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A review by kimdokjaa
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
3.0
it is with the absolute heaviest heart imaginable that i give my first stormlight book a rating under 5 stars. not a bad book, but not nearly the climax i was yearning for, nor the quality of writing and emotional devastation i loved in the first 4 books. 3.5 stars
starting off with what i loved- the fight scenes, as always, were beautiful here. szeth's sequences with the honorblade holders had stunning choreography, and adolin's in azir were so visceral and raw. both of their arcs as a whole were great, and by far my favorite parts of this book. szeth’s conversation with kaladin halfway through was the one chapter in this book that made me tear up. i have never cared about szeth before, and was very pleasantly surprised by how much he grew on me. adolin’s last chapters were a litttleee bit unsatisfying, but the rest were insanely compelling and gripping so i’m choosing to ignore that
also, i take back the blanket statements i've given about sanderson & romance he’s 2 for 2 with interspecies gays!! to the other critical reviews that ended up being homophobic drivel i am not one of you!!! go eat rocks you will never be welcome here
there were some pretty powerful scenes here too. the degrading chapter headers were so cool too!! they added this extra layer of suspense and doom (that i never felt payed off, but we'll get into that)
there was a lot that didn't work for me though. for one, this has, by far, the slowest and weakest beginning of any of the books in the series. it definitely picks up in the back half, but i don't think it picked up quite enough. i also think for it's bulk i deserved more consistent quality throughout. it's easy to say oh yeah the first half is kinda rough but for a 1330 page book, that's 665 pages we're talking about
my main issue is that, for the first act climax, this felt very anticlimactic. i think a large contributor to this is that the stakes didn’t feel nearly high enough. for a "night of sorrows," i really feel like we needed more than the death of. and i know it's not that simple on paper and that there are huge implications for roshar and the cosmere, but not nearly enough characters we were made to care about felt, and ended up being, at risk. adolin's chapters were the only ones i ever felt the full sense of the war and actually feared for his life. and yes i'm sad about who we lost, but even that didn't hit nearly hard enough? like i sobbed my heart out when teft died in row, and barely even sniffed here. i just keep comparing this to hero of ages, which i felt like achieved so much more and devastated me in half the page count and with characters who i cared about half as much
the dialogue here, especially with the discussions on mental health, was also very weak. not that the previous books were exceedingly subtle, but this one had the subtlety of a sledgehammer. so many emotional revelations were delivered in a monologue and there was just no nuance whatsoever to the conversations. this stopped me from fully immersing myself, and from experiencing the book emotionally. i should have been, by all accounts, on the floor so many times- but the delivery was just so blunt and heavy-handed that i couldn’t get caught up in the moment like i would have loved to. this is also true with kaladin’s arc here- i love him with my entire soul but the therapist arc just did not work for me. i felt like i was reading a textbook more than experiencing an emotionally devastating journey like i have been for the past 4 books. not a single scene here even remotely touched the driving scenes in the previous book, which was super disappointing. whatever writing was used in the past with the dog and the dragon, or you cannot have my pain, or anyone’s swearing of ideals was nowhere to be found here
there’s another aspect to the lack of nuance that i’ve felt to a lesser extent with all of the stormlight books, but that was especially apparent here- a lot of the morality was very black and white. it’s either the big bad evil guy and his purely evil minions who we can kill because they’re evil, or anyone else who we can near-instantly forgive.
and this may be overly critical of me because what i have complained about is definitely not the case for every character, and i love dalinar (and really came to love szeth and his growth in this book), and i know this is, at it’s core, a story about redemption. and by and large i have loved that story and message. i guess what just killed it for me here was that no one, especially the heralds, had any consequences, and every sin is just instantly excused as long as the sinner isn’t, or doesn't stay, on odium’s side. i would be okay with the redemptions, but just needed it to be a little less immediate, and not so black and white
this was also so unfunny i’m not even gonna go into it but even for sanderson the jokes were rough. my beautiful angel pattern this does not include you i love you and everything you say is the funniest thing ever (hahaha)
half of my complaints come down to a mixture of coming in with such crazy expectations from the first 4 books and hero of ages, and the length of this one. if this was a different series and half the page time half these complaints wouldn't even register in my mind, but this isn't so i feel my points stand. we all laud sanderson for how fast he gets books out, but i think the secret projects, though i really enjoyed them (and LOVED sunlit man, which i cannot wait to reread after this), ended up making wind and truth suffer. i will, of course, be returning with full confidence and joy for book 6, and will spend the ten years until then praying sanderson gets a new editor and beta readers
starting off with what i loved- the fight scenes, as always, were beautiful here. szeth's sequences with the honorblade holders had stunning choreography, and adolin's in azir were so visceral and raw
Spoiler
(the moment when his peg slipped on the entrails of the other soldiers dying on the floor was so crazy)Spoiler
and hugalso, i take back the blanket statements i've given about sanderson & romance he’s 2 for 2 with interspecies gays!!
Spoiler
rlainarin having a chapter called the rhythm of longing like no exactly. and then renarin in the middle of the oathpack vision paying no attention and freaking out about rlain grabbing his shoulder god i love him. it wasn’t navaniel but tbh nothing could have topped that. (god i was praying for navani to interact with past raboniel in the visions though like why tf did dalinar get to kiss a singer and not navani brandon sanderson count your days). also shallan fujoing out when they got together… she’s just like me frthere were some pretty powerful scenes here too.
Spoiler
starting off with kal's goodbyes to bridge 4 and his family... god. when lirin told him he loved him i almost killed myself. all the rosharian history reveals were great, todium destroying karbaranth had my jaw on the floor, and moash doing the fucking bridge 4 salute after killing one of them AGAIN. the foreshadowing with gav becoming the champion was a littleee too in my face, but i thought it added a nice layer of dread throughout the story. also, wtf shallan is pregnant??? oh, and i have a tiny feeling, since we never got a son of tanavast explanation, that kaladin is taking up honor in the latter half of the series once it matures.there was a lot that didn't work for me though. for one, this has, by far, the slowest and weakest beginning of any of the books in the series. it definitely picks up in the back half, but i don't think it picked up quite enough. i also think for it's bulk i deserved more consistent quality throughout. it's easy to say oh yeah the first half is kinda rough but for a 1330 page book, that's 665 pages we're talking about
my main issue is that, for the first act climax, this felt very anticlimactic. i think a large contributor to this is that the stakes didn’t feel nearly high enough. for a "night of sorrows," i really feel like we needed more than the death of
Spoiler
one character (who pretty much everyone felt going in was going to die)the dialogue here, especially with the discussions on mental health, was also very weak. not that the previous books were exceedingly subtle, but this one had the subtlety of a sledgehammer. so many emotional revelations were delivered in a monologue and there was just no nuance whatsoever to the conversations. this stopped me from fully immersing myself, and from experiencing the book emotionally. i should have been, by all accounts, on the floor so many times-
Spoiler
at the very least when kal swore the fifth ideal and when dalinar took up (and let go) of honor,there’s another aspect to the lack of nuance that i’ve felt to a lesser extent with all of the stormlight books, but that was especially apparent here- a lot of the morality was very black and white. it’s either the big bad evil guy and his purely evil minions who we can kill because they’re evil, or anyone else who we can near-instantly forgive.
Spoiler
i haaate to be a moash defender (and i will never forgive him for teft), but with him he killed like 4 people and everyone agrees he’s the worst and should get killed but with the heralds it was well they had a long and sad life so it’s fine i guess? nale has spent all this time killing all the radiants and, most recently, supporting odium, ishar has been killing spren by physically manifesting them and controlling/enslaving shinovar and it’s just like damn that was bad ok anyways therapy time. i felt this with elhokar too like he was a horrible king and, even ignoring the whole roshone thing, got a lot of innocent darkeyes killed, let the highprinces have slaves and use them in bridge runs, etc. but he was sad about not being a good king so it’s okay i guess? it’s emphasized in this book that dalinar forcing elhokar out of power is somehow a worse sin than letting him rule, but is it, really? dalinar’s also a huge culprit of this- he gets mad at adolin for killing sadeas but gets zero consequences for pretty much anything he’s done or does. the converse is true for pretty much all listeners too- their past pain of enslavement was severely dumbed down, and the perpetrators get barely a slap on the wrist.and this may be overly critical of me because what i have complained about is definitely not the case for every character, and i love dalinar (and really came to love szeth and his growth in this book), and i know this is, at it’s core, a story about redemption. and by and large i have loved that story and message. i guess what just killed it for me here was that no one, especially the heralds, had any consequences, and every sin is just instantly excused as long as the sinner isn’t, or doesn't stay, on odium’s side. i would be okay with the redemptions, but just needed it to be a little less immediate, and not so black and white
this was also so unfunny i’m not even gonna go into it but even for sanderson the jokes were rough. my beautiful angel pattern this does not include you i love you and everything you say is the funniest thing ever (hahaha)
half of my complaints come down to a mixture of coming in with such crazy expectations from the first 4 books and hero of ages, and the length of this one. if this was a different series and half the page time half these complaints wouldn't even register in my mind, but this isn't so i feel my points stand. we all laud sanderson for how fast he gets books out, but i think the secret projects, though i really enjoyed them (and LOVED sunlit man, which i cannot wait to reread after this), ended up making wind and truth suffer. i will, of course, be returning with full confidence and joy for book 6, and will spend the ten years until then praying sanderson gets a new editor and beta readers