Out of Sync

[Quick Ben he/him]

Hi All,

I just reactivated my account after a number of years having just finished Wind and Truth.

I am not sure if anyone else feels the same but this book felt out of sync with the rest of the series for me, i cant put my finger on why specifically but feels like a departure from what came before.

Little background on my thoughts on he series prior to this book.

The way of kings - 10/10 | Words Of Radiance - 10/10 | Oathbringer - 6/10 | Rhythm of War -6/10 | Wind and Truth - 5/10 

Oathbringer -  Lower score because imo the book was mainly filler and fluff and could of been condensed into 350-500 pages
Rhythm of War - Same critique as above as well as the "nodes" feeling like a 90's video game. Also Navani bonding the Sibling never felt right to be. 

Wind and Truth.

10 days to the battle of champions, that's the premise at the outset of book
10 days is a short time. 10 days is a long time.
But what actually happened in these 10 days ? - Not a lot. Again like the previous 2 books, this book was mainly filler and fluff, it is long for the sake of being long.

Summary of feelings on Wind and Truth

Oathbringer.

Seems to be retconned entirely

Rhythm of War.
Joining of Odium and Honour kinda makes the 800 pages of finding the "Anti-light" pointless imo

Dalinar.
A despot who decided he changed / grew then realizes he didn't, then changes at the end ?
Who claimed him at the end ?
Going forward there will be two Cognitive Shadows of Dalinar ?
The intent of shards can't change but his plan as i understand it, is he wants the shard of Honour to change its definition of what Honour means? Is this possible ? Seems like the Adolin segment where he describes how a promise is not an Oath is foreshadowing this change of definition in Honour. Even though a promise and Oath are the same thing.

Retribution
Doesn't appear to of bonded the shard of Honour fully, as multiple times it is said he had to abide by Oaths still to placate the shard. Retribution would not care about Oaths and is also not based on hatred. So seems while Taravangian holds two shards and claims the name Retribution, the shards are completely independent of eachother.

Kaladin - I find the Therapist arc just to be meh.
Seems destined to take up the shard of Honour when the power leaves Taravangian.
What's the point  of the new Oathpact ? Yes it saved the spren, but the fused are not on Braize anymore, what are the Heralds holding back ? And for that matter how do they return when they can't break, since their minds are removed from the "torture". How is the "torture happening when no one there to torture them ? Did i miss something ?

Szeth - Backstory was more interesting / involved then i presumed before Wind and Truth. Didn't think it was possible to skip an ideal but i was okay with it.

Jasnah
This is bound to be unpopular, but i don't see a point to her at all, Wasted character.

Shallan.
So the Chana theory is correct which i was fine with. Chana being at the weeding seemed off though.

Renarin
Again, this is going to be unpopular but i think Renarin is another useless character.

Rlain
I think he is wasted since being paired with Renarin

Venli
Suddenly hears Rhythms no one hears ? Ok....

Sizgil

Saves his Spren from death - and She doesn't want to talk to him ? Was a massive sacrifice and would of thought she would of seen it that way and been grateful.

Adolin

Suddenly his armour spren, are bonded to him ? Giant leap. Leader of new super group on Roshar. This seems like a "giving into fans" who thought Adolin should be Radiant, by meeting them halfway instead of leaving him as just a man in plate. 

New Gods / Old gods
Wind/Stone/Night - seemed come from no where

Unoathed
Again from Nowhere

Hoid/Wit
Again going to be unpopular but i think the Stormlight Archive would of been better if it was Witless.....

Cosmere interconnections
I have read Elantris / Warbreaker / Mistborns etc but each of those could be enjoyed standalone from the Cosmere. SA has reached a point i don't think it can which imo has a detrimental affect on the series

[QuantumAce]

Many of the characters felt thinner, more one dimensional, almost like imperfect copies of the originals. I kept waiting for someone to wake up and realize the whole thing was a vision curated by Gallant. Smart for a horse, but he lacks Wit's flair for realistic storytelling. Bit of an exaggeration, but it would explain some things. 

9 hours ago, Quick Ben said:

Szeth - Backstory was more interesting / involved then i presumed before Wind and Truth. Didn't think it was possible to skip an ideal but i was okay with it.

Yes, big fan of the Szeth backstory. 

9 hours ago, Quick Ben said:

Sizgil - Saves his Spren from death - and She doesn't want to talk to him ? Was a massive sacrifice and would of thought she would of seen it that way and been grateful.

I know, right? I know Honorspen have a reputation for being jerks, but that's a bit much. 

 

9 hours ago, Quick Ben said:

The intent of shards can't change but his plan as i understand it, is he wants the shard of Honour to change its definition of what Honour means? Is this possible ?

Honor started gaining sentience while the power was unbonded. Dalinar wants Honor to continue learning and growing, while bound to the worst person ever. What is so hard to understand about that ? Seriously though, maybe Honor keeps popping by Nohadons for warm bread while Taravangian isnt paying attention? 

 

10 hours ago, Quick Ben said:

Retribution
Doesn't appear to of bonded the shard of Honour fully, as multiple times it is said he had to abide by Oaths still to placate the shard. Retribution would not care about Oaths and is also not based on hatred. So seems while Taravangian holds two shards and claims the name Retribution, the shards are completely independent of eachother.

Side effect of the Shin bread? I had the beginnings of some insightful thoughts, but they fizzled. I was probably a little burned out by the time I got to this point.

 

I am betting most of my gripes will fade during the next read through. It seems more likely that I did a poor job of reading than Brandon suddenly becoming a worse writer. 

[Ahriman he/him]

On 1/2/2025 at 7:50 AM, Quick Ben said:

Oathbringer -  Lower score because imo the book was mainly filler and fluff and could of been condensed into 350-500 pages
Rhythm of War - Same critique as above as well as the "nodes" feeling like a 90's video game. Also Navani bonding the Sibling never felt right to be. 

These have been my two biggest complaints with the series. The pacing issues are glaring. It's probably to be expected with something of this size, but with books 3 and 4 it was especially grating. In this one there was a lot of bloat and the page space taken up by therapy speak or jumping between visions that gave us answers but not really revelations could have been given to other things instead (I felt like Ba-Ado-Mishram and El were underutilized, and I was annoyed at how little time Mishram actually got on the page).

 

I've always felt like the biggest danger in Sanderson's writing is that sometimes he risks his books feeling like video games. Whatever Kaladin was doing in Urithiru in book 4 was the worst offender, but going around and having to defeat the Honorbearers of each monastery started to feel like a Zelda game or something, just replace the ocarina with a flute. The fight with Nale especially felt like this, like the classic unwinnable boss battle. That said, I did enjoy the Shadesmar and Lightweaver fights for being more interesting than just "People keep trying to stab each other and sometimes succeed."

 

On 1/2/2025 at 6:07 PM, QuantumAce said:

Many of the characters felt thinner, more one dimensional, almost like imperfect copies of the originals.

One thing I noticed early on was that as soon as a character is done being mysterious/imposing (Maya, Sibling, Szeth's spren) they all start talking in the same "standard Stormlight character" personality. Lots of ums and huhs and italics. I don't remember if this was an issue in previous books, but for most of this book people's speech mannerisms didn't feel distinct at all to me. Sure Lift might make up a word here or Zahel might use an offworld term there, but for the most part everyone's sentence structures and overall tone felt the same.

[AquaRegia he/him]

Can't disagree.  I think two main factors are at play:

1) Brandon's #1 editor and story collaborator, Moshe Feder, retired after the Secret Projects were finished.  He has admitted in interviews that this affected his final drafts in a number of ways, and the tone of the prose/dialogue definitely seems to be one of those ways.

2) He's at his best when he's worldbuilding.  The first few novels of a series have always flowed more easily for him, I think, because it's what he really loves most.  Once the world is built, and it's "just" storytelling, some of the magic is gone.

[Nitpicking]

I talked to Moshe at a con once. Very smart, very eloquent, very friendly.