Words of Radiance Part II (Sanderson B.); Orion Publishing Group, 2015

The Knights Radiant must stand again. For the Everstorm is coming. And the Assassin has arrived.

Despite his enemies expecting him to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived and has been given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status darkeyes. Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan has been broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, and now she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just getting there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for the Parshendi and humans alike - for Roshar itself - are as dangerous as they are incalculable.