Wind and Truth Book Five of the Stormlight Archive

weakest book so far. also, revoked 1 star because wdym my BABIES ONLY SPENT LIKE 10 PAGES TOGETHER 😭😭😭😭 dalinar final confrontation with odium felt tad anticlimactic me thinks

idk i’m confused

as a book as part of the stormlight archive only, with no consideration of cosmere level information in the book:

this book was a great conclusion to the first arc. It took many characters in many good directions - generally the terminus of many of their arcs. It gave some definition to a few characters that didn’t get the chance to have it so far by putting them in interesting scenarios or giving them complex challenges, which was unexpected to me in a “finale” that I would think would focus on the couple of very main characters we’ve had so far, and I enjoyed it immensely. It fleshed out one of my favorite cosmere characters ever.

Some parts of the book are a little tackier than usual. Some of the stuff kaladin goes through for instance or has to contend with feels a little more on the nose than it should be, and I hate to admit it but I wasn’t as compelled to read kaladin when he wasn’t going through a series of depressive events

In terms of story beats and events there’s a lot here that is within the realm of expectation when you pick up the book, and a bit here that is totally unexpected. Some stacking of events, things that occurred, the way they occurred was like “oh yeah this is what should happen here” and some of it was like “wow I knew this was going to happen but not like this” and some of it was “wow did not expect this at all”

Gotta say though, it’s not all good stuff. The decision to entrap some of the story’s characters in a ten day vision was bold and I didn’t like it all the time. It exacerbates that feeling of damn not much is happening.

The ending was great work from him too, unreasonably good conclusions for the events and some of the characters. The benefits of his outlining process really really show themselves as we get callbacks to some of the characters very defining or early moments. His grasp of events and characters starts and ends really distinguishes him

At this point in my reading Sanderson presents a very particular kind of pie that I need to be in a particular mood to eat, unless it happens to be a pie in a series of pies in which I am heavily invested

He released the four secret project books and I didn’t feel particularly compelled to read them until I realised some of them provide some good cosmere info, or new planets within it, etc. once I’m there and I’m reading I’m generally enjoying the work a good 90% of the time, and it rates highly every time. Particularly for the stormlight archive, which is maybe one of the very few pies he sells in his pie shop that is compelling all on its own.

As always, love the stormlight archives. Very enjoyable and wish it didnt have to end! Considering the significant time gap expected before the next story arc, I was disappointed that some story lines were left dangling…. It also was lacking a certain Epic characteristic that was present in all of the previous books.