The Weakest Stormlight Archive Book Yet

The rating may be harsh, but please let me briefly explain:
I'm a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson's books, especially the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series of books, BUT while "Rhythm of War" starts very interesting, about 80% of the story could have been much shorter.

I don't want to spoil anything, therefore I'm only briefly describing some of the pacing problems. This doesn't mean it's a bad book, just not anything close to the previous Stormlight Archive books, or the Mistborn series:

The flashback sequences are...basically pointless for a variety of reasons in this book, some characters have made some weird "leaps" in their character development (example: Navani was always a scholar, intelligent etc...but suddenly she's the brightest mind of them all, or another character has now PTSD/"battleshock" and literally does...nothing worthwhile up to a certain point?).
To make it more vexing, most characters are plagued by some mental illness, like depression, inferiority complex, PTSD and more. Some characters are literally just sitting around for the majority of the book, waiting for something to happen.
Some characters just turned comically evil, or just appear out of nowhere (heralds), or just dissappear (some members of the Bridgecrew), or don't even get mentioned (Azure) at all.

I don't have anything against slow character development, or quiet scenes, but most of the book is about the majority of characters being depressed and talking about their depressions. It's definitely not what I thought would happen by taking a look at the synopsis, or reading the previous books. The "eastereggs" to other books of the cosmere also got a little bit out of hand, like the sword Nightblood (Warbreaker), or several characters and things they are able to do (looking at you again Wit), which can make it hard to understand or follow certain elements of the book.

I really do hope that the next book (which is supposed to finish the first cycle of Stormlight, before a major timeskip happens) is closer to the writing of the previous books. Taking a look at the timeskip that happened between book 3 and 4 and having only a brief insight about why characters changed the way they did, I have to admit that I'm a bit worried about where this series is heading. After all the entire plot of this book might have been told withing 20 hours at most.

Once the next book is released I'm curious if the same pacing issues and (for now) weird writing decisions are going to continue, or if the series is able to tie the story up to a great mid-finale. Let's hope things don't get tossed in out of nowhere like Wit's relationship with XY.


As usual both Kate Reading and Michael Kramer did a stellar job reading this book, no complaints at all here!

10 Leute fanden das hilfreich

One step forward, three steps back?

I´m unsure what to say about this book, and the direction of the stormlight series overall. I liked the first book of the series very much, with its introductions of all the characters, which were interesting with a lot of potential, the worldbuilding, weird but intriguing. I liked the second book of the series, the story progressed, the characters developed, new ones were elaborated on and new aspects of the world were revealed. I liked some parts of the third book in the series, like lift, who was fun and was lighthearted, the epic battle was great, but some stuff became tiresome. This fourth book was a slog, the story had no clear direction anymore, as had the development of the characters. There was some convolusion with the greater cosmere, but it added nothing good to this story. The characters, like Kaladin and Shallan which had tackled some of their issues previously regressed again somewhat inexplicable to me. I guess its passable for YA-fiction but not very provoking for mature readers. The direction of the story isn´t very interesting to me anymore, I expect, as always in Sandersons books, some weird gnostic explanation underlie the neat magic and await Kaladins final stage of the Super Saiyan, What to say? Its a big book, I guess a lot of effort went into writing it, even though by the standards of many other authors it was written in a comparably short amount of time. It´s not all terrible but it couldn´t hook me well enough to keep me interested. The prose is mostly good, sometimes redundant. I guess I would still give it a 2,5 stars rating just for that but dispite some well executed scenes it was overall to aimless in progressing the story in any interesting way. The audiobook narration is well executed, I still like the idea of the split casting of one male and one female voice for the narration.

4 Leute fanden das hilfreich

A book full of emotion

As always a beautiful and wild ride of a book, full of rich world building, wonderfully human characters and intriguing misteries. Brandon Sanderson is a master of his art and the rich voices of Michael Kramer and Kate Reading bring his world to life.
The journeys of the characters touched me and I fought with them through their struggles, cried over their losses and was overjoyed at their victories.
I can only recommend this series to everyone interested in following believable characters with all our human strengths and flaws during a journey of discovery-not only of their world but of themselves.

4 Leute fanden das hilfreich

god dammit

another 3 year wait for the sequel. the pinnacle of fantasy books. if you havnt read/heard mistborn yet do it! and Michel kramer. i love him and his wife. oh the emptyness Inside after finishing it.. aaaaaaaaaaaah

3 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Great book

but a lot of set up with little pay off. Can't wait for the fith part

2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

15 hours shorter and it would have been perfect

There is so much happening and many of it is great but unfortunately especially the parts with Cal and Shallan after 30 hours are way too long without anything of consequence happening. There are definitely many parts that would have made the story better if left out.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Auch im 4ten Band noch Unschlagbar!

Autor und Sprecher übertreffen sich mal wieder selbst! Absolute Kaufempfehlung, dem 5ten Teil fiebere ich bereits entgegen.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Excellent story

Brandon Sanderson is without a doubt one of the most genious, talented and productive authors. The fourth part of his Magnus Opus is thrilling, painful, revealing, innovative, surprising and delightful. It captures the readers/listeners emotions and induces a craving for the fifth part. Fortunately, in comparison to other authors, we can be pretty sure that the next part is coming soon.

Distinctly average

At this point I am uncertain if Sanderson can write a bad book, however this one certainly was not up to his usual standards. Plagued with pacing issues, Rhythm of war could have stood some trimming.
While still enjoyable, it’s definitely the weakest entry in the Stormlight Archives to date.

Awesome story awesome readers

The length of the book keeps one struggling time by time, but considering how deep one dives into the story thx to Sandersons detailed description is just amazing.
This is very much supported by the great readers. A pleasure!