Thoughts on Dawnshard?

[bedtime]

Just finished Oathbringer, and now I'm onto Dawnshard. 

I figured it would be nice to hear your opinions and express my thoughts as I read it—storms, this forum could use a few more posts these days, in any event...

From what I've heard from reviews, much of this book is about a sea adventure which focuses on Rysn, a female merchant with paralyzed legs. Apparently, Sanderson interviewed a paralyzed person before writing this to get a better perspective on what this type of disability entails. Gotta love his thoroughness!

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Anywho, time to start the book!

 

*** EDIT ***

Just noticed that Rysn doesn't seem to be wearing a glove on her safehand in that picture. Bizarre. Perhaps the artist overlooked it?

Edited March 16 by bedtime

[Nitpicking]

Rysn is not Vorin. She canonically wears a glove, not the big sleeve. I suspect the artist simply didn't draw/color the glove correctly.

For me, Dawnshard was better for its lore drops than Rysn's story. Others may well disagree.

Edited March 16 by Nitpicking
missing letter

[Frustration]

14 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

Rysn is not Vorin. She canonically wears a glove, not the big sleeve. I suspect the artist simply didn't draw/color the glove correctly.

For me, Dawnshard was better for its lore drops than Rysn's story. Others may well disagree.

Unless she doesn't follow the traditions of her homeland she would be Vorin, even if Theylan vorinism is a bit different.

[bedtime]

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

Unless she doesn't follow the traditions of her homeland she would be Vorin, even if Theylan vorinism is a bit different.

Here is a quote from early in the book that might sum it up:

Quote

"He didn't ascribe to Vorin prohibitions on that. And, well, neither did Rysn, for all the fact that she wore a glove these days without complaint."

Here's another picture of Rysn, but she's wearing a glove:

[Schizoposting]

Personally, I think that the Stormlight novellas don't really work as independent stories—they're not anywhere near as bad as New Spring, but if they weren't part of a broader narrative, they wouldn't really be worth reading, in my opinion. But I find that this goes for most spinoff novellas of this sort.

7 hours ago, bedtime said:

storms, this forum could use a few more posts these days, in any event...

Well, ultimately there's only so much to talk about—that's why discussion spikes whenever something new comes out and falls back down in between releases. The current level of activity does not seem particularly unusual to me, but the last time I was active on these forums was ~5 years ago, so maybe there has been a genuine decrease in activity, as some have claimed. But regardless, it will pick back up again when The Fires of December, Ghostbloods, and the film adaptation come out.

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Schizoposting said:

The current level of activity does not seem particularly unusual to me, but the last time I was active on these forums was ~5 years ago, so maybe there has been a genuine decrease in activity, as some have claimed.

It's more that many people migrate to the Discord over the foums (I cannot understand why, Discord is great for what it does, but it does not work well for book discussion, to me). 

Please see: Main Thread - forum users opinions - Chaos - about Discord (post in that thread)

[Schizoposting]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

It's more that many people migrate to the Discord over the foums (I cannot understand why, Discord is great for what it does, but it does not work well for book discussion, to me). 

Please see: Main Thread - forum users opinions - Chaos - about Discord (post in that thread)

I think most users just want to hang out and stuff, which is why they switched to Discord. But those who want substantive discussions stay on the forums, since having a conversation that extends beyond one-liners is impossible on Discord, AFAIK, due to the format.

[bedtime]

16 hours ago, Schizoposting said:

I think most users just want to hang out and stuff, which is why they switched to Discord. But those who want substantive discussions stay on the forums, since having a conversation that extends beyond one-liners is impossible on Discord, AFAIK, due to the format.

I do both here and Discord. Sometimes I just wanna ask a quick question or saying something quick, so I'll post on Discord.

Currently I'm near halfway through Dawnshard. So far haven't really met with much action, but Sanderson is slowly setting it up. Really liking the positive vibe of Rysn. It seems to be rubbing off on me, and makes me wanna be like her.

My only worry is that Rhythm of War won't be as good as the previous books. I've heard a bunch of reviews on YouTube saying it's the worst book of Stormlight Archives so far (aside from Wind and Truth, which is apparently even worse). That said, many people didn't like Edgedancer, and I liked it, so I guess I'll have to read it to find out. Thing is, I'm not the type of person that pushes through books. If I don't like them, they go straight to the DNR pile, and I won't be likely reading WaT.

[Schizoposting]

1 minute ago, bedtime said:

I do both here and Discord. Sometimes I just wanna ask a quick question or saying something quick, so I'll post on Discord.

Currently I'm near halfway through Dawnshard. So far haven't really met with much action, but Sanderson is slowly setting it up. Really liking the positive vibe of Rysn. It seems to be rubbing off on me, and makes me wanna be like her.

My only worry is that Rhythm of War won't be as good as the previous books. I've heard a bunch of reviews on YouTube saying it's the worst book of Stormlight Archives so far (aside from Wind and Truth, which is apparently even worse). That said, many people didn't like Edgedancer, and I liked it, so I guess I'll have to read it to find out. Thing is, I'm not the type of person that pushes through books. If I don't like them, they go straight to the DNR pile, and I won't be likely reading WaT.

I would recommend that you form your own opinion. Personally, I intentionally ignored the community prior to reading Wind and Truth, so when I learned that it was so controversial, I was genuinely surprised, because I had personally liked it a lot, and some of the moments that people hated (like the debate) were some of my favorite. But expectations may also play a role—recently, I watched One Battle After Another after hearing people hail it as a masterpiece, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be a pretty good, but by no means exceptional, film. Brandon has talked about this, but he wrote Rhythm of War and Wind and Truth knowing that they would be controversial, due to said audience expectations. 

Also, internet discussion tends to take on a life of its own, divorced from any objective reality—according to certain spaces on the internet, Sanderson writes at a fifth grade level, and the only people who like him are adolescent boys who don't appreciate real literature; while others consider him to be the second coming of Tolkien. In my humble opinion, neither of these opinions are correct. That's to say, people saying that Wind and Truth made them stop reading the Stormlight Archive are probably not representative of the broader readership. (For what it's worth, it has more than 4/5 stars on Goodreads.) 

Ultimately, with a series as large as the Stormlight Archive or the Cosmere, and with an author as prolific as Brandon, there's bound to be a variation in the quality of the books, by virtue of simple probability. It's perfectly fine if you end up not liking Rhythm of War or Wind and Truth—there are plenty of other good books out there. 

[Treamayne]

4 hours ago, bedtime said:

My only worry is that Rhythm of War won't be as good as the previous books. I've heard a bunch of reviews on YouTube saying it's the worst book of Stormlight Archives so far

I like RoW better than OB . . . 

3 hours ago, Schizoposting said:

I would recommend that you form your own opinion.

Definitely ^this^

That said, each of the first five does have different strengths and weaknesses. Non-Content Spoiler - RoW:

Spoiler

Was really great for those who enjoy lore and worldbuilding. 

 

[bedtime]

On 3/17/2026 at 11:02 PM, Treamayne said:

I like RoW better than OB . . . 

I'm 100 pages into Rhythm of War, and so far I'm liking it more than Oathbringer.

Edited March 21 by bedtime