[Cause]

Is there a decent summary of past books anywhere. I need it but cant go through Slogbringer again to remind myself what has gone before. I really enjoy the books but some are really long winded and I feel in the case of Kaladin his story arc repeats unnecessarily. I want to move on to the new books but feel without a refresher I amy miss out on so much.

[Tsundoku]

Cause, on 13 December 2024 - 01:42 PM, said:

Is there a decent summary of past books anywhere. I need it but cant go through Slogbringer again to remind myself what has gone before. I really enjoy the books but some are really long winded and I feel in the case of Kaladin his story arc repeats unnecessarily. I want to move on to the new books but feel without a refresher I amy miss out on so much.

Seconded.

[QuickTidal]

Cause, on 13 December 2024 - 01:42 PM, said:

Is there a decent summary of past books anywhere. I need it but cant go through Slogbringer again to remind myself what has gone before. I really enjoy the books but some are really long winded and I feel in the case of Kaladin his story arc repeats unnecessarily. I want to move on to the new books but feel without a refresher I amy miss out on so much.

Tsundoku, on 13 December 2024 - 02:07 PM, said:

Cause, on 13 December 2024 - 01:42 PM, said:

Is there a decent summary of past books anywhere. I need it but cant go through Slogbringer again to remind myself what has gone before. I really enjoy the books but some are really long winded and I feel in the case of Kaladin his story arc repeats unnecessarily. I want to move on to the new books but feel without a refresher I amy miss out on so much.

Seconded.

Coppermind.net has chapter by chapter breakdown summaries of every book in the Cosmere. Just go there, type the book you want and read.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 13 December 2024 - 02:41 PM, said:

Cause, on 13 December 2024 - 01:42 PM, said:

Is there a decent summary of past books anywhere. I need it but cant go through Slogbringer again to remind myself what has gone before. I really enjoy the books but some are really long winded and I feel in the case of Kaladin his story arc repeats unnecessarily. I want to move on to the new books but feel without a refresher I amy miss out on so much.

Tsundoku, on 13 December 2024 - 02:07 PM, said:

Cause, on 13 December 2024 - 01:42 PM, said:

Is there a decent summary of past books anywhere. I need it but cant go through Slogbringer again to remind myself what has gone before. I really enjoy the books but some are really long winded and I feel in the case of Kaladin his story arc repeats unnecessarily. I want to move on to the new books but feel without a refresher I amy miss out on so much.

Seconded.

Coppermind.net has chapter by chapter breakdown summaries of every book in the Cosmere. Just go there, type the book you want and read.

i looked A LOT for some nice concise STA summaries ahead of WnT and found SFA, other than Coppermind chapter by chapter. The alternative is use the very handy time machine function to set the Coppermind to before WnT and read each main character's summary, which covers most of the things you would want to remember. I keep it open when reading/ear'ing to look up the occasional minor character or event i cant remember.

[Tsundoku]

Cheers lads.

[Abyss]

Ch 21-47 (Szeth fighting Writ)

- Shallan's spy game was good fun. It was basic at times and clever at others but overall it worked. I especially liked when she's discovered, reveals herself, almost runs, then realizes everyone is running away from from her. The action that followed was well written, esp when Shallan ditches her armor and weapons and takes a crossbow bolt to protect 'her' spren;

- the 'we're looking for three people, one tall, two short... she looked at the guards they brought w them... Oooooo craaaaaaaap!' was well done;

- there was waaaaaay too much talking about what Dalinar had to do before it started, but i did enjoy how it all went sideways at the test phase;

- Lift hitting puberty is not a thing i ever needed to read but it is kind of funny;

- Renarin and Rlain's gay autistic nerd interspecies love story really feels like Brandon trying to show how he's not like other Mormons. Ok, i get it, he's taken crap over his church (rightly) and he's trying to make a point, but this is just blunt, could have been done better;

- Kal stressing over how to be a psychiatrist has replaced Kal whining over everything else. Meh. And his interplay w Szeth is really weak, so not good bromance material so far;

- Adolin planning for the defence of Azirith has beena continual high point in this last chunk. Thoroughly enjoyable. His relationship w Mara and her continuing recovery is especially readable. The first sequence of combat was excellent;

- Szeth vs Old Woman Stonewhatever is AWESOME.

[Abyss]

Ch 47 - 85

ADOLIN.... DAMN.

TALN...AND ASH.... DAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.

[Werthead]

The Stormlight Archive Book 5: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

Quote

The war between the forces of Odium and those of the Knights Radiant has entered a dangerous new phase. Dalinar Kholin has negotiated a contest of champions, himself against Odium. Both sides have only ten days to seize as much territory as possible before this war will come to an end. But a devastating reversal has taken place which the Knights have no knowledge of: the shard of Odium has changed hands, and its new shardholder is a cannier, smarter foe far more willing to bend and flex than its former owner. From Shinovar in the west to the Shattered Plains in the east, the fate of Roshar, and perhaps the entire cosmere, hangs in the balance.

That sound you can hear right now is of reinforced bookshelf supports being delivered to hundreds of thousands of SFF fans across the globe. Bookshelves creak, strained by a weight they were never designed to hold. Yes, a new Stormlight Archive novel from Brandon Sanderson has arrived.

At 1,330 pages in hardcover and just a tad under half a million words by itself, Wind and Truth is the longest book in the series to date. It's also the most interesting. Whilst this is only the fifth of ten books in the series (and the seventeenth of potentially forty in the much wider Cosmere setting), it's the end of the first major story arc and has to "park" the various storylines for a planned ten-year timeskip before the sixth Stormlight book picks things back up. That book probably won't appear until the 2030s, with Sanderson committed to writing a new Mistborn trilogy and two sequels to Elantris before resuming this series.

In this sense Wind and Truth is Stormlight's equivalent to George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords, which also had to "park" a massive array of character and plot arcs in the Song of Ice and Fire series in preparation for a five-year timeskip which, in that case, never happened (and arguably caused problems that series is partially still confronting two and a half decades later, but that's a debate for elsewhere). It is a climax book that has to deliver massive payoffs and tee up the second half of the series but can't actually end the series.

In some senses it delivers: Wind and Truth is a massive countdown to a continent-shaking confrontation between Dalinar, the highly redoubtable, reformed war criminal turned leader of the resurrected Knights Radiant, and Odium, the principle force of evil on not just this planet, but the entire Cosmere setting. But, in arguably Sanderson's most satisfying plot twist to date, the previous incarnation of Odium was killed at the end of the prior novel, Rhythm of War, and replaced by what had appeared to have been a minor, sympathetic semi-antagonist up to that point, one with detailed knowledge of Dalinar and his allies. This creates a situation in which our heroes are fighting an enemy they literally know exists, and knows them better than they do themselves.

This results in Odium launching a complex, multi-pronged scheme to defeat and conquer as many of Dalinar's allies as possible, as fast as possible, and their increasingly desperate attempts to fend him off and survive until the deadline, with the slight problem that Dalinar still has no idea on how to actually win that confrontation when it arrives.

This structure gives us a ticking clock element, and four primary storylines that continue through the novel: Dalinar entering the Cognitive Realm to learn the deep backstory to the setting and figure out how Odium was defeated, or at least checkmated, in the past (with Shallan unwittingly tagging along); Kaladin and Szeth visiting Szeth's homeland of Shinovar to find out what's going on there; Adolin leading a desperate battle in western Roshar to fend off Odium's forces; and Sigzil and the rest of Kaladin's old Bridge Four unit leading a similar desperate battle in eastern Roshar. Characters like Lift, Wit/Hoid, Renarin and Rlain, Venli, Jasnah and Navani also have notable subplots.

This makes for a busy novel that - somewhat - justifies its yak-stunning length. This is an improvement over Oathbringer, which probably could have been reduced in length by half without losing anything too major, and Rhythm of War (aka Die Hard with a Sprengeance) which was not far off the same. Wind and Truth has a lot going on and Sanderson juggles it mostly quite well. That's not to say the novel doesn't occasionally feel indulgent: strategy meetings where characters debate the plot rather than getting on with the plot recall some of the sludgier moments of The Wheel of Time, and the elaborate Cognitive Realm TED Talks on Ancient Rosharan History start indulging in redundancy when we get to revisit the entire storyline a second time later in the novel, from a different POV.

The plots themselves also vary in quality. Kaladin and Szeth's trip around Shinovar feels like a different, almost completely self-contained novel, one that takes place in two time periods as we see both Szeth's flashback storyline and his present-day storyline, which are very similar and take place in many of the same locations (again causing a feeling of redundancy). The divorcing of their storyline from the rest of the novel makes it feel a bit disconnected, at least until the end makes its relevance clear. This storyline also drags, especially as Kaladin has been learning the art of therapy and gets to try out his various new learned techniques on Szath's numerous neuroses with all the enthusiasm (and ill-advised lack of forethought) of someone who's watched a few too many YouTube videos on mental health and not read enough deep studies or done enough actual studying. Prioritising mental health is a good thing, and that message in one of the biggest-selling modern fantasy series is laudable, but the emphasis placed on it sometimes feels incongruous, if not pace-killing.

Adolin's storyline is probably the most traditional hoo-rah epic fantasy one here, with lots of military planning, cool action sequences, epic battles and desperate fights for survival against overwhelming odds. This sequence is great (you can almost see an anime adaptation in your head as it goes on), but is potentially a bit overwrought by the time the battle has been going on for eight or nine days and eight or nine hundred pages.

Dalinar's storyline is the most important in the book, but also the vaguest. Much of his story has him viewing narrated histories about Roshar's deep past that you can almost imagine Ken Burns narrating, which is both catnip to lore...cats, but potentially boring to everyone else, so Sanderson interjects a lot of action by having Dalinar stalked by the mysterious Ghostbloods and having Shallan acting behind the scenes to stop them. A lot of this stuff is pretty good, but again you start to ponder if this could have been structured differently (especially when Dalinar gets to experience everything he's just seen again, but from a different point of view).

The final major storyline is the best-paced, with Sigzil and his team returning to visit the Shattered Plains (the evocative setting for the first book in the series, The Way of Kings) and getting embroiled in a humdinger of a complicated battle, which is further thrown for a loop by the arrival of a third side.

We flip between these storylines quite regularly, allowing all to be serviced on a frequent basis, although this can result in plot-whiplash as the reader is thrown from city to city to illusionary dream dimension to intense battle to tragic deaths to cutesy romantic exchanges and strained humour without much regard for tonal consistency.

The book is a lot even by the standards of the series so far, which can both breathlessly enjoyable but also frustrating, especially for those who find some storylines deeply engrossing and others much less so.

This is also the book which does feel like it breaks Sanderson's (already shaky) long-ago promise that readers would not have to have an in-depth knowledge of the entire Cosmere universe to enjoy any given series or even novel within it. We even spend brief parts of the book visiting Scadrial to set up the forthcoming Mistborn: Ghostbloods trilogy, and allusions to other books come thick and fast. At one point the book stops to give us a potted plot summary of Warbreaker (where the sword Nightblood first appeared), whilst one part of the ending exists to set up the events of the previously-published The Sunlit Man. This may be good from the point of view of the wider Cosmere setting, with Sanderson incorporating more elements into Stormlight that were originally planned for other books and series (thus reducing the total number of books he still has to write in the setting, which was starting to look a bit over-ambitious), but those Stormlight fans who weren't keen on Mistborn or his other works may be less happy about those wider setting elements colliding with Roshar here.

Of course, for those who love the interconnected elements of Sanderson's wider universe, this book will be outrageously enjoyable, satisfying, and prime Wiki-fodder.

Summarising a book of this breadth and heft is tricky, especially when you want to avoid "1990s flight sim expansion pack review syndrome" ("if you liked the last thing in the series, you'll like this too, I guess"). If you've read the previous books in the series, you're going to read this, and you'll have a good time; Sanderson sceptics will find little here to convince them otherwise. Wind & Truth (****) is better than the last two Stormlight books, but not as strong as The Way of Kings. Sanderson's weaknesses - a prosaic prose style, occasionally jarring use of modern language mixed in with more formal syntax, haphazard characterisation - are still present and correct, but his strengths are here as well: impressive worldbuilding, fascinating magic, explosive action sequences and satisfying moments of plot revelation and payoff. This novel also has an impressive amount of incident going on, paced surprisingly well for the book's staggering length. The book is available worldwide now.

This post has been edited by Werthead: 04 January 2025 - 07:34 PM

[Abyss]

85-99

I should also add that i am loving Nightblood's brief appearances. The sword trying to help Szeth and being so utterly overjoyed wen it thought it helped, the fact that in the other realms it sees itself as a glowing beam of light, and that it's had a running chat going w the various Honorblades, all just collectively cracks me up but it also goes a long way to establishing Nightblade as a character.

I also like that part of Szeth's 'test' (aside: the surviving Heralds are assholes and completely trying to set him up to be that sucker who spends centuries in Blaise being tortured) was to carry Nightblade around but not use it. I mostly liked the idea of Szeth having to retrace his training to challenge each former bearer, the action sequences have been fun, but his angst is becoming Kaladin'esque in its repetition and the flashbacks are tiresome.

Kaladin's pursuit of his therapst degree alternates between interesting and threatening to becoing another Kalangstfeste. Interestingly i find both characters are most readable when they're bouncing off each other. Soup and flute-practice... go figure.


Syl saying 'fuckit' and helping Szeth herself was a nice touch.


Szeth's spren deciding it needed therapy... k fine, i lol'd.

Shin and Nail are both clearly bugnuts. Arguably little too bluntly so for how long it's taken everyone else to notice.


Dalinar/Navani/Gav's Excellent Adventure could have been about half what it's been so far. I see the value in giving the reader history for context but it seems like the same points are being made multiple times. I am hoping either Navani or Gav - not Dalinar - end up w Honor's power tho.

Sigzil scenes are great high action fun. Could do w a little less of his 'oh look i am a real leader now yay' inner monologue but ok fine Brandon's gonna Brandon, and in contrast w other characters Siz' is less angst more survival. Having read THE SUNLIT MAN i am genuinely worried for his spren. Also, fuck Moash.

Adolin's segments continue to be a high point in the book. Even down a leg and out of the action, the character development we've had so far has really raised even his introspection to more readable than most.

Shallan is all over the place... i'm tired of her multiple personalities and hiding from the truth and ok ok we get it, but then we get the minor revelation that HER MOM WAS A HERALD AND TRIED TO KILL HER AS A CHILD WTFingF?!!?!?!?. I am still enjoying Renarin and Relanes parts in the story.

We're not getting nearly enough Yasnah and what we are getting isn't giving her nearly enough to do.

TaravangiOdian appears to have become a moustache twirling evil overlord. I am genuinely curious to see whether Brandon pulls off making him an actual clever villain w a real plan, or is he just 'I SHALL DESTROY YOU ALL' guy.

Venly and friends.... i appreciate the brevity, i am enjoying their segments.

Lift's interlude - rescuing Vashar and the chicken - was glorious and I want six more same size interludes of her doing awesome stuff.

[Abyss]

This Yasnah v Taravangian debate is going on waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, is obvious where it's going, and i'm tempted to up the readspeed just to get through it to the part where Yasnah agrees she would do anything to protect 'her' people so Fenn should do the same and bail out of the alliance.


It's compounded by the fact that Yasnah's entire argument should have been 'he's an evil god who will find a way to throw you and your entire country under the Roshar-equivalent of a bus if he thinks he needs to'.

[Abyss]

@ch 126 (Adolin and co are hiding)

Abyss, on 10 January 2025 - 07:46 PM, said:

This Yasnah v Taravangian debate is going on waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, is obvious where it's going, and i'm tempted to up the readspeed just to get through it to the part where Yasnah agrees she would do anything to protect 'her' people so Fenn should do the same and bail out of the alliance.


It's compounded by the fact that Yasnah's entire argument should have been 'he's an evil god who will find a way to throw you and your entire country under the Roshar-equivalent of a bus if he thinks he needs to'.

Well, that was predictable. Meh. I did enjoy Taravodium showing up after and offering to make her Supreme Ruler of Roshar tho. "For the greatest good.". THAT was evil clever.

Sizgil... k wow, that was insane... breaking his vows to save Vieta turning her into a deadeye/shardblade. Also, Fuck Moash.

Kal forcing Nail to remember... a little blunt, but overall well written. The fight was fun. The Syl-flute was a nice touch.

Navani, Rlain, Renarin, Shallan.... yes yes we get it we get it move it along already. Even Dalinar, who had some major revelations.... enough. He's a different person, Honor won't invest someone who wants the power ok we understaaaaaaaaaand. Just give the power to Taravodium and the inner conflict will rip him to shreds and we can get back to giant chasm fiends wrecking things (love those beasties).

Speaking of which, I don't know what's happening w the Mink but that was a great Interlude and I hope we get more.

Szeth.... k we always knew he was going to end up 'truthless' and exiled and whatever, which really killed any tension to his flashback storyline.

Adolin continues to be the absolute bestest segments and i stayed up waaaaaaay late listening to his 'last stand', twice. THAT was the kind of writing and tension and character arc i want more of. When he drops, thinks about playing dead, then gets up, plants his pegleg, and starts fighting again.... DAMN. And then .... "That is the Emperor of Azir risking his life over there and he's not leaving without you so GET UP dammit." ...... DAAAAAAAAMN.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 13 January 2025 - 03:56 PM, said:

...Just give the power to Taravodium and the inner conflict will rip him to shreds ...

Ch 143.... well damn.

[Abyss]

Aaaaaaaaand Just Finished.

I liked it. I did not love it, though i did love parts of it.
It was overlong. Plots meandered or else went over points multiple times when the audience should have gotten the message already.
It went deep on the Cosmere and worldbuilding, and while i could have lived with less, i did enjoy the insight into the bigger Shards and gods and worlds plots.
The action was great. I wish we had gotten more of it and less journeying. Journey-before-destination is all when and good but better when you stop to stab a few baddies with a spear along the way.

Kaladin... spent entirely too much time angsting about being a therapist. When he actually did it, via stew or music or just trying to talk to crazy ass immortals, i did enjoy the scenes. And his action scenes, few tho they were, were fun. That we got a revisit of 'Honor's dead, but i'll see what I can do." was sheer candy served on a platter. I am releived we didn't get the romance plot with Syl but not certain that's done with.

Syl was great. I enjoyed her segments, her development, her efforts to be more physical and more 'human' and i liked her initiative away from being Kal's sidekick (we all know he's hers). The last scene where she seems to have inheritted some of the Stormfather's power was very interesting.

Szeth... Szeth was Kaladin this book. Too much angst. Too much whining. Too much family issues. Too much waaaah my life sucks. And knowing where he ends up to such great detail really just sucked the tension right out of his flashbacks after the first few. His 'revolution' was wasted time it took too long to get to and too long to read. I did enjoy his byplay with Kaladin and Syl tho. And his spren 12124 was surprisingly fun to read/ear, credit to Michael Kramer i think.

Nial... ok we get it, he's nuts. I thought it was fun to have him join Szeth's plot, but he becme as annoying as Kal found him fairly quickly. He did work well in the finale with Shinn and those events tho.

Shallan... was fine in her Ghostbloods plot, i liked the revelation about her mom, everything else was just waaaaaaaaay too repetitious. Also she's totally pregnant. And for all the she shared her plot with Relain and Renarin they might as well have been separate storylines.

Renarin and Relane were fine. Admirably brief and to the point compared to most POV characters.

Dalinar... too long and too long and waaaaaaaay too long. I enjoyed his finale against Taravodium, but too long to get there. And since he's coming back mean and evil, i hope we get something very different next time.

Navani. brief and to th point. Enjoyed her doing science last book, would have liked more of that. The odd time she figured something out was always enjoyable.

Yasnah. I wanted more of. Til we got that debate thing. Predictable, boring even, and the effectively the end of her storyline.

Taravodium. Iliked his occassional flashes of clever but the moustache twirling evil because evil was meh.

Lift... should have had more to do. Loved her interludes.

Leshwy... very enjoyable, admirably brief, i liked the insight into the Listeners.

Signzil... all good. Brief, on point, his challenges were engaging and the outcome both brutal and satisfying.

Adolin... bestest storyline in the book by a massive margin. Rivetting even. I enjoyed the hell out of all of it. His prep for the fight, his dealings w the various soldiers and officers, his friendship w the Emperor, THE BATTLE SCENES, Maya, his leg, the stealth mission, the Unoathed, all of it. Adolin's plot made and saved and boosted this book for me hugely.

The finale... there are elements that could have made more sense about Ishar and the spren and the Oathpact and just what the hell was going on and why... i got it, i think, the new Oathpact locks Odium/Retribution on Roshar and kept the spren away when he absorbed Honor. The Unmade are back in play. The humans are down to just Uruthiru and Azir, Leshwy's people have their own country and possibly a monopoly on charged gems and food and chasm fiends, Dalinar is dead by the Blackthorn serves Retribution, Retribution is building an army for star wars, Shallan is trapped in Shadesmar and setting up her own network, Kal an Syl are off w the new Heralds, Szeth is retired and destined to marry some kid he didn't meet earlier in the story, Navani is in a coma to sheild Uruthiru, Yasnah's depressed, Renarin and Rlane are going to have the most awkward sex ever, Lift is training with Vasher (YAY MORE OF THIS WANT MORE), Sigzil is off becoming the Sunlit Man, Adolin is stuck in Azir but building an army of Unoathed (ALSO YAY), Wit is back on Scadriel.

May reread a few parts again, will see.

Thus... i'm a satisfied customer when all's said and done. I can see why some are disappointed or whatever, but i didn't come to the Stormlight Archive expecting Malazan. I was more entertained than not, I'm still in, i can't believe we have to wait five years for the next set but it seems Brandon's got some fun stuff in the works for Scadriel and elsewhere so the story hasn't stopped, just moved. This wasn't the best part of the story, but it was a good, at moments great, part of a story i'm generally enjoying very much.

Thoughts?

[flea]

Abyss, on 18 January 2025 - 04:20 AM, said:

It was overlong. Plots meandered or else went over points multiple times when the audience should have gotten the message already.

Thoughts?

I'm 62% through The Way of Kings, and I already feel this way. I made the mistake of buying Oathbringer based on the best books of the year thread, and discovered afterwards that it was the third in a door-stop series.

Is there any reason to expect my attitude will change if I continue?

[champ]

flea, on 18 January 2025 - 04:26 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 January 2025 - 04:20 AM, said:

It was overlong. Plots meandered or else went over points multiple times when the audience should have gotten the message already.

Thoughts?

I'm 62% through The Way of Kings, and I already feel this way. I made the mistake of buying Oathbringer based on the best books of the year thread, and discovered afterwards that it was the third in a door-stop series.

Is there any reason to expect my attitude will change if I continue?

Not if you are feeling that on The Way of Kings. That is probably the book with the least of these issues in and it only gets worse. I bailed after book Oathbringer.

[Abyss]

champ, on 20 January 2025 - 10:25 AM, said:

flea, on 18 January 2025 - 04:26 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 January 2025 - 04:20 AM, said:

It was overlong. Plots meandered or else went over points multiple times when the audience should have gotten the message already.

Thoughts?

I'm 62% through The Way of Kings, and I already feel this way. I made the mistake of buying Oathbringer based on the best books of the year thread, and discovered afterwards that it was the third in a door-stop series.

Is there any reason to expect my attitude will change if I continue?

Not if you are feeling that on The Way of Kings. That is probably the book with the least of these issues in and it only gets worse. I bailed after book Oathbringer.

no lie, the series is HUGE, at times it meanders. I vote it's worth the time because the payoffs are generally great, and the overall scope of what BranSan is aiming for is so crazy ambitious that if he even half pulls it off i want to read it.

...buuuUUUuuut.... it's a LOT of reading if you're not feeling it, life's to short for that etc.