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?
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