Okay, so today i'm going to be doing a spoiler-free review for Rhythm of War.
Book 4 in the Stormlight Archive, which will be released on November 17th 2020. I got an ARC
(advanced reader copy) and here i am to give a spoiler-free review. After Korey reads it,
we'll be doing a spoiler-filled discussion like we have with the other books. If you're new here,
i have very long spoiler-filled discussions for each of the books. Playlist linked up there and
down in the description. But today i'm going to talk about Rhythm of War and how i felt about
it. I'm going to give you three "pros" and three "cons" for this book so that you can decide...
i mean you're probably going to read it regardless, but i guess so you can see how
i felt about it? My first "pro" is going to be the world building and small details. It's no secret
that Sanderson really loves his world building and is very good at it, especially in this world. If
you are one of the readers that loves to just hang out in this world and gets really excited
every time Sanderson goes deeper and shows us more about it, you are going to love this book.
There is so much deepening of this world, hanging out within this world, getting to know this world
more. As well as those small little details that Sanderson fans (especially Stormlight fans)
tend to love piecing together and getting a little a little bit more information on. If you're one
of those people that's in the forums, constantly putting pieces together, constantly finding little
connections, this book will make you very happy because there's a lot of that here. And as always,
Sanderson did a great job of making his world incredibly rich and incredibly fun to spend time
in. My first "con" is going to be pacing. Did this book need to be 1200 pages? Not even a little...
which is weird because i don't typically complain about Sanderson's pacing. I'm generally thrilled
with how expansive he is while also constantly keeping things moving in a really exciting way
and i just didn't feel that with Rhythm of War. In my opinion, Rhythm of War didn't have...
Sanderson always takes his time with all of his Stormlight books, but Rhythm of War i think
had the least ideal pacing to it. I definitely feel that this could have been condensed several
hundred pages and still been a very strong story, but on top of that it's not just the page count
because obviously all these books are chunkers. They're all around the same page count,
but on top of some things feeling like they didn't need to go on as long as they did, there were also
things that i felt didn't have near enough focus, which i'll get into in a minute. It's kind of hard
to describe spoiler-free, but there were certain things that i felt were a bit drawn out and then
there were other things that i felt: "Wow. We really needed more time with this in order for it
to have impact." Going off of that, my next "pro" is a fantastic beginning and end. So a lot of you
guys have already read the preview chapters. You know that the beginning is really exciting. I
actually think Rhythm of War was my favorite beginning; my favorite part one of all four
Stormlight books that are out currently. It had such a tight and fun, yet emotional beginning.
I had really high hopes uh but i didn't feel that for the majority of the rest of the book. However,
part five was a great ending. This is spoiler free so that's all i'm gonna say. Ah... should i also
say... i'll say this: Sanderson is always good at his endings and he surprised me with this one
and i'm thrilled with the way it went. I really enjoyed it. It was great set up for the next
book as well as very satisfying and fun in the way it was done. Again, when the spoiler-filled
video comes we will expand. My next "con" for this book is character movement. So we have four main
characters in this series and i was really honing in on these four. I was really bummed with the
amount of movement these four had in this book. So, for some context; if you're new here: book
one, The Way of Kings; i adored. It was a very character-focused book while also establishing a
world and a theme and a tone. I loved it. Words of Radiance is my favorite in the series. It was more
character and plot. Loved it. Book three wasn't as character focused. We had a big focus on Dalinar,
but other than that it wasn't a huge character focus and i am very much a character reader.
I love the world, i love the magic system, i'm very interested in plot, but i'm also interested
in character. I'm a selfish reader. I like all the things. But if i had to pick one that was the most
important to me; characters. Being attached to characters is a really huge factor for me which is
a big reason why Oathbringer was my least favorite of all of them. Dalinar was great, but the rest
of them; there wasn't as much of a focus and there wasn't as much movement. In Rhythm of War
that continues on, but more. Again, can't go too deep into it, but i was pretty disappointed with
our four main characters with how much movement they got. Some of them... really disappointed.
And by movement i mean Arch's. How did they change emotionally? What did they do? How much
usefulness did they have in this book? How much page time did they have in this book?
Some of them i was pretty bummed about. But going back into "pros," we're still on characters. The
characters that Sanderson did actually put focus on, he did so well with. So we already know that
this is Vinli and Eshonai's book. This is their book of backstories, which i will say; if you were
disappointed in hearing that (like i was) he did such a good job with it. I'm actually so impressed
with how well he did with Vinli and Eshonai's chapters. These are characters that i've never
really had a huge attachment to. I've never cared about their chapters all that much in the past.
I was really into their story in this one. He did a great job as he always does in having me
invested in the characters that he wanted me invested in this time. There's also a massive
focus on Navani in this book who has always been one of my favorite characters. I love Navani and i
loved getting so much time with her in this book. I love the role she played and i just enjoyed
spending this amount of time with her. It was definitely her time to shine after the build up
she got in Oathbringer which i loved, i loved her in Oathbringer. Giving her more of a spotlight in
this book was so fitting and so satisfying. So the characters that Sanderson decided on focusing on,
he did such a phenomenal job with and i enjoyed every moment i got with them. I just feel like
there are certain characters that he didn't put that much focus on and they kind of fell off the
map and that was pretty disappointing because i've spent a lot of time invested in those characters.
I'm not going to say who i felt that way about because that feels too spoilery, but again, we'll
get into it more in the spoiler-filled discussion. My final negative about this book is again gonna
be difficult for me to fully explain spoiler-free and that's emotional stakes. There were so many
emotional stakes in books one and two. I felt it less in book three. I feel it even less in book
four. That's really hard for me to get into so i will summarize it, i will say it spoiler free
this way: There were certain things that came up that were very theatrical and really fun to read,
but it always had to go a certain way and so the emotional stakes weren't there. I didn't worry,
i didn't fear, i didn't wonder. And in certain scenes, the resolution felt convenient. Unearned.
So i didn't feel attached to the resolution. On top of that, there were other things that happened
that i was frustrated with because it was meant to be a big emotional payoff, but there wasn't
the build up that needed to be there in order for me to feel any sort of payoff. And a lot of that
probably has to do with stuff that i've talked about before; not focusing on certain characters,
pacing being a little bit choppy... certain things just didn't have the emotional effect
that they needed to have. That they were supposed to have. That i think Sanderson was looking for
and a lot of that is to do with the build-up that wasn't there for certain characters. And yes,
there have been three books of build-up, but i'm talking about specific plot points that
were supposed to happen that did happen, but i felt needed more build up for that plot point
with the character in order for it to do what it needed to do. Again, you understand by now.
We'll talk about it more spoiler-filled. Overall, i had pretty mixed feelings about this book. I had
a ton of fun reading it. I enjoyed myself reading it the whole way through. I read it a lot faster
than i would normally read a book of this size, partially because i'm already established in the
world. I'm already established in the characters. I'm already invested in it all and i want to know.
I was enjoying reading this book so much. Even the complaints i had i still had fun reading those
things. My theory (which i'm not telling you how you're going to feel. Do what you want) my theory
is that if you loved Oathbringer, you will likely also love Rhythm of War. If you found yourself a
little disappointed with the Oathbringer entry, i think that you may have similar feelings with
Rhythm of War. This was easily my least favorite entry in the Stormlight Archive, but i still had
a great time reading it and i still obviously recommend it and it was great set up for book
five, and i'm very excited for book five to come. So there you go. Those are my three "pros" and
three "cons" for Rhythm of War. I'm really excited to discuss this with you when it does come out.
I post videos most weekdays (this video came out on a Saturday. Sorry for being inconsistent).
Pre-order link will be in the description. Check out my Patreon if you want to buddy read this book
with me and a bunch of other people (i've already read it but i'll be a big part of the discussion).
Be sure to chat with me more about this in the comments. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye.