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4.39 AVERAGE
4.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As the "concluding" novel in about 6000 pages of the storm light archive, I found wind and truth to be a little bit lackluster. But as a novel in its own right, it was generally quite enjoyable. I would even say that wind and truth has some of my favorite storylines and moments in the series. It was ultimately let done by the lack of a cohesive ending. In my mind it has the same flaws as the other novels, but manages to excel in the same points as well. But I will go through the journey character by character, and then give a short of series retrospective.
1. Adolin - I loved all of the adolin chapters, especially through the first 3/4. He has such a heart of gold and the struggle with his father is well done, and even gets pretty solid resolution. Him defending azir should be super repetitive but it isn't, his interactions with all of his side characters and yanagawn are great. Him taking down the thunderclast was great. Him fighting in the shield wall was a little strange, not because I think he wouldn't do it, but in this life and death moments he never once thought about shallan. I just thought that was weird. But adolin gets #1 by virtue of being such a positive guy and just a good friend.
2. Szeth/Kaladin - this duo is not the friendship you would have expected but it works great and makes sense. It is cool to see the backstory to szeth, who we have seen for so long and see him reclaim his ability to decide. I thought the end of his memory storyline was also a little disappointing, but most of it was quite good. I like seeing them get closer together, and learn about themselves in the process. However, the damn sword (night blood) is also kind of annoying to me, and such a weird plot device/ mcguffin/ who even knows. One of many things that feels totally unexplained and unresolved. How did nale even get that!! Kaladins journey and unpacking some of the psychology of the heralds (along with dalinars visions) was cool)
3. Dalinar/ Navani - their search through visions goes on for a long time, but is generally pretty interesting lore wise. Certainly not perfect but there were a lot of cool revelations, and I do like the eventual decision of dalinar that honor itself is a flawed metric to live by. Because tbh I had been thinking that the whole time, that this whole oath thing seems perfect until it isn't. The thing with gavilar was a little weird though. But that's just how Brandon Sanderson rolls sometimes. Navani was more in the background, but she is still a great character and moral backing for dalinar.
4. Shallan - her stuff with the ghostbloods has always been a little bit weird. So that wasn't my favorite. But it was good to see her triumph over herself, finally accepting herself completely. The chapters with her mother were some of my favorites in the whole series. It was a bummer to see zero shallan/adolin interactions after the 300 page mark, and the ending for her just screams of sequel. Which is a disappointing feeling to have for a book that should be more conclusive.
5. Venli and sigzil - honestly don't interact but they're close on my list anyways. They've never been my favorites, and they were okay. It is weird to me that moash remains totally unresolved, and the whole deal with the shattered plains seems a little too convenient. And don't even get me started on dawnshards.
6. Renarin and rlain are actually kind of cute and I respect the purpose of their journey - unite 2 peoples and right a betrayal thousands of years in the making. Once again, the lack of resolution screams sequel.
7. Jasnah had few chapters and utterly fails. Which I respect, as she was always one of the most "perfect" people. The fact that she even agreed to argue with a god was kinda dumb. But hey, hubris I guess. I was surprised how completely she fails, unlike the others theylenah does not get a last minute switcheroo. I respect the boldness for sure.
Series retrospective - yeah, it's a good series. Worldbuilding is top notch, so much so that half of it goes over my head. Just like the real world, then! The plot is always good and the payoff is usually very well done.
The character growth is the highlight, some great, but extremely slow burn conflicts with one's nature. The amount of trauma overcome is huge though, so I respect that it takes so long for these characters to actually improve. Being perfect after 300 pages would feel a little cheap. But kaladin, shallan, and dalinar all have such great journeys of finding peace in one way or another.
The things I don't love is the pacing - these books are just so long it's hard to keep them going the whole way.
Also the humor - it never lands for me. And finally, the premise, this divine battle of good vs evil with primordial forces and constant elevation of the magic and technology. It can get hard to keep track of and loses some of the charm of humanity, and the good and bad that can entail that a more grounded series has. But hey, I'm glad I read it. My respect to Sanderson to even writing this much. What was great was truly great. There's just a lot to parse through that isn't perfect.
1. Adolin - I loved all of the adolin chapters, especially through the first 3/4. He has such a heart of gold and the struggle with his father is well done, and even gets pretty solid resolution. Him defending azir should be super repetitive but it isn't, his interactions with all of his side characters and yanagawn are great. Him taking down the thunderclast was great. Him fighting in the shield wall was a little strange, not because I think he wouldn't do it, but in this life and death moments he never once thought about shallan. I just thought that was weird. But adolin gets #1 by virtue of being such a positive guy and just a good friend.
2. Szeth/Kaladin - this duo is not the friendship you would have expected but it works great and makes sense. It is cool to see the backstory to szeth, who we have seen for so long and see him reclaim his ability to decide. I thought the end of his memory storyline was also a little disappointing, but most of it was quite good. I like seeing them get closer together, and learn about themselves in the process. However, the damn sword (night blood) is also kind of annoying to me, and such a weird plot device/ mcguffin/ who even knows. One of many things that feels totally unexplained and unresolved. How did nale even get that!! Kaladins journey and unpacking some of the psychology of the heralds (along with dalinars visions) was cool)
3. Dalinar/ Navani - their search through visions goes on for a long time, but is generally pretty interesting lore wise. Certainly not perfect but there were a lot of cool revelations, and I do like the eventual decision of dalinar that honor itself is a flawed metric to live by. Because tbh I had been thinking that the whole time, that this whole oath thing seems perfect until it isn't. The thing with gavilar was a little weird though. But that's just how Brandon Sanderson rolls sometimes. Navani was more in the background, but she is still a great character and moral backing for dalinar.
4. Shallan - her stuff with the ghostbloods has always been a little bit weird. So that wasn't my favorite. But it was good to see her triumph over herself, finally accepting herself completely. The chapters with her mother were some of my favorites in the whole series. It was a bummer to see zero shallan/adolin interactions after the 300 page mark, and the ending for her just screams of sequel. Which is a disappointing feeling to have for a book that should be more conclusive.
5. Venli and sigzil - honestly don't interact but they're close on my list anyways. They've never been my favorites, and they were okay. It is weird to me that moash remains totally unresolved, and the whole deal with the shattered plains seems a little too convenient. And don't even get me started on dawnshards.
6. Renarin and rlain are actually kind of cute and I respect the purpose of their journey - unite 2 peoples and right a betrayal thousands of years in the making. Once again, the lack of resolution screams sequel.
7. Jasnah had few chapters and utterly fails. Which I respect, as she was always one of the most "perfect" people. The fact that she even agreed to argue with a god was kinda dumb. But hey, hubris I guess. I was surprised how completely she fails, unlike the others theylenah does not get a last minute switcheroo. I respect the boldness for sure.
Series retrospective - yeah, it's a good series. Worldbuilding is top notch, so much so that half of it goes over my head. Just like the real world, then! The plot is always good and the payoff is usually very well done.
The character growth is the highlight, some great, but extremely slow burn conflicts with one's nature. The amount of trauma overcome is huge though, so I respect that it takes so long for these characters to actually improve. Being perfect after 300 pages would feel a little cheap. But kaladin, shallan, and dalinar all have such great journeys of finding peace in one way or another.
The things I don't love is the pacing - these books are just so long it's hard to keep them going the whole way.
Also the humor - it never lands for me. And finally, the premise, this divine battle of good vs evil with primordial forces and constant elevation of the magic and technology. It can get hard to keep track of and loses some of the charm of humanity, and the good and bad that can entail that a more grounded series has. But hey, I'm glad I read it. My respect to Sanderson to even writing this much. What was great was truly great. There's just a lot to parse through that isn't perfect.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A satisfying end to the first are of this series - I don’t know how, but Brandon Sanderson has done it yet again
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes