the_midwest_library 's review for:

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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: Complicated

---

3.5 rounded up 

Spoiler Free Review 

Alright, wow we finished this magnificent beast. I just want to preface this review by saying I have been reading Sanderson's books for years, but I read his books for his world building, his unique magic systems and his characters first and foremost. I do not read his books with a cosmere forward enjoyment perspective. I think that's important to preface in the beginning of this review because I believe that if you are somebody who really loves those cosmere forward elements that this will probably be a knockout for you. 

While there are so many spectacular moments within this book, I really think that the overall flow, prose, and editing of this installment of the series was the weakest of all five books. Specifically with pacing issues and with a bloated narrative structure which swapped back and forth excessively between povs, sometimes after a single paragraph. 

I had a great time with the last 400 pages of this book, but I am getting very tired of waiting to have a great time until the last few hundred pages of these books. But let's talk about what I loved...

I absolutely adored Adolin in this installment, and found the direction his character went in extremely compelling. I really liked what we got from Szeth and NB, as well as Dalinar (for the most part). 

Some things that I did not love include how preachy and meta Kals arc became in this book. It really took me out of the book several times and his characterization was extremely jarring for me, especially just coming off a reread of RoW. I had an issue with the very end of Dalinar's arc in this book and I felt as though it undermined the impact of his choices and growth (BT iykyk). 

I can reflect on this book and acknowledge that I had such a spectacular time and there were such spectacular moments within this book. But when I look at this book as a whole I think to myself, did this book give me the same feelings that I got when I read The Way of Kings for the first time? The answer is no.  It's nowhere close. I think that there were too many pots on the stove and the plot was lost amongst all of the Easter eggs that I'm sure I will think are amazing five books from now. But I'm not five books from now, and what the plot gave me in this specific book, I do not think lived up to any of the other books in the series for me personally. 

That is not to say that this is not a phenomenal book. I am a fairly harsh reviewer but I try to be an honest and a fair reviewer. I love this series! I love these characters! But this book felt odd and overworked to me.