My Journey Through The Stormlight Archive—15,000 Pages of Epic Fantasy

 It all started about three years ago when my husband was working graveyard shifts. To pass the time, he would re-read old favorites until he started diving into forum discussions to discover new series. That’s when he stumbled upon The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson.

At first, he tried different books from the Cosmere, but nothing clicked quite like The Way of Kings. I still remember coming home after a long day at work, only to be met with an excited, bookish word-dump from him. He’d devoured the first book and needed to talk about it. I, on the other hand, had just spent the day working at a financial office 35 miles away and was not expecting to be quizzed on the nuances of Roshar before I could even take my shoes off.

That’s when I had an idea. We were living like two ships passing in the night—one working while the other slept. I missed those little moments of connection, and I figured, what better way to bridge that gap than with a book club of two? Nerdy? Absolutely. Worth it? Completely.

At the time, I was struggling to find my next great read. I had worked my way through thrillers, detective stories, and even some non-fiction, but nothing quite stuck after reading A Man Called Ove (which, by the way, you should totally read—but maybe skip the Tom Hanks movie). I wanted to surprise my husband by actually understanding what he was gushing about, so I secretly bought the audiobook of The Way of Kings to listen to during my hour-long commute.

And then I saw the runtime.

45 hours and 30 minutes.

I nearly choked on my coffee.

But I pressed play, determined to finish this chunker of a book quickly. Spoiler: I did not finish it quickly. The first two times I tried, I struggled with keeping up. Epic fantasy was not my usual go-to, and between pregnancy exhaustion, morning brain fog, work stress, and the occasional need to dodge deer on the road, it was hard to stay focused.

But something about Roshar kept calling me back. Soon, it became my wind-down on the drive home, and I finally made it through. I even surprised my husband by casually dropping Stormlight-related comments into our conversations. Mission accomplished.

From there, I powered through the first three books—and then took a break. A long break. So long, in fact, that I forgot most of what I had read. And then, Sanderson announced that the fifth book, Wind and Truth, was coming in December 2025.

Well, good golly.

I knew I had to start over. This time, I went all in—beginning again with The Way of Kings and making my way through the entire series, novellas included. It took me a year and three months to complete, totaling over 15,000 pages of epic fantasy. And just two weeks ago, I turned the final page of Wind and Truth.

Now what?

I genuinely don’t know what to do with myself. I’m thrilled, I’m proud, and I will absolutely talk about this to anyone who will listen. But more than that, I’m grateful for the journey Sanderson created.

His books are long for a reason—there’s so much lore, so many small but deeply impactful moments. Stories like Fleet, the Wondersail legend, and Kaladin Stormblessed’s battles with depression stick with you. Only later did I realize that Sanderson wrote Kaladin’s struggles based on his own son’s experience with depression, and that hit hard.

This series was unlike anything I had ever read before, and now I’m left wondering—what’s next?

Sanderson has said he’s taking a break before writing the next arc of The Stormlight Archive. The next book won’t come for another 8 to 10 years, which is brutal, but maybe it’s a good thing. Re-reading this series will be like catching up with an old friend—and I’ll probably need a solid two years just to do that.

Until then, I’ll keep searching for the next great read. But something tells me nothing will quite compare to the journey I just took across Roshar.