Harbour

I just finished rereading SA, and i came to realization through the analyze of my feels and thoughts, that i dont enjoy Sanderson sanderlanches as much as i thought i did. What i enjoy the most in SA are the highlight moments (like Kaladin jumping on arena to help Adolin), AND, MASSIVELY, OVERWHELMINGLY, the slow plot. WoK is the only book where i IMMENSELLY enjoyed the sanderlanche. I think the core my enjoyement based off was the fact that Culmination wasnt the battle itself or Sadeas betrayal, or else, but Kaladin deciding to help lighteyes, and Dalinar freeing them in excange for the shardblade. The way story was told, this culmination felt deeply satusfying and delivering the awe. Meanwhile the daily life and struggles and mini victories of Bridge 4 were the bread and butter for me. The character dynamics and twists were written extremely well and thoughtfull. WoR and Oathbringer were very much the same. Sanderlanches there felt very chaotic, the constant changes of PoV harmed the experience. But also the very essence of the lances there were pretty simple and shallow. None of Shallan scene there resonated with me, and even Kaladin scenes were Culminated in him fighting and beating the BAD GUY. And while Kaladin vs Szeth started off epically, it boiled down to Dragonball Z fight in the sky, that didnt feel that much epic. In the very end it felt just like beating some mini-boss in the RPG, not less, not more. Meanwhile the daily life and struggles of Kaladin and Shallan were extremely fun to read. Both felt, again, full of soul and written brilliantly. I could have read 200 more pages of Kaladin captaining as Kholins' bodyguard. I could have read 200 more pages of protagonist trio infiltrating the capital city. Same with RoW, except for i didnt enjoy both components here in the same degree as in previous books.

Kaladin figuring out things, then dealing with them in like not a violent way is way more interesting character than Kaladin-the killing machine. Him deciding to find the lost guy, bossing ardents around and setting upo therapy courses was way more fun and interesting to read about than him killing Parshendi #204353. I looked back at previous books and confirmed that - Kaladin making the life of Bridge 4 better in TWoK, Kaladin organizing Kholin's guard in WoR and Kaladin finding out who Azure is while befriending Kholinar's soldiers in OB were the most interesting parts about Kaladin's PoV. Id prefer Brandon to shift Kaladin's focus from active battles to mental health clinic set up and ambassadory things.

Its hard to distinguish unpopular opinion from criticism. Are majority of readers fine with Teft not leaving Urithiru, then being unconscious for majority of the book, then getting killed, while also being used as the only major reason for Kaladin to be a Spider-Men for like 500-600 pages? If yes, then im not okay with this. Feels like a lazy way to make Kaladin do his plot stuff in the way Brandon wanted him to be. He effectively turned Teft into just a plot device.

Probably will get a lot of flak for it, but hey, to me it really felt like that: Part 1 of RoW is like an amazing 10/10 free trial for the overall 7/10 game.

1. Im a non-cosmere SA reader who is aware of it and find myself pretty seasoned fantasy reader. Remember when Brandon said he is aware of the problem of how to bring Cosmere tidbits into SA without making it feel confusing and feel like you read just a part of multiverse and not complete book? I think Brandon tried to make it feel good but he failed pretty hard here. I dont like any of Cosmere tidbits except for Prologue one, how they feel alien to the world in a bad way, how they shift the focus away from more immersive story parts. I like some mystery otherwordly stuff, but only if its actually feels treated as something mysterious and otherwordly (like hints on interplanetary stuff in Malazan). With Brandon's method of explaining a lot of stuff it didnt feel mysterious enough nor like something truly importan for the plot. It actually felt like clog in the drain while reading. I dont try to exaggerate things, its not a major flaw but its still feel heavy handedly managed by Brandon. 2. I feel like Leshwi stuff being relegated to Venli with some extra work on Brandon's part would work way better. None of two had enough presence on their own, but Venli having some more focused drive for Kaladin would feel more fascinating and active character. While being Urithiru Venli had that weird minor push to Kaladin, and it went pretty much nowhere. It'd be way more fun to read if Brandon let them two interact more. 3. People have already pointed out but seriously - Shallan killed her spren IS the big reveal? Part 1 made way too hard emphasis on last Shallan secret being BIG and set up unrealistic expectations. People had all these "Shallan IS someone/something X" theories while Part 1 was on going for a good reason. Killing spren didnt feel like something as bad and influential as killing parents to me.

Not a fan of the "Kaladin kills Parshendi, risking everyones lifes, and Venli/Leswhi helps him occasionally" plot. At this stage of character development it would be more fitting for Kaladin to step down and build up resistance from the inside. I think Brandon intentionally made him step back twice for convenience and i dont like it.

Have a gut feeling, Kaladin and Kelsier are gonna meet in the future, maybe even fight.

Yes, i had the same feeling. Overall the structure of Part 5 felt very weird: it was splash of culmination in Urithiru with Kaladin and Navani, and i was like "Okay, thats it, cool, they defeated their enemies, time for epilogue", and then the book just went on and on for like many more chapters, where majority of Book 5 set up happened, but in a very calm and quiet way. I felt like the set up lost its momentum. Stuff that happened with Dalinar and Ishar, Dalinar and Odium, Odium and Mr T, Mr T and Cultivation, Mr T and Hoid didnt emotionally moved me after the storm of Kaladin and Navani chapters calmed down. I think it would be better if all that "downer" stuff happened during or before Kaladin/Navani chapters so the feeling of desperation was more powerfull and we felt like all characters are in actually grave danger. Instead i felt like the ending was pretty bright for everyone, with Kaladin chilling in his new armor and Navani being new Bondsmith. Maybe thats because im not into all that Cosmere stuff and cant grasp all the importance of Mr T scenes, but thats it. now, on unrelated topic, during re-read, i think i can flesh out the problem with promises/pay off i mentioned in first reaction. -Kaladin: promise of him starting his new mental health rehabilitation courses - > majority of book he spent crawling around Urithiru -> in the end BS remembered Kaladin's desire to start these courses. -Venli: promise of her moving towards independence - > majority of book she spent serving Raboniel and fullfilling the role of spectator - > in the end BS remembered Venli's desire to become independent. -Navani: promise of her dealing with insecurities - > majority of the book she spent mixing the Light - > by the end BS kind of made her more confident. -Raboniel: promise of deadly villain rival of Navani - > majority of the book she spent being actually pretty good and doing no evil - > end up being pretty nice woman. This was nice subversion i guess but then why even mention that she was absolute evil on few occasions? -Shallan and Adolin: promise of intriguing adventure with new cast of Radiants - > majority of the book the spent casually tripping, splitting and getting judged - > they completed their mission in a pretty convenient way. Not much interesting stuff about Shadesmar was revealed. -Parshendi: promise of the deeper look at their culture (Nine and gemstone plantation in Part 1, Raboniel and Lezien and Leshwi) - > majority of the book parshendi spent just being "there" in Urithiru affording no deepr look at their culture - > failed promise. I can see that other people may find the payoff worthy of promise. I personally felt all these payoffs were pretty underwhelming. Some of them more, some of them less. I wanted Kaladin to care about mentally ill during Part 3 and 4 instead of Spider-Menning around Urithiru and fighting. I wanted Venli to be more active as she was in Part 1. I wanted to see more about Leshwi and Raboniel than just sitting there and pretending to be bad guys while helping our heroes. I wanted Adolin and Shallan to earn their vctories with actual sweat and blood. I didnt get that in a degree i expected after Part 1. tldr Part 1 feels like a very good Ad to sell the book. Its way better than the rest of the book and promises a lot, which Parts 2-5 didnt deliver in a degree i expected by reading Part 1.

He didnt become Radiant nor revived her, but they became closer and Maya seems to somewhat synchronized with him. He is definitely closer to reviving her/becoming Radiant than in OB, but is not there yet (if ever will, obviously).

Well, after reading the whole book the first major thought in my head was "Now i can see where Daniel and Merphy came from in their reviews". Im not a cosmere fan, i didnt much care about other planets and stuff, i want solid character arcs and well rounded plot, with promises that would be paid off in the end. I watched many BS lectures and i feel like with RoW he made a certain amount of mistakes he talked about in his own lessons. Part 1 of RoW isnt the part to judge the whole boook by. It turned out to be the best part. Perfect pacing, a lot of character moments, perfect action/dialogue balance.Whats important - there were all major and secondary character interactions. It gave a sense of enjoyment, since these characters are the most lovable and close to heart, so see them interacting in a new situations was cool. Part 1 of RoW was the BEST Part 1 in any BS books. Its also one of the best parts in any BS books at all. Most of those strengths were lost in the following Parts. Character split in different groups and none of their plot lines reached the same level of goodiness. New episodic characters werent as fleshed out or relevant enough to stand out, except for Raboniel. Overall the most plot lines didnt live up to BS high standards of TWoK or WoK or even OB. There are certain problems with pacing, a lot of stuff felt meaningless (like, you spent certain amount of time building the group for Shadesmar expedition and fleshing out new character, and then you just split the group in the end of Part 2?), and character arcs werent as well built and solid as in previous books. I think Part 2 was my second favorite part, because Shadesmar part stiill contained alot of characters, including new ones, which gave some freshness, and Kaladin plot line went into interesting direction (him starting to working with people who had mentall health problems). Thats what i loved the most about Kaladin plot line, and, sadly, when Brandon just made him crawl around Urithiru for 800 pages, it felt like a massive dissapointment after what was "promised". The only part that didnt feel fillerish or staggering (Dalinar/Jasnah or Shallan/Adolin trial or Kaladin Spider-Menning around Urithiru for 600 pages), was Navani/Raboniel. And while i also wasnt totally satisfied by it (In my opinion, this arc could have been trimmed down a lot), this was the best part of the book. Thats how you write the relationships of two female characters without going into shipping stuff or making them annoying. This is the only arc in this book that felt organic and done right. Id reread it for certain. I also must say that i enjoyed Kaladin arc up till he ran away after killing singer. Overall i noticed that i much more enjoyed Kaladin character when he DOESNT fight and does other stuff instead. Like, doing business. I loved it in TWoK when he cared about making B4 life more comfortable, i loved it in WoR when he organised the bodyguard stuff around Kholins, i loved it in OB, when he organised the defense of Kholinar and solved the mystery of Azure, i loved it in RoW, when he bickered with ardent, created tests for people and asked people with mental health problems to talk in a round sessions. That was awesome. Thats why the way BS scrapped it by making Kaladin kill that singer just to carry Teft around and waling around Urithiru, casually fighting and lying wounded for the rest of the book, left the sour taste in my mouth. I saw all of that in previous books. I know that Kaladin wont leave his friends in danger, but the hook for that (Teft) felt way too forced. Kaladin i know would remember that he had other friends and family around and would step away. Instead it felt like BS had no other choice to move the plot than making Kaladin crawling around Urithiru. It was executed bad. Id rather prefer Lift to have that role, while Kaladin continue to carry about mentally ill patients and slowly gain the trust of Venli or Leswhi. By the way, i didnt mention Venli. Because it turned out she isnt the main character in this book whatever BS would say about that. Venli here has the role of spectator, and a tool to sometimes save Kaladin's ass. And thats it. Would be way more cool and interesting for her to meet Kaladin in Part 2 or 3, talk to him, slowly understand each other and so on? Absolutely. Instead they didnt even talk to each other while BS clearly wanted to make them meet, since he constantly tip toed around making Venli hearing about Kaladin, making Venli help his family, making Venli saw him fighting Lezien. It felt weird. Same about Leshwi. I expect her to have bigger role in the book after Part 1. Turned out she had mere presence in the rest of the book and became the tool to save Kaladin couple times. I also think that Cosmere parts dropped didnt do much to me. They felt either random to me or not having much to do with actual plot. Forgot to mention Shalln/Adolin arc. Nothing surprising here. Felt pretty convenient and i expected more than just Shallan killing her spren in the childhood. Thats it. As for Sanderlanch - it was too short and too chaotic. The set up for Book 5 was pretty confusing. Dalinar and Odium making the bet? Duel of champions in just 10 day? Kaladin to heal Ishar's mind? Honestly, this made me less hyped about Book. Thats not the direction i would like the whole series go too. Its personal opinion obviously. Now, i didnt hate the Book. In my inner value-meter it is 7/10 book. Its just i totally expected Parts 2 to 5 be as great as Part 1. This book is my least favorite, not as enjoyable to me in terms of plot and character arcs as previous three but still filled with the stuff to love. Its BS still. But i say this - i think BS should spend more time fleshing out Book 5 instead of writing other projects. Because i feel like him splitting his time for other projects was the main reason RoW plot and character arcs werent crafted as good as previous books ones. I feel like with RoW he trapped into WoT middle books territory. And i want Book 5 to be better than that. p.s. yeah i know i sound very sour. Thats how i feel. Reading Kaladin chapters in Part 3 to 5 made me more and more sour. Maybe on reread it will feel better. I hope.

Not judging Brandon's choices, but at some point (especially in OB) mental health stuff in the books really started to mess not only with Kaladin and Shallan characters but with my enjoyment from reading it. Its cool and all that he decided to deal with such a hard themes, and he does good job with its depiction, yet my enjoymenet from reading unending cycles of Kaladin depression started to fade away. At certain points mentall health problems started to overshadow their personalities. Which is, i guess, realistic, but again, isnt good for reading experience (at least, to me, because i know there are people who value this kind of stuff and it really greatly helped them, which is blessing). Im talking purely from enjoyment/entertainment angle here. Because while the fantasy book better have some good messages, morality and help people, they are also ment to be entertaining and bring enjoyment. Like to me Shallan's fragmentation didnt feel interesting to read at all and i think her split made her personalities equally weak. Cool nod at reality but not fun to read about. I still question was it the right choice to bring this type of problems from begin with in the context of entertainment and satisfaction from reading fantasy series. He could have stop with personality flaws Kaladin and Shallan have already had without mental health problems, like, Kaladin overly judgemental nature, hot headness and stubbornes, which he could have kind fight and fix over the course of events, and Shallan learning how to trust people and herself. Something like that. In a sense, the fight against depression is infinite cycle and fight with the shadow and i dont know if its even should take place in the fantasy books as the major flaw for protagonist. Basic rules of hero arcs dictate that he must have come through full cycle and become better and succeed in the end, but depression, which is the large part of Kaladin, will never fade away, leaving the feel of failure in the end. Which in its turn hurt the feeling of satisfaction after hero succeeded in the very end. In the end i trust Brandon that he will make me totally cheering for Kaladin in the end of Book 5 and leave to be completely satisfied with the end of his character arc and destination, even if he will still have the same waves of dark grim depression till he die from old age.

Well, Book 5 prologue will be the Gavilar's PoV and i will eat my hat if it isnt something truly mindblowing. Brandon built it up through all previous prologues. It would be weird if after 4 prologues devoted to Gavilar's death there wont be something extremely important in his own PoV prologue.

I doubt Odium will be defeated in Book 5. In RoW we see only the build up towards the big battles and to end it in Book 5 with total defeat of Fused and Odium seems kind of underwhelming to me. My personal theory is that Gavilar will return in the end of RoW as a cliffhanger, turning out to be the Odium ally and big bad of front 5 books. He is the central figure of the prologues, i doubt Brandon chose him as this figure just to lead it into nothing mindblowing or twisting. Then we will see Book 5 Prologue where we will find out what exactly Gavilar planned to do before being "killed". Then he will be defeated in the end of Book 5, closing front 5 Books prologue chain. Back 5 will have a new prologue chain, connecting to past of Heralds, and be more connected to the Odium. Odium would be big bad of back 5 books and be defeated by Jasnah, Taln and Co. Something like that.

I think Kaladin firmly being into good guys camp in the beginning of the 4th book out of 5 total more or less solidify his "good guy" status. Its too late to make him bad guy without making it look like a "WTF" moment. He may side with Singers but surely not in expense of the lives of Dalinar, Shallan, Adolin, Bridge 4, many others good Alethi. I cant seem him killing humans he knows or battling them. His whole concept is the soldier who values the lives of people before anything else. Even if he will side with Venli group (and i feel its in the range of possibility by the end of RoW) he wont be an Odium's champion. He will try to unify Singers and Humans regardless of what camp he belongs to and that goes against Odium's goals.

I pray he will continue to go around Urithiru asking for advices from people that can beat the crem out of him, so eventually this will bring him to Jasnah and she will just plainly tell him to chull off her cabinet.

Well, Chapter 15 made me even more firmly believe Gavilar is going back.

I can see now how in the end of Book 5 they will imprison all "bad" singers and fused inside Urithiru. Great theory.

Soon, in all kindles...

I can easily see it to be Renarin. Their powers are fun to explore, they both are teens and scholar. That can be interesting to see.

Chapter 14 in a nutshell.

Read all Shallan chapters in WoR with Sebarial while simultaneously thinking he is Thaidakar. That would be mind blowing. I like this theory.

5 POVs: Kal, Shal, Nav, Ven, Lir. Well, what we had before. Kaladin chapter. Then Venli chapter with unofficial new book start and cliffhanger. Then Kaladin (with Shallan non-PoV). Next chapter must be Venli or Lirin or Navani or Shallan. Venli? Probably too early since it seems that Brandon want to savor on this sweet cliffhanger. Shallan? It seems like she may have not that much to do untill Shadesmar trip and Ghostblood deal. Lirin? He may provide some insight on what will Kaladin do. Navani? I doubt she may get the whole chapter devoted to her deal with fabrials and pen pal. Conclusion: next chapter will have Shallan PoV or Lirin/Navani PoVs combination.

I makes not much sense for Brandon to kill him given the certain direction with "Maya revival". And after Maya revival it also makes little sense to kill him. My bet is not this book. Maybe Book 5 or any of back 5 books or never. I also think its Dalinar who will die and Adolin will have to learn how to fit into father's boots. Thats where his arc will actually kick start.

Kaladin seems like on a stage before the one Shallan on. Wishing to slide into "nothinghappenedness". Its pretty baffling to me that in so many cases pretty shrewd, Kaladin is so clueless about Shallan problem. I mean, is it that hard to realize Shallan using other personas to cope with pain is bad idea? Maybe in the end Shallan will scream at him something like "Dont try to cope, dont try to be like me, just accept the pain and move on". This advice, though, is the cure for both of them.

I think there is clear message to Kaladin and it may be instrumental in him getting over his big sadness.