Rhythm of War is bad. Like, really, really bad.

[The-Rizzler]

Wow, what happened?  What a huge drop in quality.  At first I thought maybe I had been pranked and someone replaced my hardcover with a mental health diagnostic manual, interspersed with a civil engineering text book.  But no, that's literally the book.  And it's told from Venli's perspective?  She's the most unlikeable and uninteresting character I've ever read.  What's going on?  Where did Sanderson go?  What happened to the character development, the pacing, the quality of Way of Kings?  I have never felt more bored reading a book before.  Pages 1 to 1,100 were an absolute slog.  That's not cool.  Why do we have to suffer through another book of Kaladin moping around before remembering Tien for the hundredth time?  Why do we have to suffer through Shallan coming to terms with yet another secret?  Who the hell are all these Fused and why should I care about any of them when they are all, along with their hierarchy, all vomited onto me at once?

I think I'm done with this series.  It was so, so good.  But now?  No.  Just... no.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Come on, it wasn't that bad.

Navani chapters were nice.

I'll admit, the pacing a bit odd compared the previous books, but it surely isn't that much of a deal breaker.

Sure, Venli chapters weren't that good, and the Lasting Integrity plot line was a little slow, and Kaladin stuff was a little repetitive...

But the ending was spectacular! Shardplate! Formless gone! Kaladin can finally not be depressed! Anti-voidlight! The Sibling!

 

How do you dislike this book that much?

[The-Rizzler]

3 hours ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Sure, Venli chapters weren't that good, and the Lasting Integrity plot line was a little slow, and Kaladin stuff was a little repetitive...

But the ending was spectacular! Shardplate! Formless gone! Kaladin can finally not be depressed! Anti-voidlight! The Sibling!

 

How do you dislike this book that much?

You just described the first 1,100 pages of a 1,200 page book.  Yes, the last 100 pages were excellent and everything I expect from the series.  But pointing to 100 pages after an 1,100 page slog doesn’t qualify a book as good.

 

And no, the Navani chapters were not good.  None of the Tower sequences, including any of Navani’s chapters, had any sense of impact because Sanderson decided to throw a ton of named parshendi at us out of nowhere and then expect us to care.  That’s not how character development works.  A far more meaningful Tower assault would have been one led by Moash, for whom there *is* an emotional impact for Navani.  For where there already is a context for the reader to remain vested with.  Keep Gavinor in the Tower and have Moash hold him hostage to move Navani along.  Now we’re interested.  But instead we get Fused/HeavenlyOnes/stone walkers/who honestly gives a crap at this point it’s all just so boring.

Edited August 16, 2025 by The-Rizzler

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

16 hours ago, The-Rizzler said:

Wow, what happened?  What a huge drop in quality.  At first I thought maybe I had been pranked and someone replaced my hardcover with a mental health diagnostic manual, interspersed with a civil engineering text book.  But no, that's literally the book.  And it's told from Venli's perspective?  She's the most unlikeable and uninteresting character I've ever read.  What's going on?  Where did Sanderson go?  What happened to the character development, the pacing, the quality of Way of Kings?  I have never felt more bored reading a book before.  Pages 1 to 1,100 were an absolute slog.  That's not cool.  Why do we have to suffer through another book of Kaladin moping around before remembering Tien for the hundredth time?  Why do we have to suffer through Shallan coming to terms with yet another secret?  Who the hell are all these Fused and why should I care about any of them when they are all, along with their hierarchy, all vomited onto me at once?

I think I'm done with this series.  It was so, so good.  But now?  No.  Just... no.

Was this your first readthrough?

[The-Rizzler]

12 hours ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

Was this your first readthrough?

Yes, and last.  After such a train wreck of a story I’m done with Stormlight Archive and Sanderson.  What a huge disappointment after such an amazing start.  

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

13 hours ago, The-Rizzler said:

because Sanderson decided to throw a ton of named parshendi at us out of nowhere and then expect us to care.

We didn't need to care that much 'bout the Fused and Singers.

We just needed to know they were a threat, which was shown with how fast they were destroying the Sibling, as well as their fabrials and Voidbinding.

[Use the Falchion]

21 hours ago, The-Rizzler said:

Yes, and last.  After such a train wreck of a story I’m done with Stormlight Archive and Sanderson.  What a huge disappointment after such an amazing start.  

So...you joined a Sanderson fansite forum, just to bash on a book and proclaim you're done with the author...? You do you, but this feels a tad much IMO. 

[al_lan_mandragoran]

Stormlight Archive is about character development. if you didn't catch that from the start, then I guess RoW would have been a bit more boring than expected. But the whole series is about the growth of characters and the decisions that they make in regards to their outlook on life.

[Vatsug]

I'll preface this by saying that I enjoy all of the books greatly (although I'm only a short way into Wind and Truth) but I think RoW is the weakest of the series. 

Personally, I've always found the singer chapters less interesting than the human chapters, and this book has a lot of those. I also think Brandon tried doing something kind of different here, where a large portion of the book is set in a single location, and I'm not entirely sure it completely worked. Certain plot lines dragged on a bit too long, and certain characters were kept out of the story for a bit too long imo. This became especially apparent in the middle section. 

That being said, there are also parts I really enjoyed. 

 

[The-Rizzler]

18 hours ago, al_lan_mandragoran said:

Stormlight Archive is about character development. if you didn't catch that from the start, then I guess RoW would have been a bit more boring than expected. But the whole series is about the growth of characters and the decisions that they make in regards to their outlook on life.

Character development?  You mean like Kaladin being depressed, not doing anything, and then levelling up his Radiant powers?  Guess which book I’m referring to.  Trick question: that’s literally his plot in every single book.  You mean like h Shallan struggling with a secret from her past, running around in circles feeling bad for herself?  Guess which book I’m referring to.  Trick question again!  That’s her “development” in every single book in the series.  You mean like Dalinar, struggling to come to terms with being a leader and delegating to others, haunted by his past?  Guess which book I’m referring to.  I think you get my point.  
 

There is no character development here, just character repetition with colourful new artwork on the cover.

 

14 hours ago, Vatsug said:

I'll preface this by saying that I enjoy all of the books greatly (although I'm only a short way into Wind and Truth) but I think RoW is the weakest of the series. 

Personally, I've always found the singer chapters less interesting than the human chapters, and this book has a lot of those. I also think Brandon tried doing something kind of different here, where a large portion of the book is set in a single location, and I'm not entirely sure it completely worked. Certain plot lines dragged on a bit too long, and certain characters were kept out of the story for a bit too long imo. This became especially apparent in the middle section. 

That being said, there are also parts I really enjoyed. 

 

Exactly this.  The “story” from RoW could and should have been part of Oathbringer.  There was no need for the 200 pages of actual plot development to be buried in 1,000 pages of garbage.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

1 hour ago, The-Rizzler said:

Character development?  You mean like Kaladin being depressed, not doing anything, and then levelling up his Radiant powers?  Guess which book I’m referring to.  Trick question: that’s literally his plot in every single book.  You mean like h Shallan struggling with a secret from her past, running around in circles feeling bad for herself?  Guess which book I’m referring to.  Trick question again!  That’s her “development” in every single book in the series.  You mean like Dalinar, struggling to come to terms with being a leader and delegating to others, haunted by his past?  Guess which book I’m referring to.  I think you get my point.  
 

There is no character development here, just character repetition with colourful new artwork on the cover.

 

Exactly this.  The “story” from RoW could and should have been part of Oathbringer.  There was no need for the 200 pages of actual plot development to be buried in 1,000 pages of garbage.

Ok ok.

So. To recap.

You, a person who hates all things sanderson because of a single book, joined the Brandon Sanderson Fansite for... what reason? To insult everyone and call them fools? To hate on a person with an opinion you know literally no one shares? Because you just really really want to tell everyone your opinion that their favorite series is trash?

Please, enlighten me. I am so so curious to what the heck you are doing here.

Also Credit to Use The Falchion for asking it before I did (and promply getting ignored, which is a whole other thing):

On 8/17/2025 at 5:27 PM, Use the Falchion said:

So...you joined a Sanderson fansite forum, just to bash on a book and proclaim you're done with the author...? You do you, but this feels a tad much IMO. 

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

On 8/16/2025 at 10:25 PM, The-Rizzler said:

Yes, and last.  After such a train wreck of a story I’m done with Stormlight Archive and Sanderson.  What a huge disappointment after such an amazing start.  

Ok this is a completely crazy statement the book had flaws sure and is some stuff a little repetitive I suppose so but the series in my opinion is phenomenal and I think Brandon’s description of depression and what not is great and yes is Kaladin depressed in every book but I think that he struggles with different things each time also I think it’s entirely unfair to quit such a good writer just bc you thought one book was bad.

 

also to quote everyone else… why’d you join this forum just to trash on a book that has some flaws but is in general part of a rly good series…

[bmcclure7]

On 8/15/2025 at 5:41 PM, The-Rizzler said:

Wow, what happened?  What a huge drop in quality.  At first I thought maybe I had been pranked and someone replaced my hardcover with a mental health diagnostic manual, interspersed with a civil engineering text book.  But no, that's literally the book.  And it's told from Venli's perspective?  She's the most unlikeable and uninteresting character I've ever read.  What's going on?  Where did Sanderson go?  What happened to the character development, the pacing, the quality of Way of Kings?  I have never felt more bored reading a book before.  Pages 1 to 1,100 were an absolute slog.  That's not cool.  Why do we have to suffer through another book of Kaladin moping around before remembering Tien for the hundredth time?  Why do we have to suffer through Shallan coming to terms with yet another secret?  Who the hell are all these Fused and why should I care about any of them when they are all, along with their hierarchy, all vomited onto me at once?

I think I'm done with this series.  It was so, so good.  But now?  No.  Just... no.

you are going to hate wind and truth

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

1 hour ago, bmcclure7 said:

you are going to hate wind and truth

Hahaha yah they are i personally liked it but if they thought that abt rhythm of war??? Yah they would hate it

[The-Rizzler]

3 hours ago, bmcclure7 said:

you are going to hate wind and truth

lol yup, I assumed so as well.  I read a plot summary instead of wasting any more time on this trainwreck and I am glad I did.  Even a *summary* was a slog to read through - I can't imagine anyone enjoying reading 1,300+ pages of that drivel.

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

This is certainly a take of all time

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

45 minutes ago, The-Rizzler said:

lol yup, I assumed so as well.  I read a plot summary instead of wasting any more time on this trainwreck and I am glad I did.  Even a *summary* was a slog to read through - I can't imagine anyone enjoying reading 1,300+ pages of that drivel.

While I do really agree that the character development of Kaladin in all but the end of RoW was lacking, I still really liked basically everything except the Lasting Integrity plot line. 

Oh, and I agree, I never really liked Venli or her chapters. But overall it was still a good book.

WaT had some things I didn’t like. I could write an essay on what I didn’t like. However, I could write far more on what I did like. It has probably one of my favorite plot lines in all of Stormlight, and the climax is really cool. Sure, I thought there was two fairly boring plot lines, but there were two storming good ones that more than made up for it.

I I enjoyed the book a lot, and I don’t think it deserves the hate.

I’m not opposed to you having opinions I disagree with, this is part of life, and you do raise some valid points. However, (like everybody else) I do wonder why you joined if you only intend to critique a book that is still far above most.

[al_lan_mandragoran]

Reminds me of this post

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

5 minutes ago, al_lan_mandragoran said:

Reminds me of this post

Well that guy was complimenting him lol

Also -58 rep  

How
Why
What did this man do

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

7 minutes ago, SpartanBrigade said:

Well that guy was complimenting him lol

Also -58 rep  

How
Why
What did this man do

Dude you brought up all the points I was gonna lol. Storm not being able to type as fast on Mobile.

I was gonna say

 “At least he had a good opinion of Sanderson. Although I didn’t know you could be so far into rep debt

Like how is this possible”

But you unfortunately can type faster. Well played, Spartan. Well played.

12 minutes ago, al_lan_mandragoran said:

Reminds me of this post

…it really is similar

Edited August 20, 2025 by ChipsAHoid

[Treamayne]

25 minutes ago, SpartanBrigade said:

Well that guy was complimenting him lol

Also -58 rep 

How
Why
What did this man do

18 minutes ago, ChipsAHoid said:

Like how is this possible

The very old version of Reputation had both upvotes and downvotes (it's why, to this day, you cannot see who gave you an Upvote/Rep). If you read the entire thread, and the admin comments at the end, you would have an idea of how/why he was in the Negative Rep range (IIRC - many posts were deleted by admins for violoations of the site rules). Excerpt from the Rep Change Thread: 

Quote

---
-1 -2 Negaspren
-3 -5 Lifeless
-6 -10 Hoed
-15 -19 ? Beheaded Inquisitor
-20 -24 ? Rotting Chull Carcass
-24 -25 Lamespren
-26 -100 Zucchini
-101 and below Chasmfiend Corpse

Note: negative reputation titles are no longer obtainable due to downvotes having been removed.

Hope that helps

Edited August 20, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

6 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

The very old version of Reputation had both upvotes and downvotes (it's why, to this day, you cannot see who gave you an Upvote/Rep). If you read the entire thread, and the admin comments at the end, you would have an idea of how/why he was in the Negative Rep range (IIRC - many posts were deleted by admins for violoations of the site rules). Excerpt from the Rep Change Thread: 

Hope that helps

…ah I see it now

Thank you

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

6 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

The very old version of Reputation had both upvotes and downvotes (it's why, to this day, you cannot see who gave you an Upvote/Rep). If you read the entire thread, and the admin comments at the end, you would have an idea of how/why he was in the Negative Rep range (IIRC - many posts were deleted by admins for violoations of the site rules). Excerpt from the Rep Change Thread: 

Hope that helps

Thanks! I knew vaguely about negative rep from that post but was unsure as to how people even got it.

I’m kinda blind and missed the whole post deletion. I saw the banning, but I’m not… perceptive in any way shape or form.

Thanks though!

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

1 hour ago, al_lan_mandragoran said:

Reminds me of this post

Omg that’s crazy it so does tho getting on a fandom specific to a certain author just to complain abt said author is a crazy move

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

4 hours ago, The-Rizzler said:

lol yup, I assumed so as well.  I read a plot summary instead of wasting any more time on this trainwreck and I am glad I did.  Even a *summary* was a slog to read through - I can't imagine anyone enjoying reading 1,300+ pages of that drivel.

 

On 8/18/2025 at 6:37 PM, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Ok ok.

So. To recap.

You, a person who hates all things sanderson because of a single book, joined the Brandon Sanderson Fansite for... what reason? To insult everyone and call them fools? To hate on a person with an opinion you know literally no one shares? Because you just really really want to tell everyone your opinion that their favorite series is trash?

Please, enlighten me. I am so so curious to what the heck you are doing here.

Also Credit to Use The Falchion for asking it before I did (and promply getting ignored, which is a whole other thing):

Bro is still ignoring all of the posts even slightly similar to this ^^^