I would love to see another take, for sure. Even when Book Guy gives out negative feedback he still comes across as so generally positive and I really appreciate that.
Oathbringer is my favorite, however, there are pacing issues with Shallan in my opinion. I did not enjoy reading her parts, I believe her mental ailments are better touched over in the fourth book. I feel like her issues should have started there, instead of her sort of taking two steps back from her arc in book one. It could be that I binged all the books in a month so that may be why I got tired of mental ailment arcs and the lack of communication. Still I feel like Sanderson over extends these parts in the book to fill the book length and to make the final Sanderlanch that much more enjoyable because knows the line between annoyance and for lack of a better term, edging, lol.
I’m reading oathbringer right now and I 100 percent agree. It’s my least favorite stormlight book so far for that exact reason. Everytime she talks about being veil or being radiant I audibly grunt. It’s painful. It’s not interesting. It’s the worst part of any Sanderson book for me so far, with only the Zane stuff in mistborn era 1 coming close.
I personally think WoR has the ratings advantage over the other books simply because it was the most similar to TWoK. A trend fairly common in Goodreads is for sequels to have better ratings just because the people who bounced off the first book and rated it negatively do not read (or rate) the next books. WoR has a very similar structure to TWoK, with a similar balance of characters, a similar evolution of magic, similar pacing, etc., so those who kept reading after TWoK are probably going to have a good time. Oathbringer and RoW however have massive differences in some or all of those areas, meaning more established readers are going to bounce off them and give them worse ratings. EDIT: I honestly find it extremely impressive how high the rating of TWoK is, considering this trend and the amount of people that dislike Sanderson's writing
I’m currently reading Wind & Truth and enjoying it very much. My rating for the 1st 4 books are: 1. Words of Radiance (5+ stars) 2. Way of Kings (5 stars) 3. Rhythm of War (4.5 stars) 4. Oathbringer (4 stars) I did feel like the entire middle section of Oathbringer was just a bit slow, it felt crowded with many new concepts & random character POVs that felt irrelevant to the main plot. Maybe this is because it’s sandwiched between 2 novellas (Dawnshard was much better than Edgedancer, which was my least fave entry in the entire series). I still love Stormlight so so much, but do feel that books 3 and 4 could have done with a bit more editing. (Edgedancer was MUCH too long for the story it told!) Very excited to see how the first era ends, what a wonderful journey this story has taken me on 🥹❤
**VAGUE SPOILER WARNING** While I enjoyed WoR, overall, I did not enjoy the lack of consequences experienced by many main characters. Shallan, for example, got away with a lot at several points in her journey. There were times, especially In the beginning, when I was excited to see how she would work her way through the events or choices she made, only to find out it just... worked out, often without much agency on her end? The lack of consequences in Shallan's journey also makes me skeptical about whether a significant plot event at the end of WoR will lead to meaningful repercussions for the character involved. That said, I still intend to read Oathbringer and the series. However, my initial excitement after The Way of Kings has definitely waned. On a side note, Pattern is the best.
I think it's popular because this is basically the back end of a duology with the previous book that is tightly plotted while leaving room for character moments and mystery. It's interesting, I am not as big a fan of Sanderson (or the Hard Magic systems he has popularised) as most other fantasy readers. I think at the end of every installment his characters "level up" in the magic, and that often means they leave behind the past. It's clear from the end of Words of Radiance that that is happening, and the whole (2000 page) set up of Jah Keved is basically being tossed overboard, therefore - Duology over, bow wrapped around it, move on. It's a trick Sanderson pulls in every book I've read of his so far, and it doesn't appeal to me. The interesting thing is that his first (few) books in his series are often a bit more "soft" by design, it's the mystery that he creates to be solved in exhaustive detail in the later books. For me think the hard magic stuff is really cheapening the Fantasy of the likes of Tolkien and Leguin where the Journey matters rather than the destination. Sanderson could never write a "Scouring of the Shire", because the Shire would either be completely destroyed or forgotten about in the massive power ups that the characters have achieved. I'm really hoping for a renaissance of Soft Magic Fantasy at some point, and the bigger popularity of Words of Radiance makes me hope that even Sanderson readers want the same :)
I think what you are talking about is not actually the fault of using hard magic, it is just a function of how Sanderson (and other authors) choose to write their books that contain hard magic - and you could argue that soft magic books could be written in much the same way. It would be possible to have a hard magic system in a book without 'levelling it up' - for example: Lord of the Rings. The One Ring is a hard magic, in that it is an item that does a specific thing, and it does that thing every time. Sanderson even has many examples of these set hard magics that don't evolve: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Emperor's Soul, arguably Mistborn Era 2, Elantris (this will probably change with the sequels though). Sanderson also will use very soft magics: The Nightwatchers magic, the Shards, Aon Dor (this may change). There is a possible version of The Lord of the Rings with exactly the same magic used, but it focuses on the characters slowly figuring out how the ring works - that it allows evil things to see you, it lets you understand the speech of evil creatures, etc. Conversely, there's a version of the Stormlight Archive with the same magic systems, but it focuses on the characters with full understanding of their abilities travelling around and beating up bad guys. I think you are correct in saying that Sanderson's and many modern authors' styles focus on the destinations (the reveals/evolutions/twists), but saying that it is tied to the type of magic they use I disagree with.
@@lachlankidd6517 - You may be right - Tolkien loved what he called the "Eucatastrophe" or happy ending twist (= Providence) That said, Tolkien is very much soft, and I would argue this softness is inherent to the journey being more important destination. Yes, Lord of the Ring seems mcguffin-y with the ring into Mount Doom, but it's never made clear what One Ring actually *does* or why it's powerful. It's our imagination that does the rest of the work. It works through our (and in-universe people's) minds, its actual machinations are completely opaque. No burning of metals here, or weird ephemeral sprite creatures - it just doesn't matter. In the wider legendarium, the Silmarils are the same. It's what they cause in the universe and the reader that are important, not the nature of the things themselves. To take a look at what a Hard(ish) Magic approach to Tolkien would be, see Rings of Power - even though it's not quite so well defined, the Mithril shenanigans would have Tolkien spinning in his grave. And wouldn't go far enough for Sanderson to make enough sense. Conversely, I only think Sanderson's characters shine in his early books in his series, later on they are just kindling to whatever magic system / plot there is. His characters don't grow as such, they follow a linear crpg talent point build - if that makes sense. Along with "character background" features and so on. I do believe strongly that this is a hard magic problem, I've never seen that in a soft magic book. That said, there's not so many of those :(
Man, the prose in the last book was extremely bad. Being a non-native speaker I had a really hard time to not throw the book away because of its… language. Brandon became gen z? This word usage now can’t be explained with “accessible”. Then the repetition. “Yes, we get it, you told it before (not once several times).” Then the tell not show… Then the non-realistic dialogues because of these info dumps. Plus: this is not Wind and Truth but Wind and Therapy. I’m his reader from day1… 20 years and never rated his book this low compared to its series.
Words of Radiance storm it might be the best sequel or 2nd book in a series. It's actually masterclass at setup and payoff. Stormlight slows a bit in book 3 and 4 but the pacing of 1 and 2 were nailed. I'm on ch 80 of Wind and Truth and depending on the last half it might rival Words of Radiance as my new favorite.
WoR is also my favorite. I started out with some rather heavy eye rolls right until I realized Shallan was unreliable, then I embraced it. The flashback chapters weren’t boring like Kal’s and it didn’t have the weak start that WoKs had either, so that edged it up. Both characters seem to get bogged down in what I think of as small-town concerns that are hard to relate to instead of minding their own concerns, and Sanderson’s brand of non-humor still infects what is *supposed* to be his most witty character (who is not funny at all, obviously), but over all, it’s his best book, imo, though all of them suffer from having uninteresting and inadequately introduced greater Cosmere stuff shoe-horned in. Oathbringer had severe pacing issues and some character work that sort of defied belief. His next one, I DNF. Story went somewhere I didn’t like, had the same weaknesses as the intro to WOK-couldn’t care about what was happening, couldn’t enjoy it. He works backward, and his introductions and mid-book pacing are not that great.
@@noname3609 Yeah I admit it is a reaaaally close call. But Dalinar's "You can not have my pain" scene was so incredible to me. Feels like it speaks to my bones!
@@noname3609 Hey question actually - what is a sanderlanche exactly? I've been reading his staff for nine years now and I've never heard it actually described
man of many talents, huh. That singing took me by surprise.
You should do a live stream of your Wind and Truth spoiler reactions. I’d love to get your thoughts
I would love to see another take, for sure. Even when Book Guy gives out negative feedback he still comes across as so generally positive and I really appreciate that.
Oathbringer is my favorite, however, there are pacing issues with Shallan in my opinion. I did not enjoy reading her parts, I believe her mental ailments are better touched over in the fourth book. I feel like her issues should have started there, instead of her sort of taking two steps back from her arc in book one. It could be that I binged all the books in a month so that may be why I got tired of mental ailment arcs and the lack of communication. Still I feel like Sanderson over extends these parts in the book to fill the book length and to make the final Sanderlanch that much more enjoyable because knows the line between annoyance and for lack of a better term, edging, lol.
For me the pacing issues are the povs of the second part, bridge four, moash etc. I like these parts but .. meh
I’m reading oathbringer right now and I 100 percent agree. It’s my least favorite stormlight book so far for that exact reason. Everytime she talks about being veil or being radiant I audibly grunt. It’s painful. It’s not interesting. It’s the worst part of any Sanderson book for me so far, with only the Zane stuff in mistborn era 1 coming close.
First 3 are awesome. I think the way of kings is the best. Where it all begins.
yes for Twok❤
i completed it yesterday night and you uploaded this today.
Liking for the Disney belting, it was fun! ❤
I agree with everything you said. But also the duel. Sooo good.
I personally think WoR has the ratings advantage over the other books simply because it was the most similar to TWoK. A trend fairly common in Goodreads is for sequels to have better ratings just because the people who bounced off the first book and rated it negatively do not read (or rate) the next books. WoR has a very similar structure to TWoK, with a similar balance of characters, a similar evolution of magic, similar pacing, etc., so those who kept reading after TWoK are probably going to have a good time. Oathbringer and RoW however have massive differences in some or all of those areas, meaning more established readers are going to bounce off them and give them worse ratings.
EDIT: I honestly find it extremely impressive how high the rating of TWoK is, considering this trend and the amount of people that dislike Sanderson's writing
I’m currently reading Wind & Truth and enjoying it very much.
My rating for the 1st 4 books are:
1. Words of Radiance (5+ stars)
2. Way of Kings (5 stars)
3. Rhythm of War (4.5 stars)
4. Oathbringer (4 stars)
I did feel like the entire middle section of Oathbringer was just a bit slow, it felt crowded with many new concepts & random character POVs that felt irrelevant to the main plot. Maybe this is because it’s sandwiched between 2 novellas (Dawnshard was much better than Edgedancer, which was my least fave entry in the entire series).
I still love Stormlight so so much, but do feel that books 3 and 4 could have done with a bit more editing. (Edgedancer was MUCH too long for the story it told!)
Very excited to see how the first era ends, what a wonderful journey this story has taken me on 🥹❤
I have a feeling you studied music in school at least a little. Those Disney I want songs were crazy good
**VAGUE SPOILER WARNING** While I enjoyed WoR, overall, I did not enjoy the lack of consequences experienced by many main characters. Shallan, for example, got away with a lot at several points in her journey. There were times, especially In the beginning, when I was excited to see how she would work her way through the events or choices she made, only to find out it just... worked out, often without much agency on her end? The lack of consequences in Shallan's journey also makes me skeptical about whether a significant plot event at the end of WoR will lead to meaningful repercussions for the character involved. That said, I still intend to read Oathbringer and the series. However, my initial excitement after The Way of Kings has definitely waned. On a side note, Pattern is the best.
If you want to see consequences, read through to wind and truth
I think it's popular because this is basically the back end of a duology with the previous book that is tightly plotted while leaving room for character moments and mystery.
It's interesting, I am not as big a fan of Sanderson (or the Hard Magic systems he has popularised) as most other fantasy readers. I think at the end of every installment his characters "level up" in the magic, and that often means they leave behind the past. It's clear from the end of Words of Radiance that that is happening, and the whole (2000 page) set up of Jah Keved is basically being tossed overboard, therefore - Duology over, bow wrapped around it, move on. It's a trick Sanderson pulls in every book I've read of his so far, and it doesn't appeal to me. The interesting thing is that his first (few) books in his series are often a bit more "soft" by design, it's the mystery that he creates to be solved in exhaustive detail in the later books.
For me think the hard magic stuff is really cheapening the Fantasy of the likes of Tolkien and Leguin where the Journey matters rather than the destination. Sanderson could never write a "Scouring of the Shire", because the Shire would either be completely destroyed or forgotten about in the massive power ups that the characters have achieved. I'm really hoping for a renaissance of Soft Magic Fantasy at some point, and the bigger popularity of Words of Radiance makes me hope that even Sanderson readers want the same :)
Personally my favourite hard magic system is the Vancian Magic system (of dying earth series & later popularised by D&D/Forgotten Realms).
I think what you are talking about is not actually the fault of using hard magic, it is just a function of how Sanderson (and other authors) choose to write their books that contain hard magic - and you could argue that soft magic books could be written in much the same way.
It would be possible to have a hard magic system in a book without 'levelling it up' - for example: Lord of the Rings. The One Ring is a hard magic, in that it is an item that does a specific thing, and it does that thing every time. Sanderson even has many examples of these set hard magics that don't evolve: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Emperor's Soul, arguably Mistborn Era 2, Elantris (this will probably change with the sequels though). Sanderson also will use very soft magics: The Nightwatchers magic, the Shards, Aon Dor (this may change).
There is a possible version of The Lord of the Rings with exactly the same magic used, but it focuses on the characters slowly figuring out how the ring works - that it allows evil things to see you, it lets you understand the speech of evil creatures, etc. Conversely, there's a version of the Stormlight Archive with the same magic systems, but it focuses on the characters with full understanding of their abilities travelling around and beating up bad guys.
I think you are correct in saying that Sanderson's and many modern authors' styles focus on the destinations (the reveals/evolutions/twists), but saying that it is tied to the type of magic they use I disagree with.
@@lachlankidd6517 - You may be right - Tolkien loved what he called the "Eucatastrophe" or happy ending twist (= Providence)
That said, Tolkien is very much soft, and I would argue this softness is inherent to the journey being more important destination. Yes, Lord of the Ring seems mcguffin-y with the ring into Mount Doom, but it's never made clear what One Ring actually *does* or why it's powerful. It's our imagination that does the rest of the work. It works through our (and in-universe people's) minds, its actual machinations are completely opaque. No burning of metals here, or weird ephemeral sprite creatures - it just doesn't matter. In the wider legendarium, the Silmarils are the same. It's what they cause in the universe and the reader that are important, not the nature of the things themselves.
To take a look at what a Hard(ish) Magic approach to Tolkien would be, see Rings of Power - even though it's not quite so well defined, the Mithril shenanigans would have Tolkien spinning in his grave. And wouldn't go far enough for Sanderson to make enough sense.
Conversely, I only think Sanderson's characters shine in his early books in his series, later on they are just kindling to whatever magic system / plot there is. His characters don't grow as such, they follow a linear crpg talent point build - if that makes sense. Along with "character background" features and so on.
I do believe strongly that this is a hard magic problem, I've never seen that in a soft magic book. That said, there's not so many of those :(
Oathbringer is on its way to me in a delivery truck as I type this.
I'm excited to hear that it's your favorite of the five, as I've been nervous! :)
I’m reading oathbringer right now and I’m like 60 percent of the way through. It’s the worst of the series so far and it’s not really close imo.
@@samgrassman859 Well, darn. That's disappointing to hear.
Man, the prose in the last book was extremely bad. Being a non-native speaker I had a really hard time to not throw the book away because of its… language. Brandon became gen z? This word usage now can’t be explained with “accessible”. Then the repetition. “Yes, we get it, you told it before (not once several times).” Then the tell not show… Then the non-realistic dialogues because of these info dumps. Plus: this is not Wind and Truth but Wind and Therapy. I’m his reader from day1… 20 years and never rated his book this low compared to its series.
good analysis
Words of Radiance storm it might be the best sequel or 2nd book in a series. It's actually masterclass at setup and payoff. Stormlight slows a bit in book 3 and 4 but the pacing of 1 and 2 were nailed.
I'm on ch 80 of Wind and Truth and depending on the last half it might rival Words of Radiance as my new favorite.
WoR is also my favorite. I started out with some rather heavy eye rolls right until I realized Shallan was unreliable, then I embraced it. The flashback chapters weren’t boring like Kal’s and it didn’t have the weak start that WoKs had either, so that edged it up. Both characters seem to get bogged down in what I think of as small-town concerns that are hard to relate to instead of minding their own concerns, and Sanderson’s brand of non-humor still infects what is *supposed* to be his most witty character (who is not funny at all, obviously), but over all, it’s his best book, imo, though all of them suffer from having uninteresting and inadequately introduced greater Cosmere stuff shoe-horned in. Oathbringer had severe pacing issues and some character work that sort of defied belief. His next one, I DNF. Story went somewhere I didn’t like, had the same weaknesses as the intro to WOK-couldn’t care about what was happening, couldn’t enjoy it. He works backward, and his introductions and mid-book pacing are not that great.
YOU READ WIND AND TRUTH IN UNDET 2 DAYS?!????????????
Even if someone gave me an airtight argument, I'd still think Oathbringer is the best. I just can't change my mind, many have tried haha
with my brain id say Oathbringer but with my heart and soul The Way Of Kings no doubt ❤
@@noname3609 Yeah I admit it is a reaaaally close call. But Dalinar's "You can not have my pain" scene was so incredible to me. Feels like it speaks to my bones!
@@senseweaver01 its such an epic scene!!! Oathbringer has The Best flashbacks,sanderlanche and maybe world building.Gotta read Wind and Truth though 🙏
@@noname3609 Hey question actually - what is a sanderlanche exactly? I've been reading his staff for nine years now and I've never heard it actually described
@senseweaver01 last hundreds of pages from his books feels like an avalanche.Somuch good stuff happenING. 🙏