It's fine. I still love the story, the world, and the characters. I felt it lacked the momentum of the previous books.


We're just stuck in Urithiru for the whole book. Kaladin gets the usual treatment: suffer physically and mentally, then BOOM becomes a superhero at the end. While this kind of happened before, it's almost comical here.

Shallan was okay, and Shadesmar felt more interesting than last time. Though why disavow the Ghostbloods instead of double-crossing them?

Adolin's story was super awesome! Twists, fights, heroism, compassion, and huge plot progress! The best.

Navani and Raboniel were a good pair. The fabrial trickery was great and I would not have minded more of it. There was a lot of exposition along this storyline, but it's a bit dry. I care about tones of Roshar and hybrid lights, but not "edge of my seat"-care.

Venli's backstory was okay and revealed a few things. I still love how Gavilar's assassination is coming together. The conflicting motivations and all that. I didn't feel like the story had any strong moments, but I still appreciate the character development. How ambition drives her to betrayal then to the realization that she was used and as a result she is now disillusioned in ambition itself.

Dalinar wants to train as a bondsmith, but then doesn't. That resonates with my life experiences! Still it's not the best story. The revelation from Ishar is mind bending, but it would have been so much better to put it at the start and then investigate throughout the book!

Taravangian is super cool as always.


In the end I felt like the "Sanderson Avalanche" did not happen in this book. When Venli says "I know someone who could help" and goes to free Lift, I thought that was it! We're on! But then Kaladin just wakes up and goes, "what should we do? give up maybe? or just think this through a bit more?"