I enjoyed this more than I did the first time.

Part of the issue, I think, is that I get so caught up in watching for things to come I sometimes struggle with middle books in a trilogy.

Part of the issue, though, is definitely that this book made me feel kind of dumb.

Not in a...bad way, strictly speaking? I don't blame Sanderson for it at all--he did a good job somehow hiding things in absolute plain sight from me. Re-reading, I realize how well done it all is, and I see the final twist coming, because it is laid out early on.

I just missed it completely and I facepalmed so hard I actually spent about thirty minutes explaining what lead up to it and as much background as needed to explain the twist and why I didn't see it coming and should have to my father. It takes dedication to explain the plot of two books to someone who has never read them (or heard of them) in order to explain why a twist is good, so I probably should have given this more credit then. (Also huge kudos to my dad, who was willing to sit at the table with me with wine and Fireball during one of my visits and listen to me explain a whole fantasy universe to him to get to a single story twist.)

Things I loved, without spoilers:
a girl and her dog
politics and people too good for politics
someone actually handling the aftermath of a standard fantasy story
awkward people who love books too much
awkward people romancing
new characters to love
new characters to be conflicted about
some people to hate
prophecies

I am probably going to accidentally read all of the Cosmere books (again for most of them) after having finished Rhythm of War a few weeks ago, and I honestly don't regret it.