A review by branbook
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

I'll review this book in the light of the other books, as it is very much meant to be read serially and would not have the same impact if read on its own. The pacing of the book was quite slow for the first little while, then really ramped up in the last third of the book. A lot of the opening was meant to build up the characters to the place where they would each experience significant growth by the end, but in some cases that isn't entirely clear and subverts your expectations.

This book is phenomenal, and is unique from the rest of the Stormlight Archive in its pacing and in its delivery. Certain plot beats felt a lot more intentionally withheld until the moment when they would have the most impact. Other plot beats felt like they did not have as much substance or did not lead to a meaningful payoff by the end.

For example,
Venli and Eshonai were the flashback characters of this book. In each other book, the flashback characters were the most important to the story at the time, and had the most spotlight shone on them. While Venli did get fleshed out a lot more this book, the majority of her flashbacks overlapped with events that we have already been told. They were told from a different perspective, and were valuable in the information that they provided to the existing narrative (since it's literally from the other side of a war) but none of this felt remarkably meaningful for the plot to drive forward. The most 'character-driven' this plot gets is when Venli decides to come out as a Radiant, but we learned pretty quickly that this would have been very welcome news to Leshwi and perhaps even Raboniel if they were to have known, and Venli's spren seemed to know this the whole time too. The closest parallel was the feeling I got from WoR when we the reader were anxiously waiting for Kaladin to tell Dalinar what he is. In contrast, the buildup for Venli in RoW did not feel as impactful.

Regardless, it was nice to see more Eshonai since she was the first Listener we truly met besides Rlain, and she died before we had a chance to get to know her further. While some seem to think this was more Navani's book, which I agree it was, I wouldn't have preferred Navani flashbacks over the Listener flashbacks. Getting to understand the Listeners better helped us feel more connected to the notion that Venli wants to restore them.


Since there is so much book, there is plenty to nitpick, but that does not take away from my feelings that this is an extraordinary book with strong themes and emotional moments. I would absolutely read it again and plan on doing so once I am through with Wind and Truth.
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