Words of Radiance recap

The Alethi war on the Shattered Plains reaches its end as Dalinar Kholin pushes to reunite the fractured highprinces and refound the Knights Radiant, convinced an ancient enemy is returning. Shallan Davar, having survived the loss of her patron Jasnah at sea, reaches the war camps, becomes betrothed to Dalinar's son Adolin, and races to master her Radiant powers while hunting the lost city of the Radiants and tangling with a deadly secret society. Kaladin, now captain of Dalinar's guard, wrestles with his hatred of the lighteyes and is nearly drawn into a plot to murder the king before choosing to protect him and speaking a deeper Radiant oath. The Parshendi, facing annihilation, take a terrible new form and summon a second, dark storm that circles the world. In the climactic battle Kaladin saves the coalition, Shallan discovers an ancient portal and transports the army to the fabled city of Urithiru, and the assassin Szeth is defeated. Jasnah returns alive, but the true enemy has come: the age of Desolations begins.

Previously, in The Way of Kings: On the storm-swept world of Roshar, the kingdom of Alethkar wages a long war on the broken Shattered Plains, hunting the alien Parshendi to avenge the murder of King Gavilar. Kaladin, a gifted young spearman betrayed into slavery, is thrown into a suicidal bridge crew but refuses to let his men die, rebuilding the shattered Bridge Four and discovering he can draw power from the great storms. The scholar-princess Jasnah Kholin takes a young noblewoman, Shallan Davar, as her ward, unaware Shallan means to rob her; both women uncover signs of an ancient enemy's return and of the vanished Knights Radiant. Highprince Dalinar Kholin, plagued by storm-visions others call madness, tries to hold his squabbling peers to a code of honor. When his rival Highprince Sadeas betrays him and abandons his army in battle, Kaladin and Bridge Four ride back to save Dalinar against impossible odds, and Kaladin is revealed as a reborn Knight Radiant bonded to the spirit Syl. Dalinar frees Bridge Four and takes them into his service, gaining loyal soldiers and a bitter enemy in Sadeas. Shallan reaches the Plains and admits she too has begun to manifest Radiant powers. The storms carry warning that the mythical Desolations are returning, and the assassin Szeth is turned toward deadlier targets.

The story resumes with the war on the Shattered Plains still grinding on. Sailing to join her patron's mission, Shallan is caught in disaster at sea and loses Jasnah, surviving only by her budding Radiant powers; she resolves to continue the scholar's work alone, making her way toward the Alethi war camps with little more than her wits and her secret talents. In the camps, Kaladin now serves as captain of Highprince Dalinar's honor guard, his freed Bridge Four crew around him, though his old hatred of the lighteyed nobility keeps him tense and suspicious. Dalinar, more certain than ever that an ancient enemy is coming, works to reunite the fractured highprinces under his nephew King Elhokar and to somehow bring back the lost Knights Radiant, a campaign his rivals treat as delusion or threat. The assassin Szeth continues his terrifying campaign against the region's rulers, and the pressure on all sides mounts.

Shallan reaches the war camps and, through cleverness and calculated risk, secures a place among the Kholins, becoming betrothed to Dalinar's son Adolin. She throws herself into deciphering Jasnah's research, hunting for the fabled lost city of the Radiants and quietly developing her power to weave convincing illusions, even as she is drawn into contact with a dangerous secret society pursuing its own ends. Kaladin's distrust of the lighteyes hardens, especially toward a celebrated highlord newly welcomed into Dalinar's circle, a man Kaladin knows to be a traitor. Dalinar presses his unification campaign, deepens his bond with the scholar-queen Navani, and studies his storm-visions for a way to prepare for the coming enemy. On the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi grow desperate as the Alethi close in, and their leaders debate embracing a forbidden source of power to avoid destruction.

Tensions come to a head in the arena and at court. Adolin fights a dangerous duel against multiple Shardbearers meant to destroy the Kholins' standing, and the fight becomes a public crisis that Kaladin is pulled into. Kaladin's grievances against a corrupt system boil over into open defiance, landing him in disgrace and imprisonment, and he is tempted toward a conspiracy against the throne, forcing a reckoning with what kind of man and what kind of Radiant he intends to be. Shallan confronts more of her buried past and races to locate the ancient portal she believes can reach the lost city. Dalinar's fragile coalition is battered by scandal and rivalry. Meanwhile the Parshendi commit to their terrible gamble, taking on a new form tied to the returning enemy and preparing to call down a second, unnatural storm upon the world.

Everything converges in a final battle at the heart of the Shattered Plains. Facing annihilation, the Parshendi summon the Everstorm, a dark storm that blows against the natural order and threatens to awaken their dormant kin everywhere into enemies. Kaladin speaks a deeper oath, comes fully into his Windrunner powers, and shields the armies as the two storms collide, defeating the assassin Szeth, who falls in the tempest. Shallan finds and activates an ancient portal and carries the survivors to Urithiru, the immense lost city that once housed the Knights Radiant. Adolin, unable to stomach the traitor's continued scheming, secretly kills Highprince Sadeas. Jasnah, believed dead since the voyage at the book's start, returns alive. The Kholins now hold the ancient Radiant stronghold and the beginnings of a new order of knights, but at a staggering cost: the true Desolation has come, the Everstorm is loose upon Roshar, and the world's parshmen are waking. Far away, Szeth's broken body is claimed by a mysterious figure and given a living sword, setting him on an unexpected new path.

The war on the Shattered Plains ends not in victory but in transformation. Cornered, the Parshendi choose a fearsome new form of power and summon the Everstorm, a second storm that blows the wrong way and awakens their dormant kin across the world into potential enemies. In the final battle Kaladin speaks a further oath, comes fully into his Windrunner powers, and shields the armies from the double storm, defeating the assassin Szeth, who falls. Shallan uncovers and activates an ancient portal, carrying the survivors to Urithiru, the vast lost city that once housed the Knights Radiant. Adolin secretly kills the treacherous highprince Sadeas, removing a rival but staining his conscience. Jasnah, thought dead since the voyage that opened the book, reappears alive. The Kholins now hold the seat of the ancient Radiants and a small, growing order of new knights, but the cost is enormous: the true Desolation has arrived, the Everstorm is loose upon Roshar, and the parshmen everywhere are waking. Far away, the assassin's broken body is claimed by a mysterious figure and given a living sword, setting him on a new path. Dalinar's coalition has a fortress and a purpose, but the world stands on the edge of a war it has not faced in millennia.