Rhythm of War

This book is 4.5 stars rather than 4. While I didn't like it as much as the previous books in the series, it's still one of the best books out there.

I enjoy how the storylines are getting more and more complex, although it's a little hard to keep track of Navani's with her experiments. I still love seeing Dalinar and Kaladin grow in their powers, while Adolin continues to show he's more than people give him credit for. Even Shallan's story has become more interesting.

The few things that bring the book down a little for me are Venli and Moash. Venli's flashback scenes were drawn out quite a bit and didn't really hold any interest for me. As for Moash, while I still love to hate him, I worry that he's becoming someone who is thrown into big situations just to commit atrocities so readers will hate him more. I don't want him to be the cause of EVERY horrible thing that happens to everyone. That would feel like cheating to me.

Still, this book in a great addition to one of the best fantasy series ever written. It's going to be hard to wait for the next one. ( )

Wow, so much happens in this book that it's hard to review really. Story advances a lot even if some sections seem to drag on a bit, but we learn so much new information about so many different plot points, that it makes it all worthwhile. Definitely not a book that you can rea on it's own :) ( )

Overall I enjoyed 'Rhythm of War', but it had more problems to it than any other Stormlight book so far. Sanderson continues to broaden the lens of the series to incorporate more characters from more backgrounds. This is a good thing, however Sanderson is doing this at the expense of the flow of the series. It's beginning to feel like 'The Wheel of Time'. I loved that series, too, but nobody loved the loss of pace and floods of irrelevant detail.

I have never been able to get into any of Sanderson's other series that tie into the Cosmere and I suspect that that lack of knowledge is beginning to hurt my appreciation for this series. Either that or he just threw in a lot of new detail without properly explaining it. An issue is an issue. I personally also hated the flashback structure that gave us the picture of the Alethkar invasion of the Shattered Plains and the downfall of the Listeners. I feel like we didn't hear their stories earlier because it dragged the pace down and it doesn't NOT drag the pace down now, so, what did we gain?

Huh. I have some strong reasons for not liking this book. On the plus side, I did like the continuing resolution of Shallan's arc and the focus Sanderson puts on mental health and exploring it in a fantasy setting. These are issues that have no quick fix and as readers there is going to be a lot more work before Shallan is through, let alone Kaladin. I also enjoyed spending more time with Navani, but agree that the technical details about fabrials may be too much of a good thing.

I'm still in on this series for the long haul, and expect that there may be a few more duddish middle-volume installments before we get to an ending that stuns me again.

Stormlight Archive

Next: '?'

Previous: 'Oathbringer' ( )

This book has serious pacing and structure issues. Long parts of it drag and this is exacerbated by there being too many PoVs and those PoVs switching too frequently. A lot of the impact of the ending was drained by this disjointed PoV swapping which is a pity as those events are momentous. ( )

Good, except for the fact that Sanderson filled hundreds of pages of fabrial "science". I read fantasy books for the storyline, not to be taught some science. I got enough of that in my day job. Worldbuilding has it's limit(IMHO) ( )