I haven't seen a epic crafted with such meticulous story structure , character writing , immersive worldbuilding and lore , highly tensed sequences , unpredictable plot. The plot and scale is unlike i have ever seen in epic fantasy. Stormlight beats LOTR, WOT, Asoiaf for me.

Syl is my favorite character.

 

Way of Kings and Words of Radiance were god-tier fantasy. Just such perfect alignment of plot and character arcs building to a mutual crescendo, topped with the cherries of a strong secondary cast and an interesting society.

Oathbringer and Rhythm of War have been merely "good". They're entertaining enough but they don't capture the magic of the first two.

I think the story is suffering from the same problem experienced by all stories that try to tell a "breakdown of society" type story - that character stories told *within* a societal structure are more interesting than the story of society itself collapsing.

 

I agree with Taure.
The first 2 books were close to masterpiece.

The last 2 were just..good.
I really didn't enjoy Dalinar's storyline.

and I thought Kaladin's Storyline really dragged and I really couldn't understand where he was coming from.

The ending was really memorable though.

But as for World building 10/10. Its a fully immersive world.

 

Sanderson is masterful at worldbuilding, but he overindulges in tangents, his characters are on the weaker side, he can't write relantionships for shit yet he insists on focusing on them, his wordcount suffers from phenomenal bloat (why say something in 100 words when you can use 10,000?) and he structures Stormlight Archive novels to have nothing happen for 300k words and then everything happens in the last 30k. He also really wants to be realistic, which leads to him including scenes that any other writer will cut because they're boring and do nothing to advance the plot or characters.

His female characters all seem to fall into the same mold--they are capable, witty, courageous, smart, they smash the glass ceiling, all of their dialogue sounds the same. I think Sanderson really wants the approval of the "yas kween" crowd which makes his female characters interchangeable and boring. Maybe he overcorrects because he's afraid that if he doesn't, people will bring up mormonism and call him a bigot or something.

I appreciate his ideas, I dislike his execution.

 

I disagree that any of the books were masterpieces. They're well written. They're competent writing. They are so formulaic to Sanderson that it's baffling. It's 900 pages of busywork for 200 pages of climax.

Maybe on a full-series reread I can appreciate the interwoven storytelling. But comparing it to Wheel of Time where there are disjointed plot arcs that sometimes conflict, sometimes interact, sometimes fizzle because of other plots... I feel that the Stormlight Archive suffers from main character syndrome (now tm'ed), meaning, every single moment has a main character, but they're doing boring things to advance the plot 3000 pages early.

I'm not articulating myself well here, there stories are fine. There's just no pizazz.

EDIT: Wanted to add, I am a Sanderson lover, thank fuck we have one bloke who can write fantasy as if it's a fulltime job.

 

They were fine? Suffered from the fact that he couldn't write more than 1 good PoV character per book yet felt the need to have multiple, alongside the dumbest "well I guess everyone needs a power up to stay relevant" at the end of book 2. Doesn't come close to the titans of the genre.

 

Sanderson recently said the final book of the arc would come in 2024 as Hollywood has come calling for him the reason for the delay. He wants to be co show runner for Mistborn first then adapt Stormlight. Cosmere is going to get adapted. Also the prologue of Stormlight 5 has been posted with a major spoiler.

Spoiler

Shallans mother is an herald and her killing her mother caused the true desolation.

 

I doubt anything will ever really top Tolkien for me personally. Just... nothing even comes close.

Stormlight is a wonderful read though. Easily in my top 5 fantasies.

 

Sanderson has finished stormlight 5 by 7 percent. Apparently he needs to write 4000 words to move the bar by a percent. Honestly I have never seen a dedicated writer like Sanderson. He just can't stop writing.

 

I think most Cosmere stories lose some of their charm once the characters become aware of other worlds, the inner workings of investiture (magic), and the nature of the gods. You start with the mystery and joy of slowly exploring a vast, alien world filled with strange creatures and ancient secrets, but eventually the mysteries are explained, and the story loses its sense of wonder, becomes more mundane.