My hesitance in reading long books rarely has anything to do with the actual length - if a book is good, then the idea of being able to immerse myself in it for many pages is appealing. Unfortunately, it's incredibly rare to come across anything as lengthy as 1000 pages that actually justifies its length, and so alarm bells are normally ringing. So many fantasy books fall into this trap, and the excuse often made is "oh, it's world building" - but it's not. It's verbosity. And verbosity is only SOMETIMES tolerable (or even enjoyable) when A. The prose is good, and B. What's being conveyed is painting a bigger picture. Sanderson does not paint a bigger picture, he paints over what he's already painted - and he doesn't do it with much flair.
The prose isn't terrible, mind, but it's functional at best. It's not that it's "flowery" - it's not that kind of indulgence. The biggest problem is that it's constantly expository - nor is it useful exposition, but repetition. He gives the reader zero credit and wastes countless pages reminding them of what they already know... Again and again.
The Way of Kings is a book that twiddles its thumbs for pages on end, and then decides to drop a number of twists right at the finishing line. A clever tactic, because it might compel the reader to press on to the next volume (but I ain't falling for that... Oh no). And it's damn frustrating, because the book has legs... It's just that he cripples them.
I think Sanderson is capable of writing a good book - and who am I to say he hasn't? (This is my first) - he knows the basics of writing, he knows how to plot, his characterisation is decent and only really held back by stalling development with filler; but this isn't a good book. There is no justification for the length of The Way of Kings. Cut it in half; all depth could be retained (nay, improved upon),and everything would be made much, much tighter as a result. I can imagine the exact same story playing out - with no negative effect on character or plot - in half the number of pages AT LEAST. Heck, everything that happens in here should probably have been ticked off by the half way point, and then taken even further. There is farrrr too much of characters wondering and walking and mulling over the same scenario for the entire book. Progress is MINIMAL.
Yes, there are some nice world building elements, but nothing to yell about. Stuff to do with ettiquete and class is interesting, and the magic systems seem well thought out. Spren feel like a gimmicky joke half the time though. Drink every time any character does anything and [insert emotion here] spren appear to announce what they're feeling/experiencing. It becomes predictable and, while it's clear that Sanderson has bigger ideas in store for where he takes them, half the time they just feel like a tedious visual marker for practically anything internal.
Sanderson seems to be a nice guy. I've been following some of his lectures and they contain numerous nuggets of universally applicable writing advice. Some elements in The Way the Kings are even genuinely compelling.
Ultimately though, a *potentially* good story is ruined by indulgent filler, repetitive exposition, clunky action, cringe dialogue, redundant flashbacks, irrelevant asides... Ugh. I could go on.