Hello fellow Sanderfans! 

When Oathbringer released I tried liveblogging my reactions (link to Google Docs), and found that it greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book. Since then I’ve liveblogged a few other books with similar results, including one other Sanderson work (Starsight). I’m eager to do the same thing now with Rhythm of War, and this week the first preview chapters arrived on Tor.com. 

In contrast to Oathbringer and Words of Radiance, I have kept myself unspoiled from all pre-release material so far, so everything will be fresh. In addition, I’ve been absent from the fandom for about 18 months, so I am woefully out of date on theories and current WoB. I expect to be hilariously wrong about a number of things as we go.

I will also say that I'm going to try to slow down and take my time. I tend to binge read, finishing books quickly by pushing everything else to the side for an endless stream of "just one more chapter." One of the ways that live blogging helps to enhance my experience of the book is it forces me to slow down and actually appreciate what I'm reading instead of immediately moving on to the next scene. It lets the foreshadowing actually set in before the foreshadowed event takes place, for example. There are other factors, of course, but this is the one that impacts you as someone following along. Don't expect me to finish the book in the first week or even month. I'm planning to take even more time on Rhythm of War than I have for previous live blogs. This shouldn't matter a great deal, but I think it's important to set your expectations appropriately.

With that out of the way, let’s get started! 

Note1: This liveblog is being composed chapter by chapter in a Google Doc. This will be a rough commentary, and errors will probably crop up frequently. I will go back and edit for clarity, but please be patient.  Feedback is welcome, but grammatical corrections are  probably unnecessary unless they are egregious.

Note2: This is my first time using the blog feature on 17S, so I'm not sure how the organization will work. My current plan is to create an index at the bottom, spoilered if it gets too large. If something else becomes necessary, I'll try to adjust.

INDEX:

Cover and Prologue; Back Cover

Internal Art: Herald Portraits part I and part II; Maps: Shadesmar and Emul (see ch 46); Navani's Notebook part I, part II, part III, part IV; Shallan's Sketchbook part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V, part VI, part VII, part VIII; Fashion Folios, Alethi Glyphs

Book I: Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Interludes: I-1, I-2, I-3

Book II: Chapter 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43

Interludes: I-4, I-5, I-6

Book III: Chapter 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72

Interludes: I-7, I-8, I-9

Book IV: Chapter 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97

Interludes: I-10, I-11, I-12

Book V: Chapter 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117

Epilogue

Ars Arcana