Books / Lit The Stormlight Archive (all the spoilers)

[Crazy Jamie]

Even though I haven't managed to play video games nearly as much as I should have since having kids, I have always found time to read pretty consistently. At the same time, the notion of reading a book that is over 1,000 pages long is something I would have laughed at during that time. Because I just wouldn't have considered that to be a good use of time. But I have read a lot of Brandon Sanderson, so I finally bit the bullet and started the Stormlight Archive in August. And yesterday, I finished Wind and Truth. And I want to talk about it.

I'm not going to write a long post here. Suffice to say there was a lot to enjoy in those five books, and I really did become properly invested in them. I am most certainly glad I read them. At the same time, perhaps as with anything that a person becomes properly invested in, I have positive and negative thoughts. The negative thoughts don't stop reading those books from being a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but there definitely are negatives. So I want to get to those too.

But before I do, what did everyone else think?

 

[Quagmire]

I can talk about the first four. I dont care about Book 5 spoilers, I've read a few of them.

I was a huge Sanderson fan. I have read most of his stuff. Loved the first 3 stormlight books. Even re-read them before RoW came out. Still loved them, but then I read RoW and I was just put off. After being disappointed and hopping to the internet I saw that was his first book with a new publisher and it all made sense. The tone was way off. Just like at the start of Last Jedi, it all felt wrong. It felt like a marvel movie in book form.

Many characters went through the same arc as previous books, and one villain who could have been interesting was turned into a saturday morning cartoon moustahce twirling villain. Moash could have been a great foil to Kal, but alas he became a characture of himself.

I wasnt fully off of reading W&T until I read the last mistborn book. I am fully done with Sanderson unless he gets a new editor sadly. Which is a shame as I loved all his early stuff. I've read and listened to podcasts about W&T and even some other super fans are sour on W&T.

It is a shame, but for me life is too short and there is too much stuff I want to read than to keep trying him. I am not against maybe his secret projects as those are more stand alones and maybe one day I'll try a couple of them, but wont be touching his stuff for awhile

 

[Crazy Jamie]

Well, shit. Looks like my really long response to this has been lost to the server outage. I'll touch on it again as and when others reply. Otherwise it's just talking into the void at this point.

 

[Quagmire]

Well, shit. Looks like my really long response to this has been lost to the server outage. I'll touch on it again as and when others reply. Otherwise it's just talking into the void at this point.

I saw yours

I recommend Guy Gabriel Kay for stand alones and duologies

Lois McMaster Bujolds world of the five gods is awesome

First two novels are great, 3rd you can skip they each can stand alone

Penric and Desdemona novellas (and one novel) are amazing, there are a lot but short and mostly stand alones about a priest and his "demon" as they go around solve problems

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Since you marked the thread spoiler then I can just freely post.

It's writing on the wall that Kaladin was heading towards being a new herald. All the foreshadowing with the wind and the vague "you don't need to be at Dalinar's side". The whole journey with Szeth, having him become a therapist of sorts and using that ability rather than his combat also made it clear that he is going to be the one to either heal or regain the other herald's sanity. I am very glad with the direction they took him, his military prowess was unmatched, but giving him a higher calling is deserved for his character.

Dalinar actually having to face off against his grandson was brutal... and the fact that through the spiritual realm it aged him to an adult just made it even worse. I feel bad for the poor kid. His father killed early on, mother controlled by Odium... I knew Dalinar had to die at the end of this, but merging Honor and Odium into a new shard was clever. I thought it was crazy, but the idea that the rest of the Cosmere can no longer just sequester Roshar to it's corner and it is an active threat changes things. Everything was interconnected before, its gonna get crazy now.

There is so much more, Adolin had some tremendous chapters and I loved his growth as a leader. He's the most human of them all, and he put it all out there to be the diplomat/leader/savior that he had to be. I think his chapters were my favorite.

I found the spiritual realm to be interesting in learning who the heralds were before the present day, but man these sections were slogs. I find a lot of Shallan's are. But I liked how it all came together.

More minor characters becoming bigger like Sigzil was cool, and it explains why he appears in another Sanderson book. Plus he has a dawnshard.

Will be interesting to see how the world changes with Stormlight no longer a thing.

 

[A Baby Maker]

Adolin's sections were by far my favorite of the book. It was the most interesting bit and was absolutely tremendous character growth that felt natural.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

I said this already, but Adolin's sections were my favourite too. He is the only main character whose power comes from how he treats others rather than his own internal battles, but the character growth felt so genuine and the action sequences were spot on. I thought "Unoathed, arm up!" was great. Other people have said it was cringey, but I honestly didn't get that at all. Sigzil's sequences were a close second. A really interesting character in an interesting situation. I will also say that Jasnah's arc was also very good. Her contest with Odium felt genuine, as did the effect it had on her.

The overall direction of the plot with the shards I thought was absolutely fine. The Spiritual Realm sequences I thought were just too long. There was an awful of talking about nothing followed by Dalinar saying they need to move further forwards. I think Shallan is probably the biggest casualty of these books. When all is said and done, she was largely irrelevant to the overall plot and her split personality thing really outstayed its welcome for me. The Ghostbloods were also ultimately disappointing. For this grand inter planetary force, they folded far too easily in the end. Ba-Ado-Mishram was also a bit of a head scratcher. This all powerful being that could rival Odium who was impossible to find, but actually they found her and released her pretty easily. And then she did, well, nothing.

Looking at all five books, I really did enjoy the journey. I was invested in them and the characters, and I never want to analyse things too deeply when I'm just enjoying a series that I'm locked into. But I do wonder if Sanderson is just stretching himself too thin with this series. He has many talents, but he's not as good a writer as someone like Joe Abercrombie for me. For the last couple of books I think he badly needed an editor who could stand up to him a bit more. At the same time, I am glad I spent the time to read these. It was well worth it, and I'll likely refresh my memory and read the next one when it comes out too. But it isn't quite the genre shattering work that I thought it might be after the first few books.

 

[Quagmire]

Adolin and Delinar were my favorite two in the first 4 books

Jasnah was up there and I did like Shalan at least in the first 3 books, but was really board by her book 4 arc

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I forgot about the Jasnah/Taravangian part. That was intense. Taravangian is an interesting character because he's painted as a scholarly type, rather than a pure tyrant... but him basically killing off his family flooding Kharbranth to show what he is capable of was so evil. Wit was right to be more wary of him than Rayse. Taravangian has much more ambition.

The Ghostbloods seemed to fizzle as well. They were supposed to be super powerful but Shallan was able to topple them. However, it's not done, because their main leader seems to be

Spoiler: Mistborn Arc 2 spoilers

Kelsier

and I'm not quite sure where this is going unless I missed something.

 

[Quagmire]

I forgot about the Jasnah/Taravangian part. That was intense. Taravangian is an interesting character because he's painted as a scholarly type, rather than a pure tyrant... but him basically killing off his family flooding Kharbranth to show what he is capable of was so evil. Wit was right to be more wary of him than Rayse. Taravangian has much more ambition.

The Ghostbloods seemed to fizzle as well. They were supposed to be super powerful but Shallan was able to topple them. However, it's not done, because their main leader seems to be

Spoiler: Mistborn Arc 2 spoilers

Kelsier

and I'm not quite sure where this is going unless I missed something.

Pretty sure it was confirmed that is him

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Pretty sure it was confirmed that is him

The epilogue of Mistborn Era 2 confirms it - I meant I'm curious as to his end goal. He appeared in the Secret History novella, so its not surprising that he is still alive, but what is his plan? He's apparently so much more powerful than Mraize and Iyatil.

 

[Quagmire]

The epilogue of Mistborn Era 2 confirms it - I meant I'm curious as to his end goal. He appeared in the Secret History novella, so its not surprising that he is still alive, but what is his plan? He's apparently so much more powerful than Mraize and Iyatil.

He seems like a let's cause chaos kind of guy