Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.55 AVERAGE
4.55 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's been around 1.2 million words since the start of the Stormlights Archive, ten years ago. Yet somehow every book feels exponentially bigger in scope than the previous one.The stakes always rise, and they rise beyond one's expectations.
It was nice to dive back into Roshar and with a timeskip to boot. Although the story felt all over the place(there's not really a 'main' character in these SA books), it all converges into a decisive climax at the end.
This is the most striking aspect of Brandon's writing style. The careful buildup followed by the explosive final fifth. 80% of this book is spent meticulously building up multiple plot lines and expositions. 15% of it is the stupefying climax, bringing together everything that came before it. And that final 5%, where you see the aftermath of everything going down, where your jaw drops and you incessantly scream WTF JUST HAPPENED and shiver to yourself.
The Stormlight Archive is an experience, and I'm glad to be part of the journey.
It was nice to dive back into Roshar and with a timeskip to boot. Although the story felt all over the place(there's not really a 'main' character in these SA books), it all converges into a decisive climax at the end.
This is the most striking aspect of Brandon's writing style. The careful buildup followed by the explosive final fifth. 80% of this book is spent meticulously building up multiple plot lines and expositions. 15% of it is the stupefying climax, bringing together everything that came before it. And that final 5%, where you see the aftermath of everything going down, where your jaw drops and you incessantly scream WTF JUST HAPPENED and shiver to yourself.
The Stormlight Archive is an experience, and I'm glad to be part of the journey.
Still an amazing book but just didn't feel up to the par of the previous three for me. They do set the bar very high though.
adventurous
emotional
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
I'm a fan that the story stuck to one place, changing up the scale the prior book stook us.
The pacing lagged for a long time, and the vibes were melancholy, but the ending packed a punch
I continue to be in this weird sort of adversarial relationship with Sanderson where I read almost everything he writes and then even as I'm reading it I say to myself "but this isn't very good though" and then continue trudging through the next 1,200 page tome. Inexplicable even to myself, honestly.
This book would have gotten four stars if I'd read it a few years ago, but I'm trying to be more honest with my star ratings because I realized I gave anything that I liked but didn't love four stars, since three felt too... mean? But like. Okay. The big thing with Sanderson is that his writing is bad. Like, the sentences are bad and clunky and lack grace and style. He has great craft as a story teller but bad craft as a story writer. Or at least that's kind of my take on the situation. It's why I hope the Stormlight Archive does get made into a huge big-budget TV show someday, maybe an animated one, even, because this story, these themes, these characters, could be something truly special. It really is the clunkiness of his writing that holds it all back. He doesn't know how to write beautifully or complexly about things like the mental health struggles of Kaladin or Shallan. He doesn't know how to dive into the philosophical and emotional struggles of his characters with actual finesse. The way he writes Navani's science stuff is cringe-worthy and repetitive. There are many scenes in this novel that are trucking along just fine and then when he tries to make a Big Grand Point and get to a Huge Revelatory Moment for the character, his word choice and lack of grace with prose trips him up and makes it all fall incredibly flat. So I want to see this in the hands of a talented screenwriter someday, with Sanderson's blessing and consent. I want the characters to be brought to life by the nuance of acting. I bet I'd truly love it.
Setting all that aside, this book's various subplots had varying levels of success for me. For the most part, I found the stuff with Shallan and Adolin in this book fairly dreadful and boring to the extreme. There were a couple of stand-out moments, like I did love the climactic moment with Maya, I thought that was great payoff for all the buildup, and I'm glad we finally know the big terrible Shallan secret. But I honestly found myself disappointed by the anticlimax of the Ialai mystery (I guess if your last name is Sadeas and you get assassinated, everybody just shrugs and forgets about it????) and the "Formless" thing. Like, when Shallan was looking for the spy, I kept thinking to myself "the spy is Formless, the spy is you, you're telling on yourself and you don't even know" which I think is a much cooler answer than "it was Pattern talking to Hoid, and Mraize was also conveniently spying on Hoid." Like, c'mon. And like I said above, Sanderson's poor writing lets him down sometimes in the big emotional moments. I feel nothing about Veil being "gone", reabsorbed into Shallan, because ultimately Veil wasn't a character with any actual depth.
I found the stuff with Dalinar on the front lines a little tedious too, but luckily we didn't have too much of it. Some interesting things with Jasnah here, I suppose, and I do like how explicit the cosmere connections are becoming as we hit this stage of the story. Taravangian also mostly bores me, but the Odium plot twist was fuckin' great, Sanderson's greatest strength is in his big-picture plotting, in my opinion, in terms of surprising the reader with the turns in the story. Wouldn't have expected that. Poor Szeth needs a very long time out and for someone to take the fucking sword away from him. Go give it back to Vasher, what's his deal here anyway.
Venli and Eshonai's flashbacks were okay too, I was expecting to find all this time with Venli fairly useless, but I thought learning more about what had been going on with the Singers was kind of interesting, and I liked Venli's sort of stumbling path towards Radiance. I was more interested in the backstory with her as it intersected with her present-day movements in the tower.
The best stuff in this book, for my money, was the stuff with Kaladin in Urithiru. The only times I felt sparks of emotion reading this giant tome, it was when he was refusing to give up, or coming out of the darkness to fight one more time. I liked seeing Syl struggle with depression and doubt and how that ultimately is a sign of her becoming more changeable, more like a human. Teft's death got me, Moash's betrayal still stings every time it gets re-enforced, and I'm legit bummed that Rock is gone and at least seemingly isn't going to return.
My favorite relationships in this whole series are Kaladin's relationship with the Kholins - Dalinar and Adolin specifically, but even Navani a bit too. I loved Adolin dragging Kal out for drinks to cheer him up at the beginning, and I was sad that the rest of the book separated the two of them entirely. And Dalinar and Kaladin... I don't know. A better book would delve more deeply into the strange thing going on between Dalinar and Kaladin, a commander of men and his loyal soldier-former-bodyguard, this father / son vibe they have going on when Dalinar has such complicated relationships with his own two sons... but then also that fantastic moment at the end when Dalinar actually blushes and tries to apologize for daring to tell Kaladin to stop fighting, now that he's a super mega bad-ass swearing the fourth ideal and all that. I love the moment when Kaladin acknowledges that he sort of expected to be asked to be Honor's champion and is like "yeah... I can't." and Dalinar already knew that and had never planned on asking him anyway. The way this book ends, it sets up the two of them going on a quest in book five together, so I'm excited to see more of that explored. They were linked in interesting ways in this book; Dalinar shows up with the Stormfather not once but TWICE to save Kal's life as he's outside exposed in a storm, and both of them are going through this evolving relationship to their spren and the power of their Radiance.
Navani and Raboniel and the Sibling was the other big highlight here, conceptually. I already mentioned that the way science and experiments are rendered on the page in these books is incredibly insufferable, but I liked a lot of the stuff around it - these two enemies writing notes and adding undertext to create the Rhythm of War, the scene where they find that actual rhythm, Raboniel killing her daughter with Navani there as witness, the way Raboniel tries to save Navani from Moash there at the end and then when Navani betrays her and kills her, she uses her final moments alive to hold Moash off... all of it's pretty good stuff. Her goal being to end the eternal battle even if it means the humans might win gives her a lot of nuance and makes sense as a goal for one with the level of power and knowledge she has, trying to find a way to cut off the endless conflict fueled by Odium himself.
Navani bonding the Sibling was something I guessed would happen pretty early on, but I loved the fake-out of, like, maybe Rlain? Maybe Dabbid? And then no - it has to be Navani, it always did from the minute the Sibling reached out to her via spanreed. The best stuff in this book was when Navani and Kaladin were in contact through the Sibling sneaking around doing spy stuff during the occupation. Loved all that shit.
I could go on - when I'm able to set aside the poor writing of this author, I can kind of let this story, these characters, play out a little movie in my head, and imagine a world where it's written with less plodding and uninspired prose. The imaginary good versions of these books are just powerful enough for me to keep wading my way through them. At this point, yeah, I do want to find out what happens!
This book would have gotten four stars if I'd read it a few years ago, but I'm trying to be more honest with my star ratings because I realized I gave anything that I liked but didn't love four stars, since three felt too... mean? But like. Okay. The big thing with Sanderson is that his writing is bad. Like, the sentences are bad and clunky and lack grace and style. He has great craft as a story teller but bad craft as a story writer. Or at least that's kind of my take on the situation. It's why I hope the Stormlight Archive does get made into a huge big-budget TV show someday, maybe an animated one, even, because this story, these themes, these characters, could be something truly special. It really is the clunkiness of his writing that holds it all back. He doesn't know how to write beautifully or complexly about things like the mental health struggles of Kaladin or Shallan. He doesn't know how to dive into the philosophical and emotional struggles of his characters with actual finesse. The way he writes Navani's science stuff is cringe-worthy and repetitive. There are many scenes in this novel that are trucking along just fine and then when he tries to make a Big Grand Point and get to a Huge Revelatory Moment for the character, his word choice and lack of grace with prose trips him up and makes it all fall incredibly flat. So I want to see this in the hands of a talented screenwriter someday, with Sanderson's blessing and consent. I want the characters to be brought to life by the nuance of acting. I bet I'd truly love it.
Setting all that aside, this book's various subplots had varying levels of success for me. For the most part, I found the stuff with Shallan and Adolin in this book fairly dreadful and boring to the extreme. There were a couple of stand-out moments, like I did love the climactic moment with Maya, I thought that was great payoff for all the buildup, and I'm glad we finally know the big terrible Shallan secret. But I honestly found myself disappointed by the anticlimax of the Ialai mystery (I guess if your last name is Sadeas and you get assassinated, everybody just shrugs and forgets about it????) and the "Formless" thing. Like, when Shallan was looking for the spy, I kept thinking to myself "the spy is Formless, the spy is you, you're telling on yourself and you don't even know" which I think is a much cooler answer than "it was Pattern talking to Hoid, and Mraize was also conveniently spying on Hoid." Like, c'mon. And like I said above, Sanderson's poor writing lets him down sometimes in the big emotional moments. I feel nothing about Veil being "gone", reabsorbed into Shallan, because ultimately Veil wasn't a character with any actual depth.
I found the stuff with Dalinar on the front lines a little tedious too, but luckily we didn't have too much of it. Some interesting things with Jasnah here, I suppose, and I do like how explicit the cosmere connections are becoming as we hit this stage of the story. Taravangian also mostly bores me, but the Odium plot twist was fuckin' great, Sanderson's greatest strength is in his big-picture plotting, in my opinion, in terms of surprising the reader with the turns in the story. Wouldn't have expected that. Poor Szeth needs a very long time out and for someone to take the fucking sword away from him. Go give it back to Vasher, what's his deal here anyway.
Venli and Eshonai's flashbacks were okay too, I was expecting to find all this time with Venli fairly useless, but I thought learning more about what had been going on with the Singers was kind of interesting, and I liked Venli's sort of stumbling path towards Radiance. I was more interested in the backstory with her as it intersected with her present-day movements in the tower.
The best stuff in this book, for my money, was the stuff with Kaladin in Urithiru. The only times I felt sparks of emotion reading this giant tome, it was when he was refusing to give up, or coming out of the darkness to fight one more time. I liked seeing Syl struggle with depression and doubt and how that ultimately is a sign of her becoming more changeable, more like a human. Teft's death got me, Moash's betrayal still stings every time it gets re-enforced, and I'm legit bummed that Rock is gone and at least seemingly isn't going to return.
My favorite relationships in this whole series are Kaladin's relationship with the Kholins - Dalinar and Adolin specifically, but even Navani a bit too. I loved Adolin dragging Kal out for drinks to cheer him up at the beginning, and I was sad that the rest of the book separated the two of them entirely. And Dalinar and Kaladin... I don't know. A better book would delve more deeply into the strange thing going on between Dalinar and Kaladin, a commander of men and his loyal soldier-former-bodyguard, this father / son vibe they have going on when Dalinar has such complicated relationships with his own two sons... but then also that fantastic moment at the end when Dalinar actually blushes and tries to apologize for daring to tell Kaladin to stop fighting, now that he's a super mega bad-ass swearing the fourth ideal and all that. I love the moment when Kaladin acknowledges that he sort of expected to be asked to be Honor's champion and is like "yeah... I can't." and Dalinar already knew that and had never planned on asking him anyway. The way this book ends, it sets up the two of them going on a quest in book five together, so I'm excited to see more of that explored. They were linked in interesting ways in this book; Dalinar shows up with the Stormfather not once but TWICE to save Kal's life as he's outside exposed in a storm, and both of them are going through this evolving relationship to their spren and the power of their Radiance.
Navani and Raboniel and the Sibling was the other big highlight here, conceptually. I already mentioned that the way science and experiments are rendered on the page in these books is incredibly insufferable, but I liked a lot of the stuff around it - these two enemies writing notes and adding undertext to create the Rhythm of War, the scene where they find that actual rhythm, Raboniel killing her daughter with Navani there as witness, the way Raboniel tries to save Navani from Moash there at the end and then when Navani betrays her and kills her, she uses her final moments alive to hold Moash off... all of it's pretty good stuff. Her goal being to end the eternal battle even if it means the humans might win gives her a lot of nuance and makes sense as a goal for one with the level of power and knowledge she has, trying to find a way to cut off the endless conflict fueled by Odium himself.
Navani bonding the Sibling was something I guessed would happen pretty early on, but I loved the fake-out of, like, maybe Rlain? Maybe Dabbid? And then no - it has to be Navani, it always did from the minute the Sibling reached out to her via spanreed. The best stuff in this book was when Navani and Kaladin were in contact through the Sibling sneaking around doing spy stuff during the occupation. Loved all that shit.
I could go on - when I'm able to set aside the poor writing of this author, I can kind of let this story, these characters, play out a little movie in my head, and imagine a world where it's written with less plodding and uninspired prose. The imaginary good versions of these books are just powerful enough for me to keep wading my way through them. At this point, yeah, I do want to find out what happens!
adventurous
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
i weep
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced