Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive

I did not enjoy this as much as the best of the previous ones. This book is full of exposition, the amount of backstory we got feels like it doubles what we had been given for all the series so far! It’s amazing however that the outcome was not predictable at all and that we got pretty good answers. So, this part of the story focused on understanding Roshar history and crafting a satisfying finale. While these goals might seem weak, most writers fail to deliver a proper ending or to fill the gaps in their stories. They build expectations, sheltered behind obscurity and when the time comes to drop the curtain, there hardly anything to show. Well, Sanderson does a pretty good job at that. Our protagonists all have their moments and progress. If you have read more of Sanderson’s works you know what kind of ending to expect and yes, this feels like an ending, though there is a lot left untold. But yeah the scope of this story was so huge that not everything could be tied cleanly. Without going into spoilers I will say that the pacing is slow. You know all will happen at the last 15% but you don’t feel that the first 85% is not worthy. I wanted to read this book in 1-2 days, though it was too large so it took me like 4-5. I could hardly stop reading. There is emotion - not as strong as in some previous books, but enough to leave you in tears at times. Mainly that’s why I gave the 5th star. If you reached this book I doubt you will skip it no matter what I write. If you do care, I will say that this whole journey (as journeys are often mentioned in the series) has been a precious experience for me - maybe my best book series. The ending is a bit more chaotic that Mistborn 1, but I will hold the 2 intros of the way of the kings in my heart until I die. I must also add that if you are facing depression this series will probably help! Life before death!Journey before destination brothers and sisters!

Excellent! Period! Am epic finale tying up all threads in the prior books and setting up the stage for the next books! Can't wait for 2031 when storm light era 2 will be released.

When I read The Way of Kings way back when it first came out, I remember a couple recurring thoughts popping up throughout the reading: "Wow, I'm X% through a 1000+ pg book and I'm sad I only have Y more pages of this awesomeness" and "Holy crap this entire book is basically a prologue to something bigger." Wind and Truth started slow. It felt like a soft lit reel of feel-good reflections by the main characters set to "Time of Your Life" by Green Day as they mournfully braced themselves for the epic final adventure. This bugged me more than most of my friends apparently. Me: "Ugh this is Brandon's slowest start to a book EVER. We get it. People have grown and changed and there's a lot of feels and goodbyes because probably people are going to die and the rest of the book is going to be insane non-stop action." Others: "I mean it feels appropriate and I kind of like it..." Me: [rolls eyes and looks elsewhere for commiseration] Given the context now of the, ahem, journey and destination, I'm allowing myself to feel the feels of those early chapters. Unsurprisingly for Sanderson, the master of sticking the landing, Wind and Truth delivers. In appropriate counterpoint to The Way of Kings, it feels like a 1000 page climax. That feeling that ultimately happens in a Sanderson book near the end where something VERY COOL happens alongside a surprising and satisfying conclusion? There were so many of those in this book starting around the halfway point. Taln on the pile of bodies and Ash's dying words... I almost jumped out of my chair. So much brilliant resolution of favorite character arcs (I'm left a bit breathless by Kaladin) - even the lingering unresolved tension in other arcs feels so very right (Shallan...). The significant criticisms are mostly true. Some of the writing felt slapdash. The book would have benefited from a powerful editor's red pen. There's a lot of telling rather than showing. There was some content new to Cosmere stories that made some readers uncomfortable (Rlain and Renarin's romance and the explicit "revelation" that some characters have sex). The mental health themes got a bit heavy-handed (Kaladin responding to Ishar "I'm his therapist" might be the low point of the whole series). And there wasn't as much resolution as many expected for the "end" of the five-book arc (I thought that was perfect, actually). Some of the criticisms are baseless contrarianism - as common as windspren when an author reaches a certain level of popularity. Stephen King writes great characters and sucks at endings. Patrick Rothfuss writes beautiful sentences but sucks at... actually writing. And for Sanderson, his prose isn't Dickens. But where he shines, he is brighter than Nightblood's self-perception. Sanderson uses the framework of fantasy to explore questions like "what is truth?" "what is good?" "what is leadership?" "how do people grow?" "why is there suffering?" and "what do healthy boundaries look like?" Rarely does he try and tell us what to think - even if a trusted character is coming to a conclusion, you can usually find someone else with a counterpoint or challenging a pithy answer with nuance. (A favorite exception in Wind and Truth is Wit's rant against the Thaylen Passions religion - a thinly veiled and fantastically vicious condemnation of health and wealth style religions.) This distinction is so important and addresses some of the gripes popping up in one star reviews. Is Sanderson "pushing" a worldview down his reader's throats? In my opinion, no. Do characters see particular worldviews as good and provide thoughtful reasons for them? Yes. It has always been that way in his books. Jasnah has been providing compelling reasons for atheism and Utilitarianism since The Way of Kings. Sazed argues for Universalism in Mistborn. Wayne (Mistborn Era 2) steals everything. I love Jasnah and Sazed and am not a Utilitarian or Universalist. I love Wayne and think his kleptomania is wrong. But I don't think I can believe in a thing if I can't provide compelling arguments for the opposing options. Part of why Sanderson's characters are so compelling is their willingness to think, argue, grow and change - just like us. What Dalinar was convinced was right and good changes as he learns and grows. Same with Szeth, Kaladin, Shallan, Navani, Adolin... you get the point. And the arcs are not necessarily linear - just like us they can be iterative and recursive. So to assume a character (or the author behind the pen) is telling you that their previously held beliefs are wrong because they've progressed to the next thing is an intellectual fallacy of progressive ideology (that Sanderson has already shown he does not fall for). Readers who are upset by Wind and Truth are reading fantasy for the wrong reasons. To be fair, the genre label is misleading. If you want saccharine thoughtless unchallenging escapism that fits and protects a narrow worldview, every flavor is available. But this is a series of books that is literally about people being challenged and growing. Seen for what it is, I think Wind and Truth is satisfying on a visceral "well that was freaking awesome" level as well as emotionally and intellectually. In my opinion, the people who don't like it haven't been paying close attention to the Cosmere books. No matter your opinions (and mine are high - it could be my favorite Cosmere novel to date), he has changed fantasy forever.

I had many mixed feelings about this book. As much as I love the Storm light Archives, I feel like this book gave me too much to digest. I don't want to say I'm afraid of large books, but getting my hardcopy in the mail, set the tone for me and finding out at the end of the book this is the halfway point of the archive gave me shudders of exhaustion and disappointment. I was ready to put this story to bed and focus on how this story plays out in the Greater Cosmere. Nope. Not yet. Don't get me wrong, the story is amazing. We still get character growth, struggles, and many resolutions. However, I felt this book was like the title of the Michelle Yeoh movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once. Chapters were long and hopped from character story to character story and as soon as I'd settle in with a part of the story, we were off to someone else who either I wasn't invested in as much or the actual story wasn't invested in as much. Action by Sanderson was awesome as always. You will not hunger from lack of battle external or internal. No one does introspection better than Sanderson in my opinion. His characters tend to make me feel better than most. He is meticulous when it comes to battles as his words leap off the page and perform in front of you. His use of tempo of the text aid as you are trapped reading (and listening) the events. It is mindblowing. My main issue with this book, is it's just exhausting. It's good, but after every reading session, I was mentally tired. The next time I went to open my Kindle, the hardcore, or pop into Audible, my heart said yay, but my soul was like "can we just stop and listen to our favorite songs or read a short story or novelle for a bit?" It lead me to serious guilt and I couldn't get through this book as fast as the last four. If anything, I take off a star for the story because the level of fatigue I got during this book. Hate me if you like, but as heavy as concepts of this book, it felt a little like reading War and Peace. I would have preferred this book broken in half. If you made it this far, thanks! Here's my spoiler. Totally worth the struggle for Kalodin. Journey before Destination.

A book this size is fantastic for killing spiders. Also the story is compelling, the little side stories he tells within his novels are always amusing (and sometimes VERY moving, to be honest they've made me cry a little on the outside a few times.) Spiders beware, though, at over 1000 pages, this book is HEAVY. Also, buy it.

So after 4 thousand page books, Wind and Truth is supposed to (sort of) wrap up things for the series. But it really comes through. I enjoyed reading this book a lot which is something I rarely can say. Sanderson does a great job tying up a lot of loose ends and explaining so much about the mysteries of Roshar. If you have read the first four books, reading this is a no brainer. Stormlight Archive is a great series for a casual fantasy reader like myself. And this is the first book I have ever reviewed.

I'm a huge reader, Probably 2-3 books a week. Sanderson, admittedly, is one of my favorite authors due to his unique writing style and worlds. This book blows anything away that he's written in my opinion! There are 3 main point of views you follow through this book and they change up pretty darn often which keeps the pace moving pretty quick. I remember seeing that I was only 20% of the way through the book and I couldn't believe how hooked I was and how much was happening already. Brandon has a way of being a little sloggish in the Stormlight Series... NOT in this book. The pacing is perfect. There is a lot of introspect in this book. A lot of self discovery, but it's not boring - it's tied together with constant happenings. None of it feels forced and some of it is a bit surprising. You have to actually think about the whole book to even realize it's surprising because of how well it's done. You will see some people completely different at the end of this book. One in particular, in my opinion. I laughed out loud plenty of times. I sat on the edge of my seat plenty of times. I thought I had it all figured out plenty of times (I was right about a couple of things throughout the book). In typical BS fashion Brandon tosses ya a few things that are almost impossible to feel out even though he does foreshadow here and there. You have to realize he loves a fake foreshadowing as well though. Overall, this is my favorite book I've read of his. It brought so much together, elightened quite a bit, and really has me wondering what's happening next. VERY hard to try to figure out. But I CANNOT wait to see. One note: As usual, you don't need to read the rest of the cosmere books for this, but oh boy if you do it's a lot more fun (at least I think it would be since I have). No matter what, get this book!

The characters continue to develop and in unexpected ways. The emphasis on mental health and resilience of the mind was terrific. It’s not just about physical strength. Will continue to be on edge for more in the series.