Brandon Sanderson: Wind and Truth (2024, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)
English language
Published 2024 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.
I guess I had been looking forward to the end of this first arc so much that I felt a little bit disappointed—although I can't really pinpoint what was missing. It definitely didn’t hit the same spots as Words of Radiance. All that said, I did enjoy the read. Looking forward to the next books :)
Couldn’t put down! Had a hard time with all of the Cosmere connections while avoiding the Coppermind wiki because of spoilers (pretty much every page had a warning). Can’t wait for the send half!
A long but sadisfying end to an arc. Really enjoyed the book had a hard time stopping.
This one took a while, but ~1400 pages take a while, especially if you need to look up some of the past books information to remember the details. The epic saga continues and while a lot is explained, even more questions remain open.
Let's see where books 6-10 will leave us in the end. The good thing with Sanderson is that I absolutely believe he will finish the work.
Apparently Brandon Sanderson decided that filling the last 300 pages with a complex and desperate fight in the previous books was not enough. This time the complex and desperate fight fills the last 1100 pages. It takes place on multiple fronts too.
Sadly, these fronts interact little with each other. You could technically separate each location into its own book and read the stories that way. They still lend "dramatic" support to each other I guess. But it makes it natural to review each place separately!
Adolin: Cool action, cool characters, very satisfying conclusion. Everyone's favorite. ★★★★★
Kaladin, Syl, and Szeth: A road trip with chatting and fighting. It's an important story for the world, but it's not that interesting. What is super interesting and very well presented is Szeth's flashbacks. I thought for sure Szeth was irredeemable! And then Brandon Sanderson pulls this. Szeth is the best. ★★★★★
Dalinar …
Apparently Brandon Sanderson decided that filling the last 300 pages with a complex and desperate fight in the previous books was not enough. This time the complex and desperate fight fills the last 1100 pages. It takes place on multiple fronts too.
Sadly, these fronts interact little with each other. You could technically separate each location into its own book and read the stories that way. They still lend "dramatic" support to each other I guess. But it makes it natural to review each place separately!
Adolin: Cool action, cool characters, very satisfying conclusion. Everyone's favorite. ★★★★★
Kaladin, Syl, and Szeth: A road trip with chatting and fighting. It's an important story for the world, but it's not that interesting. What is super interesting and very well presented is Szeth's flashbacks. I thought for sure Szeth was irredeemable! And then Brandon Sanderson pulls this. Szeth is the best. ★★★★★
Dalinar and Navani: This is like an infodump. Just directly telling us what happened. Just absolutely pulling the veil from everything. But Sanderson had a few ideas to spice it up! We're in the spiritual realm. We don't know who is who. We have secondary objectives. (Get next anchor. Keep together.) Assassins! Wrathful gods! The best infodump ever! The info itself that is revealed is also perfect. Direct answers to everything we wanted to know, but so many new questions! What's that about Taln trying to kill Cultivation??? The conclusion for Dalinar is unexpected, but I trust Sanderson with it. UNITE THEM! ★★★★★
Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain: Not actually separate from Dalinar's story, but deserves a separate mention. Sneaking around in the spiritual realm is some next level spy thriller. I love how they track down Ba-Ado-Mishram's prison, and the whole Ba-Ado-Mishram story is so cool. Renarin and Rlain are perfect for this job, and everyone gets an exciting conclusion. ★★★★★
Sigzil and Venli: Some nice character building, nice action, nice conclusions. ★★★★☆
Jasnah: So interesting. We haven't spent much time with Jasnah before, and she's just this perfect scholar and general for us because everyone sees her like that. And she sees herself like that. I'm afraid the most important person does not see her like that: Brandon Sanderson. Sorry, Jasnah! ★★★★☆
Interludes: Tanavast's interludes were (intentionally) pretentious and sparing with revelations. But some interludes were very cool, like Rysn or the Iriali. ★★★★★
Just freeze me until the next book please!
This is the ending of the first arc of The Stormlight Archive and it is quite an impressive book. It's very long, and the plot does suffer a bit in the middle parts, but the setting and characters are well established so I felt drawn to it all the way. Overall, it was a great book and a fitting conclusion to this arc. I really want to know what happens next, but suspect it may be several years before we return to Roshar.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/12/book-review-wind-and-truth-by-brandon.html
This is the ending of the first arc of The Stormlight Archive and it is quite an impressive book. It's very long, and the plot does suffer a bit in the middle parts, but the setting and characters are well established so I felt drawn to it all the way. Overall, it was a great book and a fitting conclusion to this arc. I really want to know what happens next, but suspect it may be several years before we return to Roshar.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2024/12/book-review-wind-and-truth-by-brandon.html
Content warning Plot spoilers, also for The Sunlit Man
Kaladin's fifth ideal made me chuckle, as did his realization that Hoid/Wit had kinda been his therapist this whole time. I felt bad for Jasnah, I wish we had gotten more time with her through these first five books. I was pleased with how well the author did this part of Sigzil's transition to becoming The Sunlit Man.
Some of the dialogue felt moralizing and pretty heavy-handed. Not anything I disagreed with, I've found many of his characters' struggles throughout the series very relatable, just felt like the author treated his characters like sock puppets more in this book than previous ones.
Content warning Plot spoilers
A good ending to this arc of the Stormlight Archive. In classic Sanderson fashion, the end of the book moves at a million miles per hour, is amazing, and leaves you hyped for the next book in the Cosmere.
Some great character development from Szeth, Kaladin, and especially Renarin. Plenty of Cosmere-awareness thanks to Hoid. I love Sandersons effort to write authentic representations of characters struggling with mental health. There were a few very emotional moments in the Hoid -> Kaladin -> Szeth therapy arc which I adored.
I couldn't help the feeling that the book was just too long. I felt like Sando had so many characters to follow, and so many threads (some of which I'm not sure matter at the moment?) that it did feel less of a cohesive story and more a compilation of shorter stories woven together. I don't think I enjoyed that too much, but when they came together at the end it was great.
Dalinar is one of my favourite characters, and I was shattered by his choice at the end and what it did to Honor and the Stormfather. I'm glad he's still about, but there's no way he'll be the same. I don't think anything will top him opening Honor's perpendicularity in the last book, but this was close.
Disappointed with Jasnah - one of my other favourites - I think this book terribly underserved her, unless it's being set up to be "just as plannedTM" - there must be more to it. The debate with Odium seemed mishandled.
I think it's always going to be hard to connect the worlds of the Cosmere together so that the future books exist in the same time/space so I'll forgive any awkwardness that might be due to that.
Sanderson still blows my mind with the scope of what he's achieving with the Cosmere. Any criticism I have pales in comparison to the epic scale of this story.
“Welcome, Kaladin Stormblessed. Herald of Kings. Herald of the Wind. Herald of…” “Herald,” Kaladin said, “of Second Chances.”
It's definitely going to be a different world on roshar after this. But Dalinar was left with so few options; not sure what I'd have done in his situation.
Wow. At about the 75% mark, I told myself "if Brandon sticks this landing, this will be my favorite Cosmere book". He absolutely did.
