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A review by unsponsoredbookreviews
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
Finishing Rhythm of War concludes my year-long sojourn into the Cosmere. I am ostensibly now up-to-date barring a few smaller short stories, the Dawnshard novella, and the White Sands comics. It feels appropriate that after my long stay, Rhythm of War is the clear start of grander ambitions and more direct connections between Sanderson's disparate worlds throughout the Cosmere. The tantalizing little tidbits parceled out in each subsequent book have now been upgraded to more substantial and consequential fare that portends an unparalleled fantasy epic in the making.
To start to narrow down my broad declarations of the first paragraph, I want to dig in a bit to Rhythm of War itself. I want to start out by saying, I don't think it was Sanderson's best effort in the Stormlight series. As always, there is a lot to love about the attention to detail he imbues in each of his books. He has the ability to plot impeccably, he honestly may be one of the best in the business when it comes to pulling together the strands of an individual book into a satisfying endpoint without dropping a single one.
My biggest gripe is that Rhythm of War has major pacing issues though. It took me a long time to get through the first half of the book and in particular Act II. There was an unfortunate decision to leave and isolate certain Point of View characters for entire acts of the book and in Act II he managed to remove most of the levity from the series by ditching the entirety of Bridge 4 besides a clinically depressed Kaladin, Wit with his wit, Lift, Dalinar, and Jasnah. The end result was a dour slog that wasn't motivating me to read that extra chapter each night. Shallan's plot seemed especially weak in this section with her searching for a spy amongst her friends in Shadesmar for a multitude of chapters. Sanderson quickly course-corrected in Act III and eventually built into his standard thrilling finale, but I do think it is a fair criticism. The book overall felt like staging set for the end of the pentalogy disguised in a fantasy Die Hard thriller cover as Kaladin and Lift literally crawl through vents in Nakatom... I mean Urithiru.
The final thing I want to call out about Rhythm of War is that I appreciate Brandon Sanderson trying to be inclusive with his representation of characters. He has touched on and explored numerous topics that I think could be classified as rare within a large-scale fantasy series ranging from sexuality to depression and other mental health issues to the plight of marginalized peoples. It is exciting to see him evolve as a writer and incorporate unconventional topics into his work because they help enrich his texts greatly.
To start to narrow down my broad declarations of the first paragraph, I want to dig in a bit to Rhythm of War itself. I want to start out by saying, I don't think it was Sanderson's best effort in the Stormlight series. As always, there is a lot to love about the attention to detail he imbues in each of his books. He has the ability to plot impeccably, he honestly may be one of the best in the business when it comes to pulling together the strands of an individual book into a satisfying endpoint without dropping a single one.
My biggest gripe is that Rhythm of War has major pacing issues though. It took me a long time to get through the first half of the book and in particular Act II. There was an unfortunate decision to leave and isolate certain Point of View characters for entire acts of the book and in Act II he managed to remove most of the levity from the series by ditching the entirety of Bridge 4 besides a clinically depressed Kaladin, Wit with his wit, Lift, Dalinar, and Jasnah. The end result was a dour slog that wasn't motivating me to read that extra chapter each night. Shallan's plot seemed especially weak in this section with her searching for a spy amongst her friends in Shadesmar for a multitude of chapters. Sanderson quickly course-corrected in Act III and eventually built into his standard thrilling finale, but I do think it is a fair criticism. The book overall felt like staging set for the end of the pentalogy disguised in a fantasy Die Hard thriller cover as Kaladin and Lift literally crawl through vents in Nakatom... I mean Urithiru.
The final thing I want to call out about Rhythm of War is that I appreciate Brandon Sanderson trying to be inclusive with his representation of characters. He has touched on and explored numerous topics that I think could be classified as rare within a large-scale fantasy series ranging from sexuality to depression and other mental health issues to the plight of marginalized peoples. It is exciting to see him evolve as a writer and incorporate unconventional topics into his work because they help enrich his texts greatly.