It finally happened! After four years of waiting, book five of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson has been released: Wind and Truth is out! I won't lie and pretend that I spent the last four years eagerly awaiting this book, too much happens in four years as that it would be possible to continuously stay hyped for the next installment of a book series. The last couple of weeks prior to the release however, my feelings of anticipation rose again and I was exceptionally excited once I finally got my copy of it. In true 'impatient fanboy' fashion, I pre-ordered the hardcover, only to walk into the local bookstore on release day and buying the paperback right then and there, since the delivery of the hardcover version was delayed. Here is a shocker image for all people who care a lot about matching editions of books (looking at you Hendrik):
So I finished Wind and Truth a few days ago, it took me 13 days to do so, which comes in at about 100 pages per day. Not bad, considering I just started a new fulltime job this December, if I dare say so! Since I live for good stories, and Sanderson is one of my favorite authors, I wanted to share some initial thoughts. Maybe I'll do a more extensive review in the future, but for now I just need to vent my feelings. So without further ado, here is my first impression of Wind and Truth! (Needless to say: Beware Spoilers!)
The book as a standalone
Let's get it out of the way: On its own, this is probably the weakest Stormlight Archive book so far. It has the strongest ending (I'll get to that in the next section), but the journey to that ending within the book could have been executed better. Overall, with its over 1300 pages, it felt significantly too long, as it included a lot of repetition and a very slow start. People might disagree with that, but many of the storylines failed to catch me until about the last third of the book. In particular, I was missing significant points of tension earlier in the book. Comparing it to for example the taking of Urithiru in Rhythm of War, the story of Wind and Truth seemed to lack such pivotal moments that served as tangible markers of progress.
The (perceived?) lack of progress came from the structure of the book: Wind and Truth is split into 10 sections, each spanning a single day, the ten days until the Contest of Champions that was set up at the end of Rhythm of War. This felt arbitrary to me, because most of the days had no cluminating moments. Instead, it too often felt as if a day ended right in the middle of some chapters, because, well, a day has passed. In the previous Stormlight Archive books, there often was a culmination at the end of each of their five sections. So the 10-day structure felt a bit arbitrary to me and did not do anything to create tension compared to the previous five-act structure.
Another thing that I just didn't care about were the stakes of the Contest of Champions as they were communicated by the characters. A major part of this book was the fact that Odium would keep all lands that he conquered and held at the beginning of the contest, so the Good Guys have to defend the strategic points of interest until the beginning of the contest. Which meant that for many of the characters, in particular Adolin, Sigzil and Jasnah, each day felt almost the same. Day 2: 'We have to hold Azir, it will be hard to hold until the end!' Day 3: 'Still holding Azir, it will be hard to hold until the end!' Day 4: 'Yep, still holding, but it will be hard to hold until the end!' I just could not care for them holding these lands, because in the end it felt as if it didn't even matter. The main question always was 'How to deal with Odium?', besides that holding a bit more or less land felt irrelevant to me. On top of that, the places that were fought over didn't hold a lot of meaning to me. It was different with Urithiru in Rhythm of War, as this was the seat of power for the Radiants and thus carried special significance. Now, Azir, the Shattered Plains and Thaylen City, they all felt somewhat unimportant. Sure, you can tell me that they have strategic importance for food supplies or sea access or being a large nation and ally, but I never felt that this is important. There was no sense of 'Oh shit, things will be so bad if they lose Azir'. To me, that is lost potential.
Now you could argue that the strength of Stormlight Archive has always been the characters and their journeys, and I would agree. Unfortunately, even there, it took me about two thirds of the book until I actually started caring about most of the characters plotlines. A major focus was on Szeth and Kaladin, and while I eventually really liked their shared journey, it felt poorly executed at times. I never cared much for Szeth, his whole 'I must follow the law!' deal felt intangible and unrelatable. His backstory and the relationship with his family was good and eventually made me care for his character, but not in the same way I care for some of the other characters. In particular, Kaladin always was the most relatable character to me, and he was not written well in the majority of Wind and Truth, unfortunately. Which brings me to one of my major points of criticism: The prose.
Dear god was the prose awful in this book at times. I never minded Sanderson's straightforward way of writing, it makes the books easy to read and doesn't get in the way of the story and worldbuilding. But in Wind and Truth, something was different. There was a bunch of modern terminology used by the characters that felt completely out of place. I know Sanderson likes his representation, and mostly I think this is a good thing, but here it oftentimes killed the immersion for me. There have always been mediocre and cringe-worthy jokes in Stormlight Archive, but people talking about 'mental health' and Kaladin being people's 'therapist' just didn't do it to me. These terms gained traction in the 1940s and feel out of place for a fantasy world like Roshar. I still love the idea that Kaladin's arc is one of overcoming depression and using his own experiences with it to help other people who are struggling, but having it be so on-the-nose with modern terminology felt out of place and like cheap fan-service. A potential explanation mentioned by Daniel Greene in his Wind and Truth review is that Sanderson changed his editor and that maybe a new editor would not be as assertive. This sounded like a reasonable explanation to me, but it turns out that Sanderson responded to this particular criticism and denied that it is due to a lack of editing. Just from skimming the responses, it looks like I'm not alone in pointing out that the usage of modern language felt out of place.
So yeah, I do have a lot of issues with Wind and Truth, far more than I had with any of the previous Stormlight Archive books. At the same time, I still appreciate Sanderson, his vision for the Cosmere, the way he interacts with his fans and responds to criticism. While this book had a lot of flaws on its own, as a conclusion to the first arc of the Stormlight Archive it worked exceptionally well. So let's talk about that!
The conclusion of the first arc of Stormlight Archive
Holy. SHIT! This Ending!! The last 300-or-so pages. The pinnacle of Sanderlanches! I read the ending in a blaze, and my god was it satisfying in every regard! Yes, sure, you might have some minor nitpicks, but it just worked so well!! It brought almost all storylines to a satisfying conclusion (Moash being the only notable exception I think) and at the same time did a perfect setup for the second arc of Stormlight Archive. It also included the information we got from Sunlit Man in the best possible way, and tied in nicely with some of the other Cosmere novels, especially Mistborn Era 2. I was so insanely excited once I finished this book, I laughed and cried (no good Stormlight Archive book without some crying) and shouted in disbelief, for that experience alone I am immensely grateful to Sanderson. Yes, some people would say it's just a book and not real, but screw them! I feel like I lived some of these character's lives, it made me feel all these powerful emotions and those are definitely real! I couldn't have wished for a better ending to this great journey that Stormlight Archive has been. Now to wait seven years for Stormlight Archive 6 😭
Let's end this with a list of my favorite moments and reveals. Don't continue reading if you don't want to be massively spoiled out of your mind!
- The emotional hard-hitter: Kaladin swearing the Fifth Ideal and realizing that it is ok to take care of oneself, while still caring so massively for those around him. Yes, I cried like a little child during this scene. Somehow, it just resonated so deeply with me and my own journey. I think this is Sanderson's greatest strength: He leaves enough room for you to fill his characters with your own experiences and emotions, which sometimes makes them so very relatable!
- "Give me the lore!" The flashbacks of the live of Honor / Tanavast. Seeing him arrive on Roshar after taking up the Shard of Honor, trying to build something with Cultivation, his struggle with the Intent of the Shard while trying to manage the conflict with Odium, the decisions he makes or is forced to make, his ultimate downfall. We learned so much about how the Shards think and operate, about their limits and why they are far from omnipotent. I think the Shards and the Cosmere as a whole are the biggest potential in Sanderson's stories, the way he builds them up is quite similar to what Marvel did with the MCU, and I think this is a formula that is proven to work. Also, we learned the name of the last Shard: Reason. To be honest, I expected a cooler name here, but I guess it's hard to beat Odium :)
- The outcome of the contest, and the future of the Cosmere: Dalinar trying to take up the Shard of Honor, and in doing so realizing that this is not the way to go, since the power itself has to evolve and learn. Letting go of the power and baiting Taravangian into picking it up, ascending further to the Shard Retribution. What a brilliant move! We as readers know that Dalinar essentially won the contest, because he saw a potential that no one else saw. But the people on Roshar don't know it! Retribution is a terrifying Shard (with a somewhat average-sounding name), because it doesn't suffer (as much?) from the conflicting Intents of its individual Shards, compared to Harmony. At the same time, he now became Public Enemy No. 1 in the Cosmere, which is also clever and paves the way to the Cosmere-wide conflicts that have been teased in some of the other Cosmere novels. The choice itself is of course not a new trope, baiting a villain with more power to constrain them reminds me of the old Aladdin Disney Movie, and giving up power to play the long game is basically exactly what Doctor Strange did in Infinity War so that the events of Endgame could happen. More parallels to the MCU here?!
- Szeth's spren is Aux: Sigzil renouncing his oaths to save his spren was a neat move, him meeting Szeth's spren, after Szeth also renounced his oaths was a nice way to explain the events prior to the Sunlit Man. Just a minor nitpick: With Dalinar also renouncing his oaths, it was a bit too much 'oath renouncing' for my taste. Also, I only now realized that the number of Szeth's spren is a code for 'Aux': 12124 -> 1 - 21 - 24 -> Take these numbers as positions of letters in the alphabet and you end up with 'AUX'. Neat.
My current rating
★★★★☆ (4/5)
Yes, shocking, it's not a 5/5. I'm not giving half stars, and even if I would, 4/5 just feels right to me. The ending was phenomenal, to me the best ending of any Stormlight Archive book, and one of the best endings of any fiction books I have read. As satisfied as I am with this ending though, a good ending does not make up for all prior mistakes, and this book just had too many flaws for me. And you know what? I am surprisingly happy with how I feel about this rating. I know that only a couple years back, I would have been adamant in my conviction that such a book is either perfect or a disappointment. Now it feels easier for me to see both the good and the bad and have a more nuanced view of things. I guess it is this 'getting older' thing that people keep talking about!
Let's see how my opinion of Wind and Truth evolves over the next weeks. Maybe I'll do a reread with a bit more patience?
As always, thanks for reading!