Rhythm of War

I have so much to say, but at the same time, I don't want to say much... This book was INCREDIBLE!!! Brandon set the bar really high for the next book, and for that he worked masterfully the plots in this one. Besides, I appreciate the effort he made with the characters mental illnesses. The depictions were accurate, and I can't be more thankful for their journeys because they were like my own. Now I'd like to sleep until the next book, thank you very much.

I've really liked this series, but this one clicked more than the others for me. It presents some perspectives that we haven't really seen up until now and there are some fun and interesting character interactions that really drew me in, like Navani and Raboniel. There are still a lot of archetypical hero moments and repeated story beats, but they are well done and fun to read.

I still think these books are way too long for my taste, but this one felt like much less of a slog compared to parts of the last book, Oathbringer. I'm not entirely sure why, it felt to me like chapters were pretty short and switched quite often to almost completely different storylines, so I never felt bored in one place for too long.

I find a lot of the god-tier rules and stakes really confusing though, and I'm not sure if that's on me or if it's because I don't know much about the greater Cosmere beyond this series or if it's intentionally opaque. I can understand the effect of certain things on the characters in this story, but a lot of the details and implications of them are muddled to me.

** Minor Spoilers **

The occupation of the tower is really well done and gives a lot of insight into several different types of characters, and allows interactions that we haven't seen before. Not everything is black and white in the conflict. Also, having Kaladin basically Die Hard-ing throughout the tower was fun.

I like almost all of the main POV characters. Adolin trying to prove himself in a world where his main skills have been rendered nearly obsolete. Shallan's personalities could have been very eye-rolling, but it works as a blunt representation of inner conflict. Dalinar is just a well written character who provides a good path into a lot of the macro-story. Navani teaches us a bit more about how the world works and is a more clinical insight into it. Venli lets us explore a lot of unseen history, allowing us to understand and sympathise with the “enemy”.

** Major Spoilers **

I'm kind of surprised that the three main storylines (Shadesmar / Dalinar at War / The Tower) didn't really converge to a finale. I thought that would bother me, but I kind of liked having them all with their own concerns.

The big fight once again being resolved by swearing a new ideal is a little bit much, but it was enjoyable still. The power creep in this series is getting wild though.

The penultimate book in a story arc is always a challenging one. Everything needs to be set up for a grand finale so there tends to be a fair amount of character positioning and story prep. Rhythm of War is the 4th book in a 5 book first arc of the Stormlight Archives and has a lot of ground to cover. The main POV character who had previously all be brought together are now scattered apart to fulfill some key tasks. The war which has been going on is not exactly going brilliantly for our heroes - the fused are essentially immortal so a war of attrition is a bad one to be in. These are all challenging positions to tell and keep the reader interested - especially over a 1200 page book! Sanderson is however a master of the epic fantasy genre and holds together all his threads, keeps the reader interested and delivers a mightily impressive take on this, usually the most challenging book in a series.

I don't feel I need to rehash my praise of Sanderson's world building and character work - if you have got this far into such a massive series you should well be aware of it. He is a master of his craft and this is probably the best epic fantasy currently being written. Note: Stormlight Archives need to be read in order. I see too many reviewers of fantasy books starting in the middle of a series and then complaining about being confused. DO NOT START READING THE SERIES WITH THIS BOOK. Do yourself a favour and start from the beginning (The Way of Kings). Epic fantasy needs to be read this way. Sanderson has been clever enough to split his Cosmere into several self contained story arcs, but each arc needs to be taken as a total story and you can't jump in mid arc.

Keeping things generalized to avoid spoilers

This book offered some of the most enthralling plots laid out by Sanderson. While Oathbringer dove into the political world of Roshar, Rhythm of War dove into Roshar itself.

RoW expands on some characters more than a few of the “usual suspects” that you might come to expect, so individuals who love those specific characters from earlier books might find this one a bit lackluster. I enjoyed the new look on these characters, so this wasn't an issue for me.

Along with that, RoW gets pretty technical about the machinations of Roshar – it felt like I was getting as many questions answered as the number of new questions I had, can't wait for book #5!

Executive Summary: The start of this book really dragged for me and for that reason it's the first book in the series I'm not giving 5 stars too. Once it got going though I remembered why I love this series so much.

Full Review
Done! After nearly 6 weeks. First 5 weeks: 500 pages read. Last week: 700 pages read. The last part of this book was an easy 5 star read for me. But that first part really really dragged. I'm sad that this will be the first book of the series I don't give a 5 star rating too. He was batting 1000% so far.

It's hard for me to seperate this book and 2020. My reading this year is way down. I just can't concentrate. I'd pick this up and read 1 or 2 chapters. I'd set it down to check my phone or would doze off. But that was happening with other books too.

Once I really started getting into though, I remembered why this is one of my favorite series. The same elements that made it slow in the first half remained, but the rest of the story was picking up momentum and carrying me through those parts.

I'm not sure if the payoff of those slower sections was worth it for me. Normally I love Kaladin's parts and really enjoy Shallans. Both of them were a drag early on, especially Shallan's. Kaladin's got better much faster.

I was mostly clinging to Andolin's story in the early going, so of course right at it was getting good, it stops for a few HUNDRED pages. Sigh.

I was kind of indifferent on Navani's parts for much of the book as well, but that too improved as it went on. So really the book just took awhile to get its hooks into me.

Overall this is the weakest of the series so far to me, but still an enjoyable read. Now to wait for the next one. With where this leaves off, I'll be curious to see what he's got in store for the mid-series finale.

Overall, I find this to be the

 Obviously you will not be reading Rhythm of War with without having read the preceding three thousand-ish pages in the series.

I feel like Sanderson's writing craft has finally caught up to his giant ideas. With every plot twist there was a feeling of “Oh! Ah”, as you cast your mind back to every hint dropped in your path. The discussion and depiction of mental illness was nuanced (from my POV, I do not claim to represent any brain except my own).

Ultimately, not a disappointing installment in a series I already greatly enjoy, raising as many questions as were answered, and now I'll wait another two (three) years for the next. 

Het heeft wat voeten in de aarde gehad, maar ik heb Rhythm of War uiteindelijk uitgelezen. Voeten in de aarde, omdat ik begonnen was met het in audioboek te beluisteren, maar het was al zo lang geleden dat ik de vorige boeken gelezen had, dat ik geen flauw idee had wie wie was.



't Is te zeggen: ik had de vorige boeken gelezen, zoals in “met mijn ogen gelezen”, niet beluisterd. En het moet zijn dat ik de namen anders in mijn hoofd had zitten dan de meneer en de mevrouw die het boek voorlazen, of ik weet eigenlijk niet wat, want het lukte niet, in audioboek. Ik geraakte niet vooruit, met elke avond juist voor ik in slaap viel een kwartier te luisteren.
Overgestapt op Kindle en 't was direkt beter: na een paar hoofdstukken was ik weer helemaal mee, en op een paar avonden was ik er door.
Heel veel negatief commentaar op tinternet, zag ik achteraf. Boze mensen, over hoe saai het is en alles.
Ik ga niet zeggen dat het een slecht boek was. Maar ik durf ook niet te zeggen dat het een boek is dat zeer veel mensen uitstekend gaan vinden. Brandon Sanderson bouwt aan een verhaal dat bijna al zijn werk aan het omvatten is: alles speelt zich af in de Cosmere, waar quasi-goddelijke wezens (die behalve dat ze enorm machtig zijn toch nog altijd verrassend menselijk blijven van karakter en dergelijke) in verschillende zonnestelsels zitten op verschillende planeten, en waar er een soort allesomvattend systeem van magisch-achtige dinges is, dat in elk van die plaatsen zijn eigen systematiek heeft.
Het hangt allemaal in elkaar, en voor de (zeeeer) aandachtige lezer staat het vol met verwijzingen over en weer.
Daar knelt het wat, in Rhythm of War: Sanderson probeert te veel antwoorden te geven, en tegelijkertijd te veel allusies te doen naar dingen die alleen begrijpbaar zijn voor superfans en méér dan aandachtige lezers die alles gelezen hebben en/of op de hoogte gebleven zijn via bijvoorbeeld The Coppermind.
Ja, ik ben één van die mensen. En ja, voor mij was het allemaal redelijk duidelijk, eens ik er weer in was geraakt.
Een tweede probleem is dat het boek over en weer slingert tussen verschillende vertelstandpunten, en dat die helaas niet allemaal even interessant zijn. Zo is één personage, Venli, enorm interessant als het verhaal zich in het heden afspeelt, maar minder dan boeiend als het flashbacks zijn van acht jaar, zeven en een half, zeven jaar, etc. geleden. Doet een ander personage tot in de laatste paar hoofdstukken gewoon niets van belang, maar krijgt het wel om de zoveel tijd zijn eigen hoofdstuk waar niets in gebeurt. Is er nog een personage dat hoofdstuk na hoofdstuk wetenschappelijke experimenten omschrijft die vrees ik alleen maar boeiend zijn voor wie meer wil weten over het grotere beeld van de verschillende Cosmere-systemen.
Een mens krijgt het gevoel dat dit nooit zou gebeurd zijn in de eerste boeken van Stormlight Archive — daar zou een redacteur nog durven zeggen hebben dat veel van die verhalen verteld konden worden in één hoofdstuk in plaats van in tien of meer.
Het heeft er ook meer te maken, vrees ik, dat Sanderson zichzelf een redelijk vast carcan heeft opgelegd wat structuur betreft, over alle boeken boeken heen: elke titel van elke boek een verwijzing naar een echte tekst in het boek, elk boek een thema, elk boek een orde van Knights Radiant, elk boek een ongeveer gelijk aantal standpunten, elk boek één flashback-protagonist.
Maar hey, dit was boek 4 van de 10 in Stormlight Archive. Het volgende boek zal een einde zijn, om dan vele jaren later de draad opnieuw op te pakken in boek 6-10. Sanderson deed dat al eens met de Mistborn-boeken, waar het tweede deel van het verhaal zich zo'n 300 jaar na het eerste dele afspeelt. Ik ben bijzonder benieuwd te zien wat er zal gebeuren in Stormlight 5. Het laatste nieuws is dat dat voor 2023 zal zijn.
Met wat geluk is Winds of Winter tegen dan ook al uit. Alhoewel.

When you complete a series (or at least all the installments that are out so far), with each book being 1000+ pages, I think a major book hangover is inevitable. So I will certainly be experiencing a massive Stormlight Archive hangover these next few days, and I'm not looking forward to it sighI was quite happy with this installment, especially since I enjoyed it much more than [b:Oathbringer 17250961 Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3) Brandon Sanderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500062685l/17250961.SY75.jpg 23840254]. I was apprehensive because I knew that Rhythm of War would focus heavily on worldbuilding—which is something I do really enjoy reading about, but in moderate doses. But thankfully the worldbuilding parts that I found a bit dull to read about didn't hamper my overall enjoyment too significantly, and to my surprise, I actually really enjoyed a lot of the worldbuilding information we get during the latter portion of the novel.Some parts of the book definitely dragged on for too long. This was especially obvious during a chapter where confrontation takes place between two people; halfway through these two people's confrontation, I was just so ready for it to be over with. Moments similar to these were quite common, at least for me, when reading this book. I think Sanderson could have gotten away with cutting out at least 300 pages worth of redundant scenes/dialogue.Don't let my last point dissuade you too much though because I still think the journey to finishing this story was worth it. One thing that was really memorable for me was everything that happens with Navani. This installment really made me appreciate her character so much, and I'm really eager to see her characterization in the next installment (which hopefully gets released in 2023!)Overall, a very solid read! Though granted, my review is definitely biased since I've developed a soft spot for this story after spending in total 4000+ pages worth of time with it

This book dragged a lot compared to the rest of the series :( I found myself getting bored for pages and pages and I think the ending did not pay off this time. I hope book 5 is as good as books 1 and 2 were.

On a more general note, I'd like to note that I'm getting more and more annoyed by the direction Brandon Sanderson's writing is taking. I really don't like his sense of humour and I can't stand characters like Wit (Hoid) or Wayne. I think I really hated Tress of the Emerald Sea precisely because of Hoid. Also, I have always been annoyed at the way he changed Matt's character in the Wheel of Time, making him much more of a clown :(

4.50/5.00“Journey before Destination, you bastard!”

These words sum up the message of this book perfectly. Rhythm of War, is surprisingly, an underrated entry in The Stromlight Archive. This book focuses on Woldbuilding in such an intricate way, that I can finally place the magic system in SA in the same pedestal as the WoT. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the character development and the amazing sanderlanche ending. Although, I will repeat my criticism of how the “sanderlanche” is not always needed. Some of the plotlines could have reached the end before part 5, without taking anything away from this book. The weakest part of this book is the backstory, which is very uninteresting and did not add much to the plot, and failed spectacularly to develop the character that it was trying to. But Sanderson makes up with other plotlines and worldbuilding which is as excellent as I expect SA to be.

Life before death!

"I accept that there will be those I cannot protect"!Plot -> Kaladin, yes! Navani, hell yes! Raboniel, hell fucking yaas! Taravangian yay! Adolin and Shallan, okayyyyy. Venli, duh. The flashbacks hurt this book more than anything. The plot is excellent otherwise. i enjoyed Kaladin's journey, Navani and Raboniel's plotline is nothing short of the best of fantasy worldbuilding. Worldbuilding -> Amazing! Voidlight, lifelight, Warlight, Towerlight.. what else do I need to say? Its freaking amazing 10/10 rare.Characters -> Raboniel! NAVANIIIIIII! YAAASS. I love it. Kaladin is excellent as usual. Shallan is okay, but Venli was just boring. Prose -> Same as before, my complaints about the POV jumping is not as bad as book 3. I still don't like how all plotlines were delayed until the end, but it is better than book 3. Emotional Impact -> I absolutely loved this book. It has some boring moments with Venli flashback, and Shallan's story was resolved too quickly after wasting so much time with nonsense in Shadesmar. And all the cosmere connections is so fun!

3.5/5

La historia sigue siendo fantástica, pero creo que en este libro, Sanderson lo alargó más de lo debido. La Parte 3 tiene tintes de excelencia, pero esas 300 páginas aproximadamente se sintieron como 10.000.

Los flashbacks, aunque interesantes, poblaron demasiado el libro con detalles que ya conocíamos y el estar atados a un solo lugar en la mayoría de esta extensa historia tampoco ayudó mucho.

A partir de la Parte 4 despega nuevamente y la Parte 5...que puedo decir, es la Sanderlancha, pero las falencias mencionadas creo que afectaron bastante lo que pudo haber sido otra obra maestra de Brando Sando.

De todas maneras, a esperar el archivo 5!!

I finally read it !! It's been on my tbr since a while but I can't bring myself to read it. The reason : more than 1200pages (or 28 hours of reading). So it's been read since the beginning of February and been paused by several buddy reading. But I finished it yesterday! And what to say about it? Did I already mention I love Sanderson books ? I f***ING love it ! I cannot say a lot because I don't wanna spoil and, with Sanderson, more we read, more we learn. I love this kind of writing , when we learn about the universe, the world, the magic and the past... And I don't know why I read it because now, I have to wait for the next one to be published... So yeah , thumbs up again for Sanderson