I finished Dawn Shard now and I enjoyed it more than Way of Kings but not enough to want to read more Stormlight Archives. I actually found the story to be a fairly self-contained story on a boat. I think already knowing a bit of spoilers about spren and void bringers was enough.

There were sometimes parts where characters would mention things like briefly being a king in the past, which I'm sure comes from another book but wasn't important for the plot of this book.

Overall I'm just not a Sanderson fan I think. I don't like his humour and I found I really didn't care about the characters in Way of Kings. The big problem is that his books are so long and it seems like not much happens until the end. I saw fans calling this an avalanche but I really couldn't stand it. No hate on others who like it but it's really not for me.