once I heard Sanderson say on his podcast Writing Excuses that the interludes are meant to be bonus stories, I found myself skipping a lot of them. I will say that the Parshendi lady's (whose name is escaping me at the moment. El...Elondaei?) chapters were FASCINATING and I loved learning about her perspective. But random short stories unrelated to the overall plot? No thank you, I'd rather just read a collection of those in a separate volume if need be. 
 All this being said, Words of Radiance was a very strong second installment in the Stormlight Archive. Although the characters frustrate me sometimes, their actions make sense for their characters and they all grow in some way. The lore has been expanded upon nicely, clearly up some questions I had about the origins and meaning of spren for example, along with giving us valuable insight into the Parshendi. I'm still very interested in where the characters will go from here and what new plot points Sanderson will throw my way.