This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. 
 

I discovered when reviewing my previous blog that the links I created at the time to the artwork hosted on Brandon’s site are now broken. Dragonsteel continues to host the artwork from the books, but I don’t have confidence in those addresses remaining static, so I’ll refrain from linking the official art and simply trust that you have a hard copy to reference or can find it online.

Cover Art
Another wonderful cover by Michael Whelan. 

The first thing that draws my eye are the gemstones. There are obviously more than 10 polestones arranged at the circumference of the platform. At least 15 are visible, with several possibly hidden behind the rocks. This suggests an arrangement of 20 but the colors are not necessarily going in the predicted sequence to match the double-eye arrangement. Yes, after checking it seems that the colors that occur more than once are accompanied by different neighbors at their two positions, so it is nothing so simple as an ordered sequence of the herald’s numerology. (I suspect no significance to the sequence depicted beyond aesthetics.) 

The next thing that draws the eye is the shining path of the sun reflected along the bottom of the Everstorm. This harks to the cloudy pathways observed in Shadesmar sky, and while probably just a visual parallel, it also is possible the Dalinar is opening a singularity at this point. The pink/red colored lightning of the Everstorm is visually striking (pun only slightly intended).

This is presumably taking place on top of the tower at Urithiru. If this is the case, that would necessitate artistic license as we know from book four that the storms never crest the top of the tower and if Dalinar is standing at the top of it then he would be looking down at the clouds rather than up. It could certainly be a separate location. The snowy peaks suggest the mountain range around the tower, and it seems unlikely that they would move to the Horneater Peaks. It's tempting to say it could also be the Misted Mountains east of Shinovar, given that people's reverence for bare rock. However, the rockbuds and related flora appearing in the foreground–especially across the spine of the book–make that seem very unlikely. 

The colors of the storm matching to the reflected sunlight across the snow and to the gems and rockbuds…it's beautiful. 

As for Dalinar himself, I think it's significant that he's holding a book in his hand. Could this be Nohadon’s Way of Kings? Dalinar’s own authored manuscript of Oathbringer? A separate book? Or perhaps the book’s presence is just artistic license? I do like that even when seen from behind, Dalinar’s age is shown off by the silver hair and the stance he takes. He's much less prominent in terms of size, or canvas real estate then Jasnah was in Oathbringer. I like the way that choice pushes the sense of scale to show the larger size of the problem he's confronting.

I do not fully love the prominence of the Kholin glyph on his back even though it's accurate and I'm usually a big fan of the in-world iconography and the textual systems. It just visually feels slightly distracting. That’s just a knee-jerk reaction, though, and I do appreciate the accuracy. On that note, though, I presume the shoulder patch is the bondsmith symbol, yes? Would Dalinar actually wear something like that? I guess I could see him making that choice. 

Well done, Michael Whelan! Overall this cover does an excellent job of tying all five stormlight books into a cohesive set. I will hope for the back five books to also benefit from this same artist, but if that’s not the case I’m happy with what the front five have received.

Rear cover copy
Ah yes, the sleepless. As a reminder, Brandon insisted that these back cover blurbs be actual in-world text rather than publisher hype, and this is one of the few windows we have into the machinations and viewpoint of the sleepless.

Opening line: “I wonder if we should have done more.” Obviously the answer is yes, because the sleepless have been extremely hands-off. Presumably they could have done a great deal more to influence events to this point, and with the benefit of an outside perspective and hindsight, it’s easy to think of key points that intervention could have made an important difference. However, we learned in Dawnshard that the importance of their mission certainly extends beyond the relatively provincial concerns of Roshar and the local planets. I can easily understand why their priorities would clash with intervening more directly. 

Wait. “We have what we wanted?” Since when were the sleepless pushing for the return of surgebinding? That's hardly the impression that I got from their earlier interactions. Wait a minute, I just realized that this individual is in places speaking personally with the pronoun “I” rather than “we”. All of the other back cover sections have been exclusively in the plural. So who is speaking here? We know at least one dissident has defected from the majority, and at least one is working with the Ghostbloods. This current individual says they “wished for the sword that humankind could be.” That feels closer to Odium’s words from the previous book, and it makes me wonder how the return of surgebinding might be an overlapping aim for multiple groups. I wonder whether the sleepless and the Sons of Honor share motivating goals to any degree. Ah and the next line directly brings up at least the first point: Odium and the sleepless may have been working towards same aim for competing reasons, or he may have manipulated them into seeking what he wants. Precog paranoia!

The “culmination of… preparation, posturing, and prayer.” I like that phrase, and it also makes me wonder what the role of prayer is in the sleepless existence. As native Rosharans, do they have loyalty to Cultivation? We know that they have memories reaching back to the shattering, and thus predating her. And of course their mission involves knowledge and reverence of a sort for Adonalsium. This isn’t a particularly important question, I’m just wondering to whom the sleepless were praying for millennia. 

Dalinar leading a “people who have forgotten their past” is presumably about humankind's departure from Ashyn, which suggests we may be getting more details in this book about Ishar and the exodus he led.

Dalinar is the “reimagined king” and apparently on a search for truth, prompted by Cultivation.
I'm not sure why Kaladin as the “reforged spear” would be the “hope of spren,” given the events that occurred in the High Integrity surrounding Adolin and Maya. That was clearly teasing the idea that nahel bonds may not be the preferred future of this symbiotic relationship. It may be oversimplifying for the purpose of the back cover, but I'm curious to see how that hope will be portrayed. The “reformed woman” is a loaded phrase to refer to Shallan, but the idea of her “prying into the corners of a god’s mind” makes me very excited for what she will be getting up to. I wonder if that's referring to the new Odium, or more likely one of the Unmade–especially Mishram, since she was the one in contact with Restares who requested her release. And Szeth being the “reborn assassin” makes me remember that this will be primarily his book. Between the flashbacks, the expedition to Shinovar, and all the rest, Szeth’s character growth will be in overdrive to achieve more self-determination and to both explore and come to peace with the Stone Shaman’s society. I wonder though whether the “once proud people” he’s holding at knifepoint is referring to his homeland, or perhaps to the Fused and their followers. 

And finally the sleepless have lost their precognition; the future is clouded. And most importantly, the power of Honor (presumably the Stormfather) has “begun to question.” That means that bondsmith interactions between Dalinar and his patron will be particularly fraught. 

I’m super excited, and very glad that the Brandon decided to place these cryptic in-world documents for us on the backs of the books.