My reviews (no spoilers) of all the Sanderson novels I've read.

[GroundPetrel]

Gonna be spilling some tea here.  So please keep in mind:

• A Sanderson 1-star is a Goodreads 4-star. 
• I actually like and have reread all of these books unless specifically noted otherwise. 

With those caveats, here we go:

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Elantris: Hrathen is the only protagonist who truly grows.  Sarene and Raoden are frankly already basically perfect and their plots are just Our Hero Brings Hope To The Hopeless and Our Heroine Fights Cartoon Misogyny, while Hrathen has inner turmoil and a more complex personality and a journey that's about him rather than just him doing something.  I'll be touching on this later, but Sanderson's political sensibilities were not very well developed, IMO, at this point in his career, and the political themes remind me unfavorably of the teenage version of me who read this book and decided I needed to read this guy's entire catalog, stat.  The magic system is pretty cool and the plot is well-paced, but on reread, I honestly kind of got bored of everything but Hrathen chapters and some of the Raoden ones in the middle that go into depth on the magic system.  Also, I've come to be a sucker for "sad badass woman in physical and/or emotional pain gets hugged" and I don't like seeing sad badass woman die almost as an afterthought.  One star. 

Mistborn: The Final Empire: This is a damn good book.  The politics are necessarily simple: Insane Tyranny Bad.  The protagonists are a quantum leap forwards.  Vin is genuinely compelling as a scarred introvert way out of her depth but growing quickly into the role she needs to fill, and Kelsier is a brilliantly compelling character with charisma and a disturbingly compelling philosophy matched with gloriously chilling violence.  The mood is evocative and compelling, the world sucks you in, and there's just enough hints of light to keep the bleakness from overwhelming everything.  Four stars. 

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension: I don't actually remember much of this book, and IDK why but I've never really been a fan, never reread all the way through either. Some points in its favor: The frank analysis of Elend as a political dilettante now completely out of his depth and reliant on his introverted murder-girlfriend to fix 99% of his mistakes is a bold step and inarguably helps the series.  The character building for Sazed is important and he's an interesting guy.  Straff is...honestly he overstays his welcome, but as a total POS you just absolutely storming hate, he's effective.  I wasn't a fan of Zane, and overall I mostly only remember the start and the end.  What an end, though!  Two stars. 

Mistborn: The Hero of Ages: It's a good finish, and the trilogy is still a fantastic coherent narrative ark, but the sheer bleakness got to me.  I don't have much more to say, it's a good fantasy novel with an epic climax and a solid conclusion to an excellent trilogy.  Three stars. 

Warbreaker: Spoiler is actually freaking hilarious and cute when spoiler2 realizes what they're actually like.  Spoiler2 is genuinely fun and interesting despite being forced into a really uncomfortable situation.  Spoiler3 is the best pet/child ever.  Spoiler4 is both hilarious and full of genuine pathos.  Their death left me in tears.  Spoiler5 goes through a lot but they become a much better character for it.  Spoiler6 is fine I guess, I liked spoiler3 much more than them.  Spoiler7 should've been a LITTLE more present in the story to some degree, their plot came as a bit too much of a surprise there at the end.  Spoiler8 was a functional antagonist.  Because of the spoiler7 issue, I have to downgrade this to 4 stars even though I love spoiler3. 

The Way of Kings: Flat out triumph.  5 stars.  Changed my life. 

Words of Radiance: I nearly died reading it because I walked across a green light in Manhattan with my nose in a book.  Convinced me that Shallan was actually really cool when I spent the first book looking for female characters to like not named Navani.  Five stars. 

The Alloy of Law: It's a solid fantasy Western.  I liked Wayne.  Didn't really grok Wax.  Still don't.  Three stars. 

Shadows of Self: Great villain.  Political themes work.  I still don't get Wax and IDK why.  MeLaan is the best and I love her.  Four stars. 

The Bands of Mourning: Great climax.  The reveal of what you know who's been doing had me gleeful, because of course he's exactly that much of a troll.  MeLaan is still the best and I love her.  I want to be MeLaan.  There's a lot going on but it largely hangs together.  Four stars. 

Secret History: It's Kelsier continuing to be Kelsier because he's like if that crazy youtuber FPSRussia had a lovechild with the gigachad meme and this hypothetical lovechild told the entire universe "Hold my beer, I've got this".  It's cool.  Five stars. 

The Allomancer Jak shorts: Good period-style fun.  Three stars.  Exactly what they need to be. 

Oathbringer: DNFed first read because Kaladin's depression hit too close to home.  Absolutely fantastic novel with strong character work and an epic conclusion.  Dalinar's flashbacks push it to five stars.  I want Adolin to hug me. 

Also, my friend was immortalized in history for asking Sanderson if Szeth would get a puppy in this one and was told he'd get something like a puppy, which is technically true. 

Rhythm of War: There are some pacing issues and there's a lot going on with not all of it getting attention, but Adolin is best boy.  He's like Raoden but with more depth that you can see actually affecting his character, and a different approach to being pure good.  Ishar is scary.  Raboniel is scary.  Moash is the new "storm that cremling, we hate him" guy, and he fills the boots well.  Kaladin finally makes a breakthrough.  Navani is great.  This one really shows Sanderson's politics evolving, and I like where they seem to be going.  There's a general shift from broad Obviously Evil Society being fought by Modern Forward-Thinking Protagonist towards a systems-focused progressive approach typefied by Jasnah's commentary on monarchy.  I like that. 

Overall, the book is pretty damn good, but I have to give it 4 stars because the pacing and division of time are really slipping in places. 

Edgedancer: I love Lift.  I got a whole novella of Lift being Lift.  I'm happy.  5 stars. 

Dawnshard: Rysn is pretty neat.  I love The Lopen.  Didn't really hook me but it's good.  4 stars. 

Steelheart: Mistborn with superheroes.  I dig it.  Cool powers, inventive fights, a great setting, the protagonist is OK.  Three stars, but that ending rocked. 

Firefight: I wasn't really getting into it until the end.  Two stars, though that's definitely personal bias.  The main villains were solid and I like the exploration of how Epics work, but for whatever reason I just wasn't engaging. 

Calamity: Feels almost perfunctory compared to The Hero of Ages, but it was going pretty well until the ending, which I felt was actually a bit too happily-ever-after.  My personal bias again, I can't really put a finger on WHY I feel this way about it.  Three stars. 

The Threnody one with Silence: Good story.  Tense.  Strong thematic feel.  Four stars. 

Sixth of the Dusk: Good protagonist, probably the only strong silent main hero I feel real emotions for.  Nice tight story that explores a cool magic system.  Good feel of tension and a dangeorus environment.  Also, I like birds.  Five stars for magic birds. 

The Emperor's Soul: Good self contained story with two good characters having good interactions.  Four stars. 

Dark One (graphic novel): Cool world, mom protag's plot rocks, not enough depth in kid protag's plot.  I don't care about Mirandus as much as I do Scadrial or Roshar.  This needed to either be MASSIVELY expanded, or it needed to be a full Sanderson doorstopper novel.  Three stars, but frankly the mom's plot is 5 stars, with a compelling protagonist and chilling villain. 

Skyward: It's too Modern YA-y for me.  Which is weird, because I still regularly reread YA from other authors and like it (esp. Protector of the Small).  I didn't connect with Spensa as much as with most Sanderson protags.  Two stars. 

Starsight: Good take on imperialism and racism through sci-fi.  It's been done, but it's done well here.  Still not connecting with Spensa.  3 stars. 

Cytonic: This one gets 4 stars even though I still don't connect with Spensa much because spoiler the spoiler (you know, the spoilers from spoiler) is storming awesome.  Sanderson's wacky-character-with-pathos archetype is almost always a winner for me.  Ending is better than it has to be, and has a good theme.  4 stars. 

Sanderson WOT books:

The Gathering Storm: Mat's character shift in these three books IS jarring, but I like both approaches.  Finally something's happening and Rand's personal psychological journey is making real progress.  Taim continues to be such an obvious Starscream throughout all three I don't think I need to be too circumspect about him.  Three stars, but only because Sanderson is clearly finding his feet in this one and he doesn't have the character voices quite right yet IMO. 

Towers of Midnight: Two particularly tear-worthy deaths, I'm not sure the sexual violence element was really needed (but then, I don't like the majority of sexual violence elements outside of ASOIAF where it's used to show the lack of value for humanity inherent in the system), finally Perrin and Faile have something to do and Faile is less awful, Mat is some hybrid of a James Bond parody, FPSRussia, and the gigachad meme incarnate, Rand rocks, Egwene is finally not too annoying.  Four stars. 

A Memory of Light: This is an absolutely freaking mammoth undertaking for any author and anything better than "a book that exists" would've been a triumph worthy of a major award.  I think that all my thoughts can be summed up by spoiler's scene with the refugees.  This is an epic that remembers the human element, the little guys, the ones whose small stories of going from a villain literally mad with power they didn't ask for or want, to a broken person just trying to find a new purpose in life, to someone consciously making the decision to do good out of pure altruism and realizing that it is really worth it, come together into a whole that really speaks to something in my heart.  All the main characters get great sendoffs and do badass things that make me cry.  Four stars, but only because I hate empress smug jerkface that freaking much and hate that she got no comeuppance for being the literal worst person not actively on the side of the literal malign demiurge. 

Also, Lan steals the gigachad meme from Mat and it's badass. 

Unfinished projects:

Mythwalker: Cannibalizing this for parts that got plugged into Warbreaker, Way of Kings, and Mistborn was the right idea.  The protagonist is basically Kaladin without the depth or personality, his mom needs a plot but doesn't have room for one, the villain is basically just a total POS with no depth or motivation outside of just being the absolute biggest POS in the world, the Obi-Wanning of you know who was handled 1000% better in Stormlight, and Sanderson was right to quit this and rework the cool elements into better books, because once you know from his other books (that he cannibalized elements of this for) how the story's going to end, there's basically no way forward for a sequel in a story that clearly requires one.  No star rating because I don't judge unfinished books, and everybody including the guy who wrote it knew it was time to stop and cannibalize, because he's a really good author and knows his stuff. 

That said, despite the problems this still has Sanderson's strong voice and good pacing. 

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What are your thoughts?  Got a bone to pick with some of these?  (that's totally cool, these are just my opinions).