Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson – Review

Published: November 17, 2020

Publisher: Tor Books

Series: The Stormlight Archive #4

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 1232 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

 

Synopsis:

The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson

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.

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CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

I have to say, Brandon Sanderson’s books are always worth the wait (or should I say weight?). They’re brilliantly good reads and this is no different, though it didn’t quite meet the five star mark for me. Why is that?

Well, it stemmed from a number of factors though it was mostly because I just don’t care for Venli. If you recall, Venli is one of the main reasons the Parshendi began to war with the Alethi and the bringer of the Everstorm. She’s quite self-centered and I don’t care much for her, but her POV chapters were important and I did begin to like her a bit more towards the end. On the flip side, we also get tons of Navani chapters which I LOVED! It was great to see more of her, and it was really something to see how Gavilar really treated her. Things were not happy in their marriage towards the end. We also get to see so much of her brilliant, scientific mind and it’s so clear where Jasnah gets her strength and personality from. 

I was really, really surprised when the Fused successfully invaded Urithiru.It was great that we got to see more of their internal politicking the personalities and goals of some of the Fused. So much of the story was centered around the events in Urithiru since Kaladin, Navani, and Venli are all there. This did make the world seem smaller even though Shallan and Adolin were in Shadesmar and Dalinar, Jasnah, et al were battling elsewhere. I found myself looking forward to the respite from Urithiru and loved Shallan’s chapters. Her struggles with balancing her various selves have lessened, though she still can’t face her past in order to advance in her oaths and this is creating another problem. Adolin is pretty darn awesome too and I just want some resolution between him and Maya, the dead-eye spren that is his shardblade. Dalinar and Jasnah have some interesting stuff going on too – namely dealing with Taravangian and trying to figure out how Dalinar’s powers work

Kaladin, bless him, gets a paragraph all to himself because he is SUCH A DRAMA QUEEN. I know, I know, he’s really suffering from serious depression and PTSD, and he just can’t join combat anymore. Dalinar removes him from active duty and then he sinks further into his depression because he doesn’t know what to do with his life. And then WHAM – he joins his father as a surgeon trainee once again. Until the Fused invade and he has to hide himself and Teft who has fallen comatose (along with most of the other Radiants)!!! Unceasing adventure!!! He spends a ton of time lurking about the tower, fighting/hiding from the Pursuer – an absolute wack-job of a Fused that is hell bent on killing Kaladin personally. He goes through so much and I just love him/want to choke him most of the time.

Rhythm of War was excellent and had several really harrowing moments, a moment of heartbreak, and boy-o that ENDING!!! I am SHOOK. Yes, I loved this book but it wasn’t a five star love. The pacing didn’t quite do it for me and like I said, I just don’t really like Venli that much and there were so many POV chapters for her. All that being said, I am dying for the next book! The next book will be the last in the first story arc of the Stormlight Archive and I just have to know what happens!