Book 5 is now finished according to Sanderson's twitter.

We now have a title and a release date (12/24/2024).

 

Ugh, had to be Christmas Eve as a publishing date?

 

So finished the book. All in all, very happy with the book. Here are my thoughts:

Spoiler: Spoiler for the entire book

The end was great, in a Thanos-winning kind of way; I was expecting it as everything suggested a Toadium victory. But I love how it ended.

I specifically liked the Kaladin parts, it made me really feel for Szeth and his story, and for the Heralds, this was my favorite part. I was expecting the Oathpact to be renewed but I was thinking it was Kaladin and his people not the old Heralds but I guess this makes sense as well. Probably in books 6-10, we will see more and more Heralds dying and newer Heralds taking their place. + after being rejected by Shalan, Kaladin can finally bang her mom.

I love that Syl is now StormQueen, she deserved a power boost.

Secondly, I know some people hated the Adolin scenes, but for me, they were the action of the book, and I enjoyed every scene. I specifically liked when Taln went Berzerk.

I also enjoyed Jasnah's storyline and how Todium out manuevered her, I felt that she was too high and mighty in previous books considering all she had going for her was that she was sleeping with Hoid.

Lyft + Vasher = OMG imagine the chaos

What I didn't enjoy? Gav as the champion, that was stupid and pretty obvious in the reddit cosmere threads. Anything related to Shalan and Renarin and his love story.

I really hated Kaladin saying "Honor is dead but I see what I can do" very IronMan ish, did not fit the scene at all, really made me roll my eyes.

I feel like Cultivation really dropped the ball on everything the past 2 books but also in the past against Odium.

 

I’m still stuck on Day 2. Have to put it down after 10 mins of reading because I frequently encounter something that I just hate. Usually Mormon humour.

 

I had some difficulty getting past the first six or seven days.

I haven't read Sanderson's other series, and while they are not strictly essential, I'd guess you can better appreciate some of the moments. I used Coppermind as a substitute, like before.

Slamming multiple PoVs into a chapter was a bad choice. Doubly so when it happened on climatic moments of a character's story... and we drop into the drabness of another character's story without any whitespace to delineate the scenes.

Spoiler

The first major event was Dalinar opening a Perpendicularity into the spiritual realm and a literal zoo of characters followed him in.

Dalinar is back to retracing the past. I didn't mind it in Oathbringer, but I did find this time a slog. He did have his grand moment, but it was built on a foundation of a few chapters. His death felt incomplete and I'd rather have Odium pluck him back into the series instead of conjuring a new one from the soul realm. On the whole, he contributed the most to Odium's victory, between the lack of stormlight for the wars and betrayal of Honor.

Navani, being the mouthpiece for "science", is a character I don't care for. She alternately followed or led Dalinar through visions in the the soul realm.

Gavinor Kholin (Elhokar's son) was also pulled into the visions, but he didn't play any role other than explaining the mechanics of the soul role and as a tool to break Dalinar. I didn't like the second bit, because there was no hint for the reader to see this coming.

Renarin and Rlain ambushed me. I didn't see that coming. I wondered if Shallan was the stand in perv for the readers when she was stuck with the duo. I was proved right not long after.

Shallan played a relatively minor role. She set her MPD to rights, pursued and killed the ghostbloods who snuck into Dalinar's Perpendicularity. I liked the reveal of her mother, Chanarach. She's stuck in Cognitive Realm, probably pregnant with Adolin's son.

Szeth's journey through Shinovar was the highlight of the book imo. His quest for truth, even if juvenile, rang closer to the series' first two books.

Kaladin's mental "treatment" of Szeth made me cringe, even if there were glimmers of how such a treatment could be written. Nale and Ishar's cure was handled worse than this low standard. We did get one moment of Kaladin badassery when he fought Nale and held his own.

EDIT: I forgot to mention this, but some interactions between Kaladain and Syl from this book and Rhythm of War make me wonder if we will see Kaladin x Syl in the next arc.

The handling of the whole treating mental illness part made me wonder if Better Help secretly sponsored the full series.

Adolin's story arc was, on balance, good. The first few days of fighting did well to convey the desperation. His arc after losing his leg sucked. He raised a whole new order on Promises instead of Oaths. It felt like a discount version of radiants. His bromance with Yanagawan, coordination with the Azish army were the the highlights.

Talenel and Shalash's cameo was touching.

I've never liked Jasnah because she's the second of the modern mouthpieces in the series. I enjoyed Odium flaying her character, but it only magnified my dislike for her. The "debate" didn't feel convincing enough though, but I couldn't tell you exactly why.

Taravangian made a good Odium. He pulled off the right mix of menacing and faux kindness. The consequences of Retribution's birth was magnificent, between the planet wide storm, the refugees fleeing through Shademar, the changes in Investiture, and the time dilation.

I have no intention of picking up the second half of this series. This was the first Stormlight book I read over a week instead of a few days.

My journey has unfortunately ended before the destination.

 

I haven't read this latest book but I do find myself enjoying multiple PoVs less and less as I get older and finding it more disruptive than immersive. If a story needs that many PoVs than just split them into different books from different angles, I would personally prefer to read it that way than the chopping and changing of PoVs.

Ironic considering one of my favourite series growing up was The Wheel of Time, but even back then I would skim read certain PoVs, especially in the later books.

 

I'm still doing audiobook recap for oathbringer and rhythm. I like multiple POVs over single POV for fantasy and scifi stories.

The problem with Sanderson's recent books is that he's been swapping POV waaaaaaay too often, with very short chapters. He's mentioned before though that it's intentional and helps him avoid writer's block.

 

I couldn't get past day one, I feel like there's been a deterioration in Sanderson's writing. The prologue was also the worst so far. The more the veil is stripped back, the less interested I am in what's behind it.

The main characters have been flanderised, and the pace is excruciatingly slow.

 

I loved Way of Kings. Thought Words of Radiance was even better. However Oathbringer almost broke me. I never came close to touching RoW.

I'd always thought that when W&T came out, I'd do a full reread. However, it's not gonna happen. Not anytime soon at least. And I've got no desire to pick up RoW or W&T individually either. To the extent where I've actually just started reading the spoilered reviews of W&T. And everything I've read tells me I've made the right decision.

I'm not sure what, but something changed between WoR and OB, and Sanderson's work just no longer clicks for me. I can't really go back to WoK or WoR either. It's like knowing where it goes makes what it was less. There's endless debate around about the quality of Sanderson's writing, I'm not gonna rehash that. But I'll just say that I like my magic to have mystery. It's not science, and shouldn't be treated as such.