All I need is Lift.

 

I'm surprised this hasn't been created yet. Rhythm of War is scheduled to be released 17 November.

Brandon Sanderson started releasing preview chapters of the book on Tor every Tuesday. We currently have the Prologue up to Chapter 3 released.

Here is a link to the Index.

Prologue and Chapter 1
Chapter 2 and 3

I'm really looking forward to this book.

Spoiler

• Gavilar is a bigger dick than implied and his plans are a lot grander. I did not expect him to be this much of an asshole.
  
• At least 3 Heralds were at the feast. Nale, Shalash and presumably Kalak.
• A year has passed since the ending of Oathbringer.
• We now have a lot of Radiants. A whole group of Edgedancers and presumably Lift who apparently is growing now.
• Alelthkar has been conquered completely.
  
• The Fourth Bridge is awesome.
• Shallan is still crazy.
• I really like MInk. Fun introduction to the character. Him throwing shade at Dalinar made me laugh.
• Syl remains the best character in the book.

 

Thanks for posting this! Last time I looked into it, I think the book was still being written.

Hopefully we see more of Kaladin than we did in Oathbringer.

 

Shit, I need to reread everything... Also hoping for more Kaladin.

 

I read the Oathbringer preview chapters then when I got the book I struggled to get through the opening - the material was familiar enough to feel like a re-read, but I had also forgotten too much over the course of the chapter releases that I felt I needed to read the whole story to understand everything that was happening.

So this time I am going to exert some self-restraint and avoid reading the previews.

 

Sanderson has two series planned in the Stormlight Archive world, each of 5 books.

This is book 4 out of 5 in series 1. It's unclear how much series 1 and 2 are separate series vs. telling a single story. Certainly Sanderson proposes to take a fairly substantial break between series 1 and 2 to write other books.

If you're waiting until he finishes series 2 (i.e. book 10), you'll be waiting another 15 to 20 years.

 

Let me tell you how Stormlight #4 will play out.

Kaladin will mope around the continent for half of the book, then there will be a subplot in one location where a battle happens and Kaladin will feel guilty about something.

Shallan will vaguely bounce around a subplot that will ultimately have no bearing on the overall plot of the book. She will receive a letter from Mraize and make plans to find out what Ghostbloods know but by the end of the 500k word worldbuilding encyclopedia novel, she will have made no progress on this front.

Dalinar will be frustrated with other world leaders in various rooms. He will be frustrated alone and with Navani. He will make great inroads towards forging the alliance. The alliance will not make an appearance outside mentions of such riveting things as import tarrifs for leather and emerging disputes between competing cobblers' guilds in Urithiru to lend the world a sense of realism.

Events will conspire to bring all three together into a Named Location just as The Final Battle commences. Voidbringers will clash with Alethi troops (mostly Kholin Cobalt Guard) and some assistance from the local armed forces of whichever Named Location the Final Battle takes place in. Voidbringers will be tearing shit apart until one of the Big Name Radiants has a Crowning Moment of Awesome and singlehandedly turns the tide. Other Radiants are permitted smaller versions of the Crowning Moment of Awesome, but their impact will be limited in scale and will not turn the tide of battle.

Sprinkled troughout the book will be interludes that will have no impact on the plot whatsoever, or are planned to have limited impact on the plot of the next book, but not the one they're actually in.

 

Kaladin not reaching stage 4 was the biggest cop out of any story ever so all the heroes could stay at stage 3 of their paths

 

Reading Oathbringer felt like being forcefully kept in stage 3 of brain cancer so the book could bore me for longer.

 

Scott, we get it, you don't like them. Piss off.

I for one am very much looking forward to this one.

 

Probably accurate. But somehow I'll still enjoy every single word of it.

Sanderson's storytelling just has the effect on me. I still go back and reread my favorite sections of Words of Radiance regularly, because it's just that good.

 

My favorite thing ScottPress has ever written is a negative review of Sanderson's books on /r/Fantasy.

 

I hope Lift gets more chapters this time. She's the most entertaining character Sanderson has ever written tbh.

 

Rhythm of War cover art was released today.

 

Or the UK cover art:

 

I gotta say, Shallan looking vaguely perplexed is considerably less intriguing than literally any of the previous 3 covers. :/

Also, we probably don't need 3 separate Rhythm of War threads so let's all just commit to one.

 

Not strictly relevant to this thread, but Dawnshard, a novella between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War has been out for some time now.

Spoiler

I'd say this story was a bit too mechanistic. The flow stuck to close to a classic quest format. Might be because it was rushed? It might be GoT influence, but since Dalinar rejected Odium, everything seems to be going too smoothly for the protagonists. The same happens in this story as well. There is some more tech uplift in this chapter. I guess this is coming about because of the war (maybe to contrast with how the previous wars were, with the Heralds doing most of the heavy lifting?), but it still appears too fast. Discovery and usage of Aluminium seems like a huge tech leap. Overall, I'd have preferrred a character piece (like Edgewalker) rather than what seems to be an important part of the overall plot.

 

Anyone finished yet? Spoiler free thoughts? I'm waiting for the holidays to delve in because I'm just too busy right now and I still have to reread Oathbringer.

@Jon or @Ched or someone could you do a merge into one 'Rhythm of War' thread or into a spoiler vs nonspoiler set of threads?

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