Rhythm of War

Rhythm of War, the 4th installment in the Stormlight Archive series, largely shifts its focus to two characters who were largely in the background before. Navani is the ruler of the ancient fortress of Urithiru while her husband Dalinar is away at war. While she is adept at politics, her true passion is engineering, and she often acts as a patron of scientific pursuits. When the fortress falls to a surprise attack, she becomes the prisoner of Raboniel, an enemy leader who also has a passion for science. Raboniel encourages Navani to continue per studies, but both sides are loyal to their own sides and are determined not to let any breakthroughs help the other. The interplay between these two is the highlight of the book for me. The show more other focus character is Venli, one of the architects of the plan to return the evil god Odium to power. She was given great power among her people, yet is still treated as a second-class citizen by the immortal Fused. Through flashbacks we learn of the history of her and her people. She regrets the headstrong actions of her past, and now secretly tries to pursue a separate peace for her people away from Odium's war. Both of these plots give a lot of much-needed nuance to a conflict that had become far too black-and-white at the end of the previous book. This might be my favorite in the series so far. show less

Yikes. I almost dropped this to two stars but out of respect for the series and what I think of as a generally REALLY good story and worldbuilding I left it at 3.

My main dislikes:

1. I get why we are being told the Venli/Eshonai story, but they are sooooo boring in my opinion. This didn't need to span 1,000 pages. Honestly.

2. For a book that is very long, not much happened. The character development was pretty much expected, 4th ideals, etc. but I don't think there was much that surprised me here. And sometimes that's OK, but the way that it's told is stagnant as well. The setting is stagnant. The characters don't move, but they change. It just felt...odd. And rote.

3. And maybe that's my final complaint is that it feels like this is show more long, drawn out, and has so much backstory that the main story suffers. It feels like Sanderson has so much in his brain about the world, world building, characters, etc. and is SO close to this because it's lived in his head for decades that the actual story suffers for it.

There are things to admire about the book and I truly love this series, but this felt like a misstep and I finished it not excited like I usually am. I typically devour these books but this was a slog. show less

A (Great).

An evil god and his minions make their moves to end a thousands-year-old war. The first few books each had one central story (with a bunch of supporting storylines), while this one juggles all of them in more-or-less equal balance. Objectively, it makes for a weaker book, but as Episode Four Of Five of a series, it's very exciting.

(Mar. 2024)

“Heroism is a myth you tell idealistic young people—specifically when you want them to go bleed for you. It got one of my sons killed and another taken from me. You can keep your heroism and return to me the lives of those wasted on foolish conflicts.”

Well dang. After the absolutely bonkersiosity of the first three Stormlight Archive books, I hadn't the slightest idea how Sanderson was going to pull off yet another (and another and another coming down the pipeline). And yet here we are.

One one hand, it somehow manages to be a 'smaller' book. You don't quite have the gigantic battles and epic, world changing revelations of the previous books. Instead, you get a much more focused look, dealing more directly with some very broken show more people or battles on much smaller scales (the Tower city of Urithiru). And that's not at all a bad thing. It's absolutely fascinating to see how Kaladin and Shallan (in particular) are broken. Some of that--I've dealt with it. Let's just say that Sanderson did an almost painfully good job at times. And there's one scene in particular near the end of the series. He always has the best lines.

On another hand, this book has by far the most worldbuilding/universe building I think we've seen yet in a cosmere novel. We learn more about the nature of Magic on Roshar, but also some pretty crazy implications for other worlds as well. There are whole chapters of SCIENCE in there that I can absolutely guarantee (because I've seen it) that people are going to love or hate. But me--I loved them. It's one of the things I love most about Sanderson's work and in this, he delivered.

Both of these make this a bit of a slower book and at over 1200 pages... that's kind of painful. But at this point, I don't think this is the book that's going to make or break the series for you. If you've made it this far, you'll read it and I hope love it as I did. But now, even with Sanderson's prolific release schedule... we have to wait. ONWARD!

"And … what happened to your shoes?”

Shallan glanced at her bare feet, which poked out from under her dress. “They were impeding my ability to think.”

“Your…” Adolin ran a hand through his delightfully messy hair, blond speckled with black. “Love, you’re deliciously weird sometimes.”

“The rest of the time, I’m just tastelessly weird.” She held up the carafe. “Drink. It’s for science.”

He frowned, but tried a sip, then grimaced. “What is it?” she asked.

“Shin ‘wine.’ They have no idea how to ferment a proper alcohol. They make it all out of the same strange little berry.”

I really do like Shallan. :D show less

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 show more 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. show less

That ending sure was something. Wowza. Brando has done it again. I spent a few weeks carefully reading through this monster and getting some expanded story behind all the usual suspects. I must say the way mental health challenges are depicted in these novels really is beautiful and separates them from other high fantasy.

Rhythm of War represents the first time in quite a while that I've read a book which is the latest in an actively ongoing series. So it was definitely a very engaging and interesting reading experience, both in knowing that this was the extent of the story for now, and in getting to see other people's ongoing reactions and predictions as I read.

The book itself, unsurprisingly, continues to live up to the epic scope, themes and proportions (both in terms of content as well as physical book size) of the rest of the Stormlight Archive. The overarching storyline of the conflict between humanity and Odium is significantly progressed and there are plenty of amazing moments both for the plot and for specific characters. The opening and show more closing parts were definitely the highlights of the book, and I enjoyed the spotlight given throughout to Navani and the Parshendi - particularly as the latter added many more layers of nuance to their culture, their society and their motivations. I also felt that the focus on mental conditions and their effect on individuals on a personal as well as a social level was treated in a realistic and meaningful way.

In addition to substantial worldbuilding for Roshar itself, Rhythm of Waralso brings in significant elements and connections to Sanderson's wider cosmere. While I certainly appreciate the depth and intricacy of his extended universe, I generally prefer my series to be largely self-contained in terms of lore, and without having read more of Sanderson's works, some of the references left me confused rather than engrossed. I also felt that the pacing and distribution of character perspectives was less balanced than in previous volumes. While it didn't really drag, it did mean that certain plot arcs got less attention and thus had a less impactful resolution than I was expecting.

While I therefore wouldn't deem this my favourite book of the Stormlight Archive, Rhythm of War is still an excellent read and (perhaps more importantly) perfectly sets up the next book to provide the big finale to this first arc of the series. So, as is undoubtedly fitting for this book - journey before destination. show less