As someone who really struggled to get through Shallan's chapters in WoK this book was a massive breath of fresh air. There were points where I was bored during her chapters, especially during the trek to the warcamps, but for the most part I was engaged in all of them. The flashbacks were especially good! Seeing her family interact with one another and watching her father slowly break over the course of them was written so well. It was engaging all the way to the end and the reveal towards the end of the book when she was talking to Pattern will make a reread go crazy. Knowing what I know now will for sure change the way I see her in WoK whenever I go back and reread it. The spy stuff and the slow buildup of her confidence in her powers was also interesting. Kaladin to me was a bit bog standard this book. I did find a lot of his chapters captivating though, particularly with the hunt for revenge on Amaram, and like you said the final fight he had was so damn good! Sanderson really knocked it out of the park with that one. SPOILERS below for anyone reading!!! Idk if this is a hot take but I think Moash is right. At least when it comes to Elhokar. I get the dude is trying to be a good king and he's got his own issues but that doesn't excuse the way he treats darkeyes a lot of the time. I hear the fandom universally hates Moash and that has me wondering why now. Maybe the whole joining up with Graves to work for the Diagram might have something to do with it, idk. I'll find out eventually I suppose. Similar to you I was NOT expecting Adolin to kill Sadeas that quickly. I had been spoiled on it happening but I thought for sure it would have happened in Oathbringer. Letting it occur at the tail end here when this part is reserved for resting and setting up other stuff blind sighted me but I guess that was the intention. I can't wait to see how that unfolds and what the fallout will look like. I will have to disagree with you when it comes to the length. I think this book and Way of Kings is too long. There needs to be at least 100 pages trimmed off. It took so long for me to get through this and I think the length of it didn't help that when came to my reading experience. I love the world Sanderson has built and I know he loves to go into detail into things but my god man this is just too much book. It comes across like it's long for the sake of being long. Like he knows people will read however many pages these books end up being. That page count for Wind and Truth is just insane to me. Quite the intimidating book, that one. I've heard that Zahel and Nightblood are from Warbreaker and now that I've read this book I'm regretting not taking your advice you first gave me when it came to reading Tress or Warbreaker before the Stormlight Archive. Starting off with shorter books before hoping into the big ones would have made me more appreciative of the writing, character work, and world building I think. Which is why I'll be taking a break after I finish Edgedancer. Reading Wok and then WoR back to back has left me exhausted. I need a shorter book to get through. This'll mean I won't be ready to read WaT by the time it releases on December 6th but oh well. I'll have plenty of time to read it before Stormlight 6 drops. Oh and I forgot to include this as well. Brandon wrote a chapter detailing Jasnah's POV when she was stabbed and you can read it here: reactormag.com/stormlight-archive-scene-after-words-of-radiance/ It's strange that this wasn't included in the book. Like you said, her death doesn't feel like one the reader thinks will stick so I'm not sure why he didn't include it in later versions of the book.
love this book! Been a few years since I've read it... but one part that always comes back to me is the interlude about the giant turtle island. So freaking cool
I actually prefer the Way of Kings over Words of Radiance, simply because I wasn't the biggest fan of Kaladin in this book, he felt too much like Superman at points and his mood swings were a bit annoying. Still Shallan was easily the best part of this book, her character arc was incredible, it's personally a 4.5/5 book for me. Unfortunately I'm of the opinion that the series only goes downhill from here, not bad, but no longer on the level of the first two books.
IMO so far this book is peak Sanderson but I think it works as almost a complete story with Way of Kings. Of all of the storm light archive in my opinion the first two books are still yet to be topped
As someone who really struggled to get through Shallan's chapters in WoK this book was a massive breath of fresh air. There were points where I was bored during her chapters, especially during the trek to the warcamps, but for the most part I was engaged in all of them. The flashbacks were especially good! Seeing her family interact with one another and watching her father slowly break over the course of them was written so well. It was engaging all the way to the end and the reveal towards the end of the book when she was talking to Pattern will make a reread go crazy. Knowing what I know now will for sure change the way I see her in WoK whenever I go back and reread it.
The spy stuff and the slow buildup of her confidence in her powers was also interesting.
Kaladin to me was a bit bog standard this book. I did find a lot of his chapters captivating though, particularly with the hunt for revenge on Amaram, and like you said the final fight he had was so damn good! Sanderson really knocked it out of the park with that one.
SPOILERS below for anyone reading!!!
Idk if this is a hot take but I think Moash is right. At least when it comes to Elhokar. I get the dude is trying to be a good king and he's got his own issues but that doesn't excuse the way he treats darkeyes a lot of the time. I hear the fandom universally hates Moash and that has me wondering why now. Maybe the whole joining up with Graves to work for the Diagram might have something to do with it, idk. I'll find out eventually I suppose.
Similar to you I was NOT expecting Adolin to kill Sadeas that quickly. I had been spoiled on it happening but I thought for sure it would have happened in Oathbringer. Letting it occur at the tail end here when this part is reserved for resting and setting up other stuff blind sighted me but I guess that was the intention. I can't wait to see how that unfolds and what the fallout will look like.
I will have to disagree with you when it comes to the length. I think this book and Way of Kings is too long. There needs to be at least 100 pages trimmed off. It took so long for me to get through this and I think the length of it didn't help that when came to my reading experience. I love the world Sanderson has built and I know he loves to go into detail into things but my god man this is just too much book. It comes across like it's long for the sake of being long. Like he knows people will read however many pages these books end up being. That page count for Wind and Truth is just insane to me. Quite the intimidating book, that one.
I've heard that Zahel and Nightblood are from Warbreaker and now that I've read this book I'm regretting not taking your advice you first gave me when it came to reading Tress or Warbreaker before the Stormlight Archive. Starting off with shorter books before hoping into the big ones would have made me more appreciative of the writing, character work, and world building I think.
Which is why I'll be taking a break after I finish Edgedancer. Reading Wok and then WoR back to back has left me exhausted. I need a shorter book to get through. This'll mean I won't be ready to read WaT by the time it releases on December 6th but oh well. I'll have plenty of time to read it before Stormlight 6 drops.
Oh and I forgot to include this as well. Brandon wrote a chapter detailing Jasnah's POV when she was stabbed and you can read it here:
reactormag.com/stormlight-archive-scene-after-words-of-radiance/
It's strange that this wasn't included in the book. Like you said, her death doesn't feel like one the reader thinks will stick so I'm not sure why he didn't include it in later versions of the book.
Truly another banger from Sanderson, looking forward to the continued adventures of Cow Admin and Schlong!
I like watching joel’s decent into becoming a mormon
love this book! Been a few years since I've read it... but one part that always comes back to me is the interlude about the giant turtle island. So freaking cool
I actually prefer the Way of Kings over Words of Radiance, simply because I wasn't the biggest fan of Kaladin in this book, he felt too much like Superman at points and his mood swings were a bit annoying. Still Shallan was easily the best part of this book, her character arc was incredible, it's personally a 4.5/5 book for me. Unfortunately I'm of the opinion that the series only goes downhill from here, not bad, but no longer on the level of the first two books.
IMO so far this book is peak Sanderson but I think it works as almost a complete story with Way of Kings. Of all of the storm light archive in my opinion the first two books are still yet to be topped