Review: Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
Blurb:
The Stormlight Archive saga continues in Rhythm of War, the eagerly awaited sequel to Brandon Sanderson's #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from an epic fantasy writer at the top of his game.
After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar’s crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move.
Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.
At the same time that Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with his changing role within the Knights Radiant, his Windrunners face their own problem: As more and more deadly enemy Fused awaken to wage war, no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure.
Review:
I’m catching up on all the Cosmere releases in preparation for the release of Wind and Truth. After Rhythm of War, I’m left with only two more books to go (The Lost Metal & The Sunlit Man). If I’m being honest, Oathbringer raised the bar quite high, with Dawnshard pushing that bar just a smidge bit higher.
All that to say my expectations for Rhythm of War were a little bit unreal. Knowing that many Cosmere fans didn’t enjoy this book, I had my qualms about jumping in so quickly. But, I trusted Sanderson to give me what I was expecting. Did it live up to the hype though?
RAFO!
This full review contains SPOILERS!
What I liked:
At this point in my reading journey, Sanderson’s writing is very close to cozy reading for me. It’s accessible and relatively easy, with his worlds being fascinating and his characters loveable. With each Stormlight entry, Sanderson has expanded the world and characters beyond our imagination, keeping this series fresh while pushing the limits of the fantastical.
In Rhythm of War, we see much more of Shadesmar. No seriously, a lot of the illustrations in this book focus on the physiology of many different types of spren. Through the story, we see their personalities, how their societies function, and most importantly, we get a deeper look at the lore behind the Deadeyes. The whole Shadesmar plot in Rhythm of War was hands down my favorite thing about this book. Seeing Adolin work towards living up to his father’s image while balancing his relationship with Shallan and helping Maya recover was a gold-standard character arc. The end of this whole arc, with “We CHOSE!” is going to be in my top ten Cosmere moments for sure. I literally had goosebumps reading that whole chapter. 10/5 if I could rate it that for Adolin and Shadesmar.
My other favorite plotline was Venli’s. No, I personally like Eshonai more, and feel she would have made for a more interesting POV character. But, I also trust Sanderson when he says he finds Venli to be the more interesting of the sisters. In fact, Rhythm of War came very close to convincing me of that. Getting a deeper look into the Singers’ world, their cultures and hierarchies, as well as their lore only elevated this book. This is not the same Roshar from the Way of Kings. This is a new era, a new age, and keeping that sense of discovery alive even in book 4 is a massive win for Sanderson.
By the end of the book, I actually found myself liking Raboniel. She’s introduced as this crazed mastermind, but the true extent of her genius only becomes apparent in the final chapters. Despite a lot seeming black and white between the two factions, and Raboniel being set up as an absolute evil, she shines with her own ‘humanity’. Her true motivations warrant a reread, putting things into perspective that were honestly clear from the get-go, just not the way you might have expected.
Lastly, the Cosmere connections. Everything is starting to converge, and it is a delight to read! From the appearance of a seon, to direct references to Adonalsium, to Thadaikar revealed as the Lord of Scars, this is the literary equivalent of an Avengers 2012 trailer. Things are only going to get crazier from here on, and I am so grateful to be alive at such a time to witness Sanderson’s masterpiece coming together.
There was quite a lot more I loved about this book, but those elements didn’t live up to the awesomeness of the things I mentioned. So, let me just briefly touch upon them. I loved the character of the Mink. He’s a much-needed addition to Dalinar’s roster of advisors, and I hope to see more of him in the next book. Szeth was a delight to read as usual, although he didn’t get enough focus in this one. I guess that’s pardonable, given that he’s going to play a huge role in Wind and Truth.
Taravangian too was a great POV character. A bittersweet tragedy, especially given his ending as TOdium! That scene where Cultivation tells him her true goal of giving him his blessing just blew my mind (pun intended)! His chapter of coming to terms with his connection to a divine power is one of the most beautiful pieces in this book. Building off that, I loved every single scene with Odium. He’s a sinister villain worthy of being the main antagonist for an epic tale like this. Odium’s teases of a Cosmere-wide war have me all pumped up for the future of this universe.
Lastly, Kaladin’s exploration of mental health and invention of support groups/therapy. I think that was a nice touch to his arc, especially given how trauma and depression have played an important role in his character development. Lift was awesome, Mraize mysterious, Rlain’s growth was fantastic, and Teft’s death finally made me scream F*ck Moash. I love Moash as a character, but hate his guts as a person.
Okay, maybe I underestimated how much good is crammed into this book. I said I’ll be brief, and then rambled on for three paragraphs. Well, that’s just how good Sanderson is. Even with the weakest Stormlight book, he manages to create art. Speaking of weakest—
What I didn’t like:
Rhythm of War really is the weakest Stormlight book. I’ll rank it above Elantris and Alloy of Law, but that’s mostly because of the last 20-25% of the book [Part 5 of the book].
People complain The Way of Kings is slow, but Rhythm of War for a large portion of the beginning was just dull. Yes, we have an action-packed rescue operation featuring flying ships, the Pursuer, and a lot of imaginative world-building. But, I just couldn’t get myself to enjoy it as much. It might be my Cosmere fatigue (reading this after burning through two other Cosmere works in the past two months). However, as I progressed in my reading, I started to notice a lot more pacing issues and imbalances in the POVs.
After the epic Dalinar finale in Oathbringer, we barely see him in this one. Given how he’s going to be key to the finale, I was hoping to get a lot more lore and history from his POV. Instead, we get a lot of science-based world-building from Navani’s POV. Now, I love Navani as a character, but the focus on Stormlight science made me start losing interest. It was far too clinical, and far less fantastical. I don’t have a problem with Navani’s involvement in making a weapon of mass destruction. She did the best she could given her situation. I do have a problem with her not getting appropriate character growth and development. I know she grows, and I know she learns. It just felt lost to the hyper-focus on the science behind Stormlight, Voidlight, and every experiment resulting from them.
Another issue, which I didn’t expect from a Stormlight novel, were Kaladin and Shallan’s arcs. On paper, they’re great. But somehow, I just found them a little repetitive. Kaladin is sad again, and has to go through an upliftment arc very similar to the previous books. Except, I just couldn’t get myself to care about Kaladin in this one. I don’t know why. Maybe because he’s earned so much in his life, it becomes hard to believe his turmoil is real. Or maybe because that turmoil isn’t appropriately handled. Either way, it didn’t work for me.
Shallan, on the other hand, I have mixed feelings about. I hated her for the vast majority of the book. She was just boring, despite the switching between personalities and how she navigated her multiple loyalties to the Radiants and the Ghostbloods. Her ending, though, I really liked. Reintegrating Veil, admitting to Testament’s killing and rejecting the Ghostbloods was exactly the kind of growth I was looking for. But, if I have to pick yay or nay, I’d say I nay. Her arc falls flat before Adolin, Venli, Taravangian, Szeth, and so many other minor character arcs.
Lastly, the flashbacks. As interesting as it was to see Venli being manipulated by Ulim, they just didn’t interest me enough. Besides, the flashbacks are missing for half the book. And when they do appear, I found them to be more of a distraction from the main story, despite there being parallels between Venli’s past and present actions. I will say this though—Eshonai’s final POV in the book is the perfect send-off for her character. I almost teared up reading that chapter.
Also, let me clarify about the imbalances. There are three main plots happening in this book. Urithiru, Shadesmar, and the Emuli campaign. Urithiru and Shadesmar have golden moments, coupled with enough dull moments to dampen their effect. Emuli is brilliant, but too scant. Adolin—my favourite plotline—is missing for the whole of Part 3 (roughly 100k words). Jumping between Navani and Kaladin could have been great, except that I found both their arcs dull, resulting in a near-slog experience reading this one.
I was fully aware of the issues with Rhythm of War before starting the book, and despite bracing myself, I found them hampering my enjoyment.
Conclusion:
Rhythm of War is epic, but with its share of issues. There is a lot that Sanderson needed to cover in this book to set up Wind and Truth, and that certainly results in a wonky balance between the many character POVs and pacing. However, the relative slog of the first 60-75% of the book is more than made up for by the Sander-lanche in the end.
Despite everything, Rhythm of War is objectively a good book. Its enjoyment really depends on your personal tastes. I trust Sanderson to give us a strong, satisfying finale with Wind and Truth, and for that reason alone I would recommend powering through Rhythm of War.
TL;DR:
WHAT I LIKED: Adolin’s arc, Venli’s arc, exploration of the Singers’ culture and lore.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Shallan, Navani and Kaladin’s arcs, pacing issues, and imbalance in plot lines.
