IntentAwesome

I can’t believe they are letting him change the release date to the weekend. That’s a huge break with industry standard! But I’m so excited to see it happening. I hate getting books I’m excited about on Tuesdays.

Wild, unsubstantiated theory: Dalinar will lose the battle of champions and thereby become a slave to Odium, but in order to not have the remnants of Honor/Stormfather also enslaved, Dalinar will somehow transfer the bond to Kaladin at the last minute. And then we get to watch Kaladin/Syl/Stormfather shenanigans.

I joined this thread late and reading the beginning of this thread when everybody was saying “oh no, Brandon is sad and tired and behind on writing,” after knowing what had happened was some truly great entertainment. so, thanks for that!

So, will the entirety of book five take place within ten days? The contest of champions will be in ten days. The epigraphs of part 5 are written by El on the first of the Final Ten Days. In a recent live stream, Brandon said that something he did in Rhythm of War would be a headache for himself and Karen. The mosT obvious headache would be squeezing 1200 pages of plot into just 10 days.

I appreciate Lirin’s character and development, and I do love that Sanderson is really diving into the father/son relationship. In the end, he showed progress and some capacity to understand a perspective other than his own. But being willing to just hand your son over for execution?! And Hesina! She seemed so passive about her defense of Kaladin. She did not stand up for in that moment when her husband is suggesting they just let him die?!? She eventually got through to Lirin, but it just seemed like Kaladin deserved better from both his parents.

Oh boy! Did Rock just become our newest worldhopper?!? And what's up the red/yellow light in Kaladin's eyes? RIP Wit's memories. But wait! A certain ancient flute has made a reappearance! Could this somehow be used to restore Wit's memories? And I've been waiting and waiting for the carved horse to reappear, I really loved that detail. For a minute, I thought I wasn't going to end up liking RoW. I actually took a break at the end of part 4, which I've never done with a Stormlight book, but Brandon pulled off an amazing conclusion that was satisfying. Overall, I agree with some of the challenges reviewers had mentioned. I struggled to be really invested in the new Singer characters; in fact, I'm not sure Venli contributed to the story at all, other than as an observer as someone already mentioned. I didn't much care about the flashbacks (except the beautiful scene with Eshonai/Stormfather at the end, really well done). At the same time, the the other arcs felt rushed, almost trivialized. The campaign in Emul was literally just to keep Dalinar out of the picture and didn't serve an overall purpose. I enjoyed Adolin's story, but it felt so rushed that the big reveal didn't quite land for me. And I personally struggle with these types of isolation plots. My favorite aspects of a story are always character interactions and seeing them work together to solve problems, so I don't enjoy seeing characters isolated and unable to work together as much. I think it was written quite well, just not my thing. On the other hand, there were some moments of truly great writing. I was impressed that I could feel the difference in Pattern's relationship with The Three, and even the subtle distance he put between Shallan/Pattern to create the tension and eventual question about Pattern's loyalty. The conclusion to Kaladin's arc was amazing. (And could one of the amazing artists of the fandom please create the scene of Kaladin rescuing Lirin? Pretty, pretty, pretty please?Absolutely gorgeous imagery.) The Dog and Dragon story was delightful. (And was Kaladin in Braize??? Poor guy.) TL;DR: I can't say I loved every aspect of RoW, but it sure was a wild ride!

Do books come out on Tuesdays?!? Its supposed to be a stormy weekend and all I want to do is curl up with Rhythm of War. But no, it comes out on Tuesday when I have to do adult things like work.

Oh. Oh no. Eating with a shardfork really didn’t go well. On the other hand, great tool for assassination. RIP.

I haven’t read all the theories posted, but I’m adding some of mine. They are probably not original, but here they are: 1. Nothing new here: Adolin will revive Maya, which will allow Team Dalinar to revive more shardblades and reassure spren to continue bonding, possibly changing the momentum of the war. 2. From the Spanish blurb posted awhile ago, 3. I disagree with theories that the Mink is a traitor. For plot purposes, it seems awfully convenient that another skilled general has entered the story at a time when Dalinar will be away from the tower during an attack. As much as I love Kal and Navani, neither are military tacticians. Team Radiant is going to need a general to get them out of this mess. 4. From Dawnshard, 5. I have a hard time believing that they will fail to revive the tower after 2 whole books, which means they will likely save Urithiru from the enemy. But Team Radiant probably needs a major loss somewhere in the penultimate book. That likely means that Dalinar will fail in his offensive. 6. The common cold has become a pandemic on Roshar, or Raboniel is going to release some new biological weapon, because 2020. oh! And, Navani’s opponent is probably someone from the Vriztl Guild in Thaylenah because that name drop wasn’t coincidence.

Ummm. Am I looking at a different image than everybody else? Pailiah is clearly wearing a glove on her left hand.

And has Nightblood indicated to Szeth or whoever is currently holding him that he knows and has history with Zahel?

Oh yeah! I forgot about that project. So ARCs arrived at the end of September last time around. I wonder if they are on a similar timeline.

Does anyone remember when we get the back cover blurb? Especially the bit that’s usually written by a Sleepless?

I am not an artist, but visually I think the white hair blends well with the white details in his uniform and the white clouds. I think using a more natural blonde would likely clash with the color schematic.

Yes, I agree about Venli’s role. We have already seen her start to teach about the Listeners. But they will need someone on the human side they trust and respect.