Die Hard 6: A Review of Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

If you haven't read my review of Oathbringer, I would recommend starting there before coming to this one so that you have an understanding of what kind of headspace I was in when I started this book.

    This one took me a little while to get through, but not nearly as long as Oathbringer or my rereads of the first two books, since I was no longer in a reading slump. I began this the day I finished Oathbringer (July 26th) and then finished it on September 4th, so it took a little over a month.

    Spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk.

    Rhythm of War, book four in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, is my least favorite of the series. We'll just say that right now and get it out of the way. Not that I think it's a bad book or anything—not in the slightest. Of the five books, though, it is by far the one I care about the least and that has impacted me the least. Why?

    For one thing, Navani. I like her well enough, but she's never been a favorite of mine, so having a solid portion of the story focus on her wasn't exactly how I'd hoped this book would go. I just prefer other characters; nothing specifically against Navani. (Though, that being said, I have a little bit of beef with her now with the whole Evi thing, even though literally none of it was Navani's fault—Evi deserved more than to play second fiddle, and I'll die on that hill even though literally every character, including Evi, has moved on from it by this point, haha.) I don't know. Like I said, I don't dislike her; but I also don't have any reason to be that invested in her. Granted, this book did help with that, but still, I would have rather had this be a story from, say, Adolin's perspective or Jasnah's.

    For another thing, the plot just isn't as interesting. Half of the characters are out of commission in one way or another for the majority of the book—most of the Radiants are unconscious, Kaladin's powers are severely depleted, Navani is a prisoner, and Shallan and Adolin and their team are in Shadesmar and dealing with those limitations. The only characters with pretty much free rein are Dalinar, Szeth, and Jasnah...and hardly any of the book follows them.

    And final thing: so little Dalinar! Even if the guy weren't my favorite character, I think I would still be a bit peeved by how few chapters we get from Dalinar's perspective, especially considering his incredible arc we saw in the last book. It just seemed that he went rather underutilized, even though he was set up to be a lot more, if that makes sense.

    I realize that I'm kind of making it sound like I didn't like this book at all, but I just wanted to get my issues with it out of the way. While it is my least favorite of the series, it is still an incredible book, and it's only the least favorite because all of the other books are somehow even better than this one. Some of the things I really liked about this one:

    For one thing, I loved the relationship between Navani and Raboniel. Raboniel in general, actually, was a huge high for this book. Sanderson's antagonists are always intriguing in various ways, but for me, Raboniel stands out as one of the most interesting. When she was first introduced, she seemed pretty basic: really evil character wants to wipe out other characters, the end. But she quickly became more developed than that, and I really, really, really liked everything we learned about her. Her fascination with science, her depth of feeling for her daughter, her respect for her enemies... And, of course, her back-and-forth with Navani was a highlight. Just seeing the two of them trying to outsmart each other while also having this huge respect for each other was so interesting. Raboniel was seriously awesome. I was kind of disappointed that, of all the Fused, she was one that got killed permanently at the end.

    Another thing that I loved in this book was Kaladin. I mean, I always love Kaladin, but this one reminded me why he was my favorite character for the longest time. How easy would it have been for him to give up at any point in these books? He has had every opportunity to leave (and you can define "leave" in a variety of ways...), but he stays. He stays alive. He stays a Radiant. He stays good. His vision of Tien and then swearing the Fourth Ideal was absolutely incredible, maybe even better than when he swore the Third Ideal in Words of Radiance, which I've long held as one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.

    I got Teft's fate spoiled by accident (sort of—I knew something bad happened to Teft in this book and that Moash had something to do with it, so I put two and two together). Still, even figuring he would be dead by the end of the book, I was still heartbroken when it finally happened. It was such a sad, sweet ending for him. I've been trying to be balanced about Moash and hoping for redemption, but at this point, I think that's long gone. It isn't impossible, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Kaladin absolutely losing it with Teft's death was probably even worse than the actual death. (Though, admittedly, the poor guy just ripping the head off the Pursuer was a long time coming.)

    I also really liked the stuff in Shadesmar, which was why I was a little disappointed we didn't have a lot of it. Granted, I think Sanderson told enough of what he wanted to say with the story, but still. Watching Shallan and Adolin together, reading about Adolin's determination to help Maya, learning more about the spren, getting into the whole trial... I don't know, I really liked it. The ending especially, with Maya finding her voice to stick up for Adolin, was just really cool.

    The ending with Taravangian becoming the new avatar for Odium was crazy. I had not expected that at all for his character, not even remotely. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I figured I'd have a more definitive answer by the time I finished Wind and Truth (which we'll get to eventually).

    Rhythm of War did have a relatively underwhelming ending overall, in my opinion. Well, "underwhelming" isn't quite the word... The endings of the previous three books were just all so incredible and left me buzzing for hours afterwards. I finished Rhythm of War and felt pretty pumped, but I moved on quickly. The battle seemed to wrap up really fast to me, and a lot of things were left not quite finished up, which made sense, but I still felt like things were dangling, especially with Shallan and Adolin still being in Shadesmar. And I'll be honest, I'm not sure I liked Navani becoming a Bondsmith. With Dalinar, it made sense. He's always been about unity and whatnot. Navani, though? It just seemed kind of random, and it didn't really feel earned either, unlike with Dalinar. She just kind of ordered the Sibling around, which I guess Dalinar also did with the Stormfather, but Dalinar had proven himself time and time again, in my opinion, and I don't feel like Navani did. I don't know. It saved Urithiru, so what am I complaining about?

    I was also not sure whether I was delighted or horrified to learn that Thaidakar was who I'd suspected... But we'll get into that in another review for a different book.

    So, yes, overall, Rhythm of War is not my favorite of The Stormlight Archive, but it is still one of the greatest fantasy books I've ever read, and I'll have zero problem rereading it. (Which, to be honest, I can't even say about Oathbringer, haha... I'm not sure I want to relive some of those things.) I guess it just started as a disadvantage, because how could Sanderson ever top the emotional payout of Oathbringer for me?

Big Brother Is Watching: A Review of 1984 by George Orwell

There are certain books that, as an English major and an avid reader, are embarrassing to admit that I haven't read. These include classics like Dracula, Othello, The Handmaid's Tale, and Great Expectations. But perhaps the most egregious omission for the longest time was 1984 by George Orwell. Everyone and their cousin seems to have read it in high school, but I didn't. It was never assigned in any of my classes, and based on what I did know, I had little to no interest in picking it up myself, despite my enjoyment of classic literature.

    That changed, though, this past August. My dad finished 1984, and he asked me if I'd ever read it. When I said I hadn't, he said that I should so that we could talk about it. So, I did.

    Spoilers are full steam ahead, so beware.

    It's hard to know what to say about this book... It's not like I went into it expecting a cheery, feel-good story with glorious characters and a magical ending. I knew full well that I was getting into a deep, dark dystopia with characters simply trying to survive, and I was reasonably confident that, if the ending were a "good" one, it would be very ambiguous, but it was more likely going to be a hopeless ending.

    And yet, even knowing and accepting all of that...I was still taken aback.

    There is something just unrelenting about the suffocation this book's society enforces. Winston never catches a break, and neither do you as the reader. There's just never any moment of respite, even when Winston feels that there is a moment of respite, because there's a constant fear of what will happen next. Every time he and Julia got together, I was just waiting for this to be the time they got caught.

    Obviously, that's the point. Orwell didn't set out to write a soaring love story that burns even in the midst of oppression; from the beginning, he establishes that there's no way to win. And as much as Winston and Julia try to fight against it, they're doomed from the beginning. (Also, a note on their romance: not sure how I feel about it. It didn't feel particularly solid for either individual, but the emotional impact of the ending kind of relies on you being really invested in their love for each other. But, again, I guess that's probably part of the point—they don't really know what true love is in this world.)

    I will admit that I did get lulled into a false sense of security. They went seemingly undetected for so long that I started to think, "Maybe they actually do win in the end." And then that was pretty much shattered instantly.

    Part Three of the book is very effective—and it was awful to read. Again, that's the point. I know it is. But it was rough to get through it. Torture is something I always feel really icky reading about, so...yeah. Part Three was not a good time. And when Winston finally breaks and tells them to do the rats to Julia instead of to him... I've never felt such a gut-punch from a book before. My jaw dropped, and I just stared at it for a moment. Heck, I felt betrayed.

    The ending was somehow even more hopeless than I'd thought. I really would have rather Winston died than become what he became—just another voice in the air, another mind broken, another person under control. Like I keep saying, I know that that's the point; you are not supposed to feel good things while reading this book. I just feel like I have to keep qualifying my feelings because, almost six months later, I still can't think about this book without desperately wishing it had ended almost any other way.

    So...how to rate this one? It's hard because, to lay out all the cards, I didn't enjoy myself. If we're looking at this solely on how much I liked the book, this is probably a two out of five. But that being said, I acknowledge that a lot of the reason I didn't like the book is because hopeless stories do not jive with me. They have merit, and they often say important things, and they are certainly not inherently bad stories—but I just don't like them. I don't like finishing a book and feeling worse than I already do about the state of the world. That goes against one of my biggest reasons for loving books in the first place.

    So, I have to look at this, then, from a more objective perspective—insomuch as one can be objective about ratings, right? I think 1984 is very well-written; it is so easy to see this world and to feel the plights of the characters: the push and pull Winston has between wanting to fight and wanting to just keep living. The very lengthy manifesto partway through detracts from that great writing, I think; it effectively halts the entire story just to rehash ideas that have already been explored and then introduce a couple new ones that don't really go anywhere. Which, of course, makes sense, because I would guess that that manifesto was a major building block for Orwell writing this book in the first place; but it doesn't change the fact that I think it could have been incorporated in a more natural way than "Winston reads this whole thing out loud to a half-asleep Julia while they're both lying naked in bed."

    Overall, I have settled on a 3.5 for this book. It gets credit for being effective and for commenting on themes and ideas that are somehow even more timely today than they were in the 1940s; yet, that doesn't change the fact that I just didn't like reading it, so it gets docked a half point for that (I would probably give this a four based purely on merit). There's nothing really wrong with the book, besides the manifesto; it's just not my thing, and really, that's the only major mark against it. (Julia's character is also a little bit so-so in a lot of ways, but I kind of don't care enough to get into that.)

    There are other dystopias I find more compelling, Fahrenheit 451 probably being my favorite. I'll gladly recommend 1984, though, and I am very happy that I can now say I've finished it. It definitely was not as difficult to get through as I was expecting; it only took me two days to read the whole thing. Not a bad book by any means; just not the type of book that Odessa Taylor prefers to spend her time reading.

"You Cannot Have My Pain": A Thorough Review(?) of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

 (I put a question mark after "Review" because what follows is less of a review and more of a narrative. Do with that what you will.)

    Have we officially made this a book blog? No, I don't think so. I just come to this site to write whatever is on my mind when the fancy suits me, and for now, every time I get the urge to write, I want to write about reading. This blog won't be exclusively that (probably), but...well, I guess we'll see.

    Anyway!

    I did a "book haul" a couple months ago, and I decided to just go through those books (some of them, anyway—the ones I've read since July 2024) and go more in-depth on my thoughts. So, we're starting with Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson, the third book in The Stormlight Archive.

    Forgive me if I repeat a lot of what I said in that previous post. Also, spoilers will be in abundance, so proceed with caution. (I will not have spoilers for any of the books after Oathbringer or in other series by Sanderson, but there may be incidental spoilers for the first two books in the series, because...well, obviously.)

    First, I suppose some background would behoove us. I read The Way of Kings (the first book in the series) back in the summer of 2015 and then followed it up with Words of Radiance that autumn. Oathbringer was not published at that point, so I had to wait. I loved the first two books a ton, so I couldn't wait for the next one in the series.

    Unfortunately, by the time it came out near the end of 2017 and I got it for Christmas, I was in my senior year of high school, which meant I was neck-deep in two AP classes (one of which was English Literature), two foreign language classes, drivers ed, concert choir, Madrigals, seminary council, church service, and a part-time job. Reading for fun was not on my radar, let alone reading a 1,200+ page novel. To make matters worse, I had forgotten a ton of details from the previous two books, so I was just lost with a lot of references, short of the major plot points. After reading about a hundred pages or so, I said to myself, "You know what? I think I need to reread The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance first, and then I can get to Oathbringer."

    That would prove far too lofty a goal for seventeen-year-old Odessa. Or eighteen-year-old Odessa. Or twenty-one-year-old Odessa...

    I didn't reread The Way of Kings until the end of 2022/beginning of 2023. Well, let me rephrase that—I didn't start rereading The Way of Kings until the end of 2022/beginning of 2023, and then it took me until October 2023 to finish it. Words of Radiance took a lot less time...and by that, I mean it took me five months instead of nearly a year.

    But, at last, in March 2024, I began reading Oathbringer properly for the first time. (I hardly remembered anything from my first failed attempt, except for one interaction between Shallan and Adolin, so it was pretty much like starting a brand-new book.) Since it was one I hadn't read before, I tried a lot harder to get out of the reading slump I'd been in since that senior year of high school; but, alas, I only managed a chapter or two a week, if we were lucky.

    Still, progress was progress. It helped somewhat that I'd decided upon rereading The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance that Dalinar was my favorite character, so having a book that would dive into his backstory and focus a bit more on him than usual seemed pretty perfect.

    And, you know, I was mostly right... Except for one thing.

    Evi.

    Most of the time, when I love a character, I can tell you precisely why. I love Kelsier from Mistborn because he has so much hope and determination. I love Hermione Granger from Harry Potter because I've always seen myself in her. I love Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings because he is good and kind despite a life that you could argue has taught him not to be. I love Dalinar because he sticks to his convictions, even when people sneer at him for it.

    But I cannot tell you why I love Evi so much, or why I loved her so quickly. Seriously, from the instant we got her name—heck, even before we ever got her name—I just felt something for her.

    I think that, maybe, part of it comes from the fact that I just always hated the idea she was forgotten by Dalinar. His feelings for Navani have always been pretty clear, and though Dalinar seemed to be under the impression that he must have loved his wife, even though he couldn't remember her, I was always like, "Well...if you were pining for Navani the whole time, that's not very fair to whoever your wife was, even if you did have feelings for her."

    So, when Evi was introduced and the first couple chapters with her were filled with that pining for Navani, I felt vindicated, but not in a particularly triumphant way. I hated the idea that this woman, who was instantly sweet and gentle in ways not very many of Sanderson's characters are, came second. I hated it. I still hate it, if we're being honest, even now knowing how things turned out.

    I really don't know why it galled me so much, but I was just indignant on behalf of Evi. Of all the characters in this series—heck, of all the characters in Sanderson's entire repertoire (that I've read, anyway)—she deserved to be well and truly loved and cared for, at least in my opinion, so the fact that she was just tolerated at first... Man, I don't know. It just made me sad. And, you know, I think he did come to love her in the end, even if it was a bit different from how he felt/feels for Navani, but I still wanted more. I wanted him to really, really, really love her.

    I also knew that she was going to die, of course, and I just knew it was going to be awful. It had to be, obviously, because why else would Dalinar erase all of his memories of her? It had to be absolutely terrible. Still, I did my best to just enjoy the flashback chapters...inasmuch as one can enjoy Dalinar's flashback chapters.

    We'd heard all these things about the Blackthorn and Dalinar's reputation and everything in the previous two books, but actually reading about it in detail was...something. It was rough, which is, of course, the point. The ruthlessness and the callousness and the violence that defined the younger Dalinar was horrible. And, you know, some of it is so terrible that it borders on amusing. (The example that comes to mind is Dalinar stabbing a man, rinsing the knife in his wine goblet, and then instantly cutting a slice of meat and eating it.) But for the most part, I was just reading all of these flashbacks and thinking, "...Oh. This is the guy I've thrown in my lot with, huh?"

    Anyway, despite all of that, I was moving forward very slowly in the story, until a glorious day arrived: July 17, 2024. The power went out at our house, and since I couldn't work on editing, I decided to read, as it had been a while since I'd even touched the book, let alone read it.

    And for some reason, that night was the first shattering of the seven-year-long book burnout. I don't know if it was because the story finally clicked in a way that made me want to keep reading. I don't know if it was because I started tracking my progress on Goodreads right around that time, which gave me a bit of oomph. I don't know if it was because I finally stayed off of a screen long enough to rewire my brain and remind it that reading is fun and not a chore. Maybe it was all of the above. Whatever it was, I found myself reading pretty much every day, not because I felt like I had to but because I wanted to.

    Besides Dalinar's story, I was modestly interested in the rest of the plot lines. At the time, I couldn't have cared less about the Ghostbloods. (No spoilers, but I have since changed my tune on that particular song for ✨reasons✨ we will discuss in another review...) The infiltration of Kholinar was interesting, and I was pleasantly bewildered by the arrival of Highmarshal Azure, whom I suspected came from Warbreaker (out of a pure guess, since I hadn't read that yet). Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin's work in the city kept my attention, though I did remember thinking, "Weird. This feels very much like the climax, but we're only three-quarters of the way through. Is this battle really going to last that long?"

    And all of a sudden, things started to take turns for all of our characters.

    First off...the Rift.

    Like I said earlier, I knew that Evi's death was going to be awful. I had various theories running through my head, pretty much all of them either involving Dalinar killing her or Dalinar letting someone else kill her. I thought I'd prepared myself for basically every eventuality, even if it meant I started every Dalinar flashback chapter with my stomach twisting into knots.

    Good grief, it was somehow a thousand times worse than I'd thought.

    Just the mere fact that all of that happened was a pure nightmare. The reckoning at Rathalas is, in a word, horrific. I will never forget reading it and just staring at the page and thinking to myself, "Holy crap. I think Dalinar might actually be irredeemable for this." I've had my fair share of favorite characters who fall in the category of morally grey (my favorite character in the history of characters, in fact, could run for president of the club), but this was another level. This was revenge and retribution in the worst way possible. This was a point to make, and it was utterly inhumane. This was fury incarnate.

    And when it was revealed that Evi was killed in the midst of that... I couldn't even keep reading. I finished the chapter and set aside the book, and I just stared off into space, feeling horrible. I wanted to cry, but there weren't any tears. I felt legitimately sick, which I'd never felt from a book before. I've read my fair share of tough books, and yet, somehow, the only one that has ever made me feel physically ill was Oathbringer, upon learning how Evi died.

    I went grocery shopping with my mom and youngest sister pretty much right after reading that, and I was numb. I felt like I was on some other plane of existence, but not in an ethereal, transcendent way. Every time I went down an aisle of the store by myself, I had to pause and take a deep breath so I wouldn't dissolve into tears or straight-up puke in the middle of Walmart. I wish I were exaggerating, but seriously, I have never felt so off-kilter from a book before.

    The rest of the day, I was inconsolable, and that night, I barely slept. I couldn't stop thinking about it as I tried to fall asleep, and then when I woke up four hours later to the sound of the sprinklers turning on outside my window, I couldn't go back to sleep because my mind was still just spinning with the awful imagery of Evi being burned alive. (I've always hated the idea of anyone dying in that way, so that probably didn't help.) By the time lunch came around, I thought I'd recovered, but nope—I took one bite of pasta and actually gagged because my stomach was still just churning.

    To make matters worse, things weren't going so hot for any of the other characters at this point. Elhokar was dead, and Gavinor was left behind. Kholinar was lost. Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, Azure, and the spren were trapped in Shadesmar. Taravangian's plan to manipulate the coalition had worked, and everyone was abandoning Dalinar, who had briefly fallen back into his alcoholism. All of Dalinar's flashbacks made me feel sick again because I just kept getting reminded of Evi, and by the time he'd gone to the Nightwatcher and gotten his memories of her taken by Cultivation, I was a mess. ("You'll take Evi?" makes me want to sob just thinking about it.) I still wasn't crying, though; I have no idea how I managed to avoid it, considering how awful I felt.

    For days, I still couldn't sleep. Every time I tried, I just kept thinking and thinking and thinking about the stupid book and how hopeless everything was for all of the characters. I genuinely couldn't see how there could be a good ending to this at all. The only thing I could hang on to was knowing that, if Sanderson does anything with The Stormlight Archive, he makes arcs worthwhile. So, in my mind, that meant we would somehow learn that Evi was at peace. I didn't know how, but that was just the only logical thing: he would not have killed Evi like that if that was truly the end of her story.

    At last, on July 26th, I sat down to finish the book. I felt like I'd been through a war myself, and we hadn't even gotten to the climax. I love a story where the characters are dragged through hell only to rise up even more victorious for it (lookin' at you, Shawshank), but this was pushing it. I could not imagine any of the main characters in worse positions, and though I knew it had to end at least somewhat happily, I couldn't see how. I couldn't even fathom it.

    Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin just could not get out of Shadesmar. Kaladin couldn't say the Fourth Ideal. Adolin was bleeding out. Shallan's mental condition was terrible. Then, back in the Physical Realm, Jasnah was preparing to kill Renarin because of his corrupted spren. And worst of all, the Thrill had taken the soldiers at Thaylen City, leaving practically no one to stand against the singers and their army.

    Dalinar went out to face Odium with nothing but a book, and I just felt despair. Another thing I really love in stories is when a character faces something or someone that they have no real hope of defeating but face it anyway because someone has to, and if it must be them, then so be it. So, for a moment, I was like, "Yay!", but then I went back to being miserable, because how could Dalinar even last a minute against what was basically the incarnation of hatred?

    Then, of all people, Szeth showed up. As he looked at Dalinar and asked Nale if a Skybreaker could pledge himself to a man, I felt the first real glimmer of hope in days. "Yes," I literally whispered out loud. "Come on, Szeth, please." Dalinar had no one, but if he had just one person on his side, and if that person could be someone who had proven himself quite adept at fighting...well, maybe there could be a good ending somehow. I still wasn't entirely sure how, but I could finally start to believe it.

    I kept reading. Lift was about to die, and then, all of a sudden, Szeth saved her. "Our master has given us a command," he tells her, "and we must fulfill it."

    And for the first time in ten years, I cried while reading a book. I absolutely lost it. Partly because I loved seeing Szeth decide to join in with the Radiants, but mostly because I could hope again, at least for a moment.

    Then things turned bad quite quickly, with Odium tormenting Dalinar and choosing him as his champion. But then...a single gloryspren.

    "You cannot have my pain."

    Ugh, I'm literally teary-eyed just writing it down. Dalinar stood up and faced Odium, and he refused to let go of the guilt again. He refused to forget the horrible, awful things he did and the thousands of people who suffered because of it. He refused to let Evi get taken away from him again.

    And he heard Evi forgiving him. Instantly, the awful feeling that had been clinging to my insides ever since reading about the Rift just vanished, as though it had never been there at all. Evi was okay, and Dalinar knew it.

    I just couldn't stop crying. He opened a perpendicularity and saved Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin. Jasnah refused to kill Renarin, which gave him much-needed strength and courage. The following battle, from every single character's perspective...

    ...was perfection.

    There is not a single other climax in any book or movie that is as cathartic as this one. For me to have felt so awful and to have despaired so much when the battle began to then see every little thing play out in the most perfect way... It's indescribable. It is masterful how Sanderson was able to capture the bitterness and then the glory so well. It could have failed—it could have felt cheap or unearned at any point, but it never, ever did. Every single resolution of that battle was tied up in a way that felt like he'd been planning it from the moment he wrote the prelude to the whole series. And maybe he did.

    The climax of Oathbringer is the most incredible climax ever. Done. I haven't decided if it's my favorite climax, but it is undoubtedly the best (inasmuch as I can view something like this from an objective standpoint, of course).

    When I finally finished the book, I just sat there and wiped my eyes, feeling like I was floating. I could not believe how well the book had ended. I almost wished that the whole series had ended there, because it was just perfect. For the rest of the day, I was on a high. We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 that night, and I barely paid attention because I couldn't stop thinking about how amazing the end of Oathbringer had been.

    Let me say that again: I could barely pay attention to my favorite movie in the history of the world because I couldn't stop thinking about Oathbringer.

    There are so many other parts of this book that I adored that I didn't even dive into here: The Girl Who Stood Up, Venli's growth, Adolin and Shallan's relationship developing, Rysn getting a bit more page time... It isn't my favorite of the series (that distinction belongs to book one), but it stands apart from the others for the way it accomplished what should have been impossible. I should have hated Dalinar so much by the climax that I shouldn't have cared what happened to him with Odium, but I did care. I cared with all my heart, in fact. He stood there and faced an entity he knew he had no chance against, and I had to admit that this man was still my favorite character of the series. It is incredible that Sanderson could write him in a way that makes that possible.

    Five out of five. Even though the rest of the book doesn't hit the highs of the previous two, the ending more than makes up for it.