Asthariel

This book made me very emotional, which does not happen often to me. I cried a lot in last 20% of the book, when Kaladin was confronting Nale, when Dalinar was confronting Taravangian, when Kaladin was offering second chance to the Heralds... I think I loved it, but I cannot say if I loved it as much as I did Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, but I liked it more than Oathbringer, and definitely liked it more than Rhythm of War, which remains the weakest part of the series. First of all, I am very impressed with what Sanderson did here with the story. He could have very easily write yet another book about cool Radiants doing epic things, and Everyone Was Kung-Fu fighting at the final battle, but that obviously will need to wait for the true ending of this series, while here we reach a halfway point, the Darkest Hour. I love Dalinar's gambit, giving Taravangian everything that he wanted and more, but what seemed to be a blessing in fact turned out to be a curse. On the other hand, it feels unnecessary that even with Dalinar dead, Blackthorn remains. I can understand that, as everyone was before release hyped about the possibility of Dalinar losing and becoming a Darh Vader-like figure for Taravangian, but here it feels like Sanderson wanting to eat his cake and have it too. Still, at least this is yet another weakness that will surely bite Retribution in the ass - after all, this is Blackthorn that got Dalinar's character development, so it will surely backfire for his master. Everyone guessed years ago that Gavinor would be Odium's champion, well done, but its not really that important, as Taravangian himself said - it could have been anyone innocent, the point was that Dalinar could not in good faith kill an innocent. Gavinor losing his childhood is exceedingly cruel, and im interested to see how he grows in the next books, but im also afraid that it will be offscreened - after all, I fully expect book 6 to start 10 years after ending of this one, so we will miss a lot of the story about how Gavinor and his remaining family interact with each other. Chana being Shallan's mother was also guessed years ago, good job to the person that came up with this first! It was satisfying that it was confirmed, adn while some people may consider both this, and Gavinor being Champion, to be predictable, I feel like its extremely unfair way of looking at it - it may be predictable only, because we have been reading those books for last 13 years and internet analyzed every single paragraph that could be found in them while waiting for new books, in order to find any foreshadowing that may have been present there. Surprises are overrated, I prefer well placed and fired Chekhov's Guns, even if they can be recognized for what they are. I loved the journey of Kaladin and Szeth through Shinovar, although I wished we could have seen more of the land itself, but at least we learnt more about its society in Szeth's flashbacks. Entire present day plot here felt very inspired by Dark Souls/Elden Ring, with traveling through a fallen land, fighting undead bosses, and even getting invaded once. I loved that Kaladin, even when no longer being a soldier, still has an important role to play as someone who helps with healing minds of traumatized people and I love that Sanderson is continuing this plot point from Rhythm of War, where it was sadly put on pause by the invasion on Urithuru. I am also sure, that while Book 1 ended with Taln returning, now Book 6 will end with Kaladin returning, together with all the other Heralds. Speaking of which - now we will need to see if Battar/Dova will also heal, or does she still serve Taravangian, because it would be a waste to spend entire interlude on her getting recruited only for it to amount to barely anything. I was shocked that Szeth managed to survive this book, and not only that, but he also gets a wife in the future - I cannot wait to see him again in book 6, now that he is focused on helping others in Shinovar. I loved his flashbacks, and I cried at the realization that Szeth is not a mirror to Kaladin, but to Tien, as a child robbed of his childhood and forced to become a killer. Even if it was Szeth's book, I felt like Adolin was the second most important character here, just like Navani was important in the last book despite Venli and Eshonai getting their flashbacks. Im glad that he survived it all, even if for years I was sure that he would get killed at the end of book 3, then book 4, then book 5. Both Adolin and readers were afraid that he was no longer important in the world of Radiants, but now, with the world experiencing a full reset of status quo, Adolin yet again has a big role to play in the future with his Unoathed. I liked that we got explanation for why he never became Radiant himself (because he, in his very essence, deslikes concept of oaths), and that the damage he suffered is not temporary, but now here to stay, even if his shardleg will help him to remain mobile. I also liked Yanagawn's growth and I loved understanding, what was his role to play in the story as a former thief - to infiltrate his own palace in the climax. In general, I loved many callbacks to previous books - Yanagawn being thief, Jasnah planning to kill Aesudan, Dalinar beating up Elhokar, Offworld travelers meeting Ym's granddaughter, Nale mentioning his fight with Lift... some references may hve been excessive (like "Honor is dead... but I will see what I can do" being used again), but I can forgive Sanderson some literary fanservice here and there. Time bubble being placed around Roshar system causes Sigzil's situation to not be as cruel as it seemed in The Sunlit Man - it may be decades for him, but only 10 years for Roshar, when he returns for the second half of the series. Even his Spren managed to survive, although I was sad to see that she does not want to have anything to do with him ever again, even if he broke his oath only to save her life. Venli, perhaps due to being hated by readers of Rhythm of War, had only a very small role to play here, which did not help me to start caring about her. I really want to like her as a character, but she needs to start interacting with other main characters first in order for that to happen. Im curious to see what will become of Shallan's child, growing up in the Shadesmar, away from human civilization. I was afraid that, yet again, Renarin would only play a very small role in the story, but this time he got many chapters with his POV and I am excited to see how be comes, even if not the leader, then one of the future leaders of Urithuru, now that his father is dead. I am also excited to see how Jasnah grows from there - she was always the smartest, the most self confident, the one most in control of the situation, and in this book she failed completely and lost both her mother and her uncle. This is definitely an example of a character being broken to be built up again in future books and I will be there to see it. Lift, trained by Zahel, not needing Stormlight to use her powers, having her own Avian, is definitely gonna be a new powerhouse of Books 6-10, until new power system emerges for others to use. Lastly, I have complicated thoughts about Cultivation's role in all of this. It was very easy to think that she is a hidden villain, manipulating both Honor and Odium for her own ends, but in this book, she seems to be completely outplayed and escapes from Roshar at the end. And yet... she prepared Lift, the one person that can function under Retribution's rule without Stormlight, and this card has not yet been played out. We know that Taln wanted to kill her in the past. We know that all 3 Shards, Honor, Odium AND Cultivation were considered to be dangerous by other Shards. We know that Odium screamed " WE KILLED YOU!" at Dalinar at the climax of Book 3. It is difficult for me to not think that she is still playing her long game of 5D chess here. Small, random thoughts: There is definitely fourth Shard hiding in the Roshar system, and its probably Reason, the only Shard that is missing, outside of Valor. I was very disappointed to learn nothing new about Rock and Horneaters in this book. Where the hell is that novella, Brandon? I was shocked to see that Malata is not appearing, nor even referenced at any point in this book. I thought that as first Dustbringer we meet in this series, and first Radiant traitor that served Taravangian, she would become much more important, and yet she seems to be completely forgotten by the author. Is she does not reemerge in future books, I will be extremely mad. storm Moash. Skybreaker accompanying Chana Davar mentions at one point one of Shallan's siblings being a bastard. Holy storm, we are still not done with Davar's family drama! I was disappointed that Rysn continues to be a Potential Woman of Stormlight Archive - always with potential to do something cool in the future, but never actually doing anything important in the story, always just teasing something that will happen in the next books. I was silently rooting for Mraize to just give up and join Shallan, but sadly, that would be too much redemption and forgiveness for one book. I also somehow never came to realization that Iyatil was disguised as Formless all this time, even though many other readers predicted that. RIP Stormfather, you were pain in the ass, but it is still sad to see you get anihilated.