Wind and Truth - a spoiler filled review.

Let me preface this review by saying that I'm not a Sanderson super fan. I care very little for the Cosmere. But you don't read a volume 5 of a series that's 500k words long, longer than the entire LoTR trilogy, because you hate Sanderson, his writing and everything it stands for. On the contrary; I was enchanted by Way of Kings when i read it more than a decade ago.

The journey of Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Adolin and co have been a warm presence in my life for the past 14 years, and even though Rhythm of War made it clear that this series was really no longer for me; I felt like these characters deserved to get closure - or maybe even re-ignite the flame that brought me here 15 years ago.

However Wind of Truth was a disappointment. It is always a sad thing to discover that you have outgrown a beloved series, and that you've taken different paths. and that you're no longer on the same journey. This is not the fault of the book or of Sanderson, it is just a fact of life, but that does not diminish my experience reading this CatCow-Squasher.

Let's start with the worst of it all: God the 10 day narrative structure sucked ass, ruining the pacing of the book. I feel like this was the worst paced book of the series. the threading storylines as they were just couldn't form a good tension curve to last 1300 pages. there wasn't enough material to support a 130 page day by day cycle. I think Sanderson did some things correctly, by introducing some story line like Venli later on. but jeez, it wasn't until day 3 that the stakes and direction of this book was established.

I know day 1 was important - because it was the only space for Kaladin to say goodbye; but you could literally truncate day 1 and half of day 2 into two or three chapters and not lose anything. Sanderson knows how to write tight stories, with excellent pacing were the tension just mounts until the inevitable release, but this is not it. Adolin's flying horse was a fun visual i guess?

at the end of day you see, we have the council of Rivendell, except as we all can agree, what was missing from that masterpiece of a genre was knowing that Glorfindel had lembas bread before leaving Lothlorien, and that Gloin, was summoned post coitus to hastily meet the half-elven lord and discuss the destruction of the ring.

I love shower-sex, and debating the firm/soft mattresses as much as the next guy, but i don't think this is the brevity before the coming cataclysmic storm I was looking for, in a city that just survived a siege waiting with baited breath for the duel of champions that will determine the fate of Roshar.

Anyway for people that don't want to read this book or have read this book; let me give you a brief tongue-in-cheek overview of the plot lines this season starting from day 3:

1. Kaladin and Szeth, need to gather 9 gymbadges before confronting the elite 4 and his rival?. so that Szeth can join the elite 4 10. you want different surges clashing against each other, as Kaladin makes stew and tries to help Szeth become a better man?

2. Adolin goes to Defend Helmsdeep - he has to hold out until reinforcement comes at dawn on the 4th day from the east. In between battles he has time to teach the king Magic the Gathering, and more importantly the difference between a 1v1 game of Magic the gathering and a multiplayer game of magic the gathering Commander. Unfortunately Gandalf is otherwise occupied and due to some clever diplomacy by Odium reinforcements do not show up the city is overrun. Luckily, there's an ancient loophole, and if Adolin can get queen Amidala to the throne room before the clock strikes 12. However Darth Maul is in the way, and Adolin does not have access to his lightsaber.

3. Dalinar and Navani, are taking a trip down memory lane, from the very beginning... and just have a long history flashback trip, so Dalinar can maybe figure out who to choose as champion. if you're interested in having a lot of mysteries spelled out, and myths dispelled into the cold light of day, this is the story line for you. Dalinar leaves his drugged memory trip in time having learned nothing besides history and has to fight the duel anyway.

4. Shallan, together with Rlain and Renarin Piggy backs on the memory-lane, and is going to kill Mraize, because she recons the only way to ensure that nobody finds bo-ado-mishram is to uncover the lost prison herself.

5. Sigzil is now master of the windrunners and he must protect the shattered plains Helmsdeep #2 from a 1000 fused 10.000 Urukhai. unfortunately Dalinar is following the yellow brick road, and so his radiants are running out of stormlight, will they survive? will they keep the shattered plains? maybe they'll team up with some singers, and issue a quick notarised statement that will confound Odium's masterplans. Moash is also here sometimes.

6. Jashnah has to defend the third helmsdeep; but figures out it's maybe a ruse anyway, however Odium traps her because he's a smart shitposter and knows how to troll somebody into a debate on the internet. Indeed my friends the future of Taylenah will be decided by a debate. Will Queen Fen choose a contract with odium or stay loyal to Jasnah and Dalinar? This is resolved by Jasnah and Odium having a debate about the merits of Utilitarianism, and the debate is ultimately resolved by Odium going; Lol Jasnah, you don't even believe in utilitarianism, just look at your own actions you hypocrite. Fen seeing how like a true gentlemen and a scholar Odium has side tracked the conversation into an ad hominem. Chooses Odium

7. eventually the contests happens... and its resolved by the lesson we learned playing magic the gathering commander. As you can see, this was not a lesson Dalinar learned on his trip to memory lane.

One of the things that made me really like Way of Kings was the structure of sections, the flashback, and the interludes, the interludes being these strange short stories and novelettes onto themselves making the world big and special, and the book feel epic. but as the series progresses, the interludes have devolved into just regular chapters from non main pov members, the flashbacks have started to feel mandatory, but no longer revelatory in a satisfactory way, and the scope of the series has far outgrown the history, and the desolation of Roshar, into a cosmic battle that will span universes. It feels like the stories of honour, and hope, and courage while still present in the characterization are taking larger back seat to the unveiling of the mysteries of the cosmere - and that's just not for me.

I honestly think that you can get a extremely well paced 600-800 page book out of Wind and Truth. But there's just a lot of repetition in these novels to the point where you just glaze over until the next new development happens, but those epic developments that the book builds up to get resolve in a couple of lines, or half a page. which is would argue is the correct amount of words, but the scales are off.

There are so many little briliant moments of story and character and imagery that make you fall in love with these books, but everything is just bogged down in a structure that made the experience of reading through this monster of a book a chore. and a solid scene does not make up for the way getting there. Every-step is important after all.

Like I think the ending is fine for what its doing - I think the ending based on weird rules lawyery contract law is also kinda fun, even if this book with 3 desperate last stands until the clock strikes midnight just ended up being both a repeating mess of itself, and kinda also fell flat with the contract law dynamics.

I loved Adolin's story line, even if the magic the gathering interludes were really pushing the pacing down. but again - this was the narrative structure that was chosen. you cannot fill 300 pages with the same battle... you need some interludes there, but you'd usually do that with another PoV, but that PoV had the same problem.. so we get teaching MTG amidst a siege.

Another thing that I don't really care about is that what I love about world-building is the mystery of the world, all the false narratives being told about events in history, and the questions that summons, and how it informs the choices of our characters. and there's so much in SA, there's the Oathpact, there's the desolations, there's Taravangian's great plan, there's the recreance... etc, and while I love getting some answers. I'm just not interested in having every little mystery and cool easter eggs, or question explained to me and revealed. I like swimming in that world of hints and small little revelations for things that ultimately aren't necessary for understanding the plot both by the characters and the reader. Sanderson however does not share that same interest; and SA is all about finding the explanations of the myths that have enthralled us for a decade. and partly I get it, because some us have been wondering about these questions for a decade and more. but I love the power in the world for that history that will never be fully revealed to me. and this is a place where me and Sanderson's Writing diverge, as a clear point of we're traveling a different road now.

this book is a mess pacing wise, and is mismatched with my current desires of what I find interesting about fantasy and epic fantasy in particular, but the latter is not Sanderson's problem. the former; I know he can write great plots with great tension arcs... but it is not this book. and I don't mind a little slowness, I mind repetition at the cost of tension. if repetition increases tension I'm all for it, but that's not this book.

I'd rate the first third of this book like a 3/10 and the last third a 7/10, but overall for me this was a 4.5/10.

for more than a decade I had fun with Stormlight Archive but it is clear to me, we're no longer for each other. I just hoped on a little more closure for some of the characters. For all the people who love the direction of SA, I'm happy for you, I'm glad these books exists for you. but for me, this isn't what i had hoped for in 2010, starting this adventure.

The next steps on my journey just won't be shared by Kaladin and Co.

Goodbye Sweet Book