Rhythm of War Review
Wow, what a rush!! Rhythm of War took me about three days to read. 1200 pages of epic fantasy goodness. And also heartbreak, tears, and shock (those aren’t spoilers. If you’re going to read 1217 pages, it better include all the emotions from readers). I’m going to try to talk about my reactions and what I thought in general about the book, and then address some of the ideas I posted about last week more particularly down below. I’ll try to include some space between the two in case you don’t want to get into details with spoilers. One note, I’ve specifically not watched/read any other reviews for the book, so I’m not going after or complementing anyone specific in this review. Though I reserve the right to do that later maybe.
So the story. Like all the others in the series it has 5 parts with Interludes-bits that don’t go with the story but give richer world views or show characters that will be more important later on. The Interlude characters included many familiar characters, including Taravangian, Ryan, Szeth and Moash, but also we had some unique perspectives including a Spren, a child, and others. They all worked well and added depth to the story.
The stated character for the expected flashbacks was not just Eshonai but also Venli. There weren’t that many of these, and none of them were as shocking as the flashbacks in previous books, but I enjoyed seeing the Listener culture before and up to their war with the Alethi on the Shattered Plains. The flashbacks also helped show the full arc of Venli’s story and how much she has changed over the years. I’m actually glad they were there and also that there weren’t more of them to try to fill in the space. In the previous books, the character with the flashbacks has also taken the anchor role in leading this cast through the story, with the largest number of viewpoints and screen time. I was a little nervous for so much Venli, tbh. And while she did take a good share of the time, it was another character who really stole the show in this book and it was FABULOUS! I loved *almost* every minute of it, and seeing this character blossom was perfect for me and I will talk more about it later on.
In a book with this length and so many moving parts, it can be really easy to have the pacing get a little off and have the book feel really slow either in parts or throughout. I have read things like this multiple times, and while it doesn’t make me put down the book, I’m much less likely to reread it and getting through takes SO much longer. RoW though, was great for me. I felt like maybe part 2 was a little slow, but that’s mostly because I wasn’t deep into the story yet (I quickly reviewed part 1 which I’d already read in the serial release chapters starting in the summer and then jumped into the first Interludes). But really, the book just dragged me through starting midway through part 2 and didn’t let me go until the end. Sanderson is known for his epic endings where everything comes together in the last part and it’s even called “the Sanderlanche”
This ending may not have been the enormous armies-clashing avalanche we have seen previously, but it did NOT disappoint at all. And there were some armies involved too, so no worries. It was all going as expected, they were winning the day but hadn’t won the war yet as you might expect from book 4 of 5. And then the last chapter and epilogue came along… I finished at 1am Friday morning, and there was NOT a lot of sleep following that. Which will make the author laugh gleefully I”m sure (assuming he ever sees this) but I’m glad I already have a support group for this because I totally needed it!
And lastly, Cosmere connections. I’ll go into this more later, but really if you haven’t read ALL of the Cosmere your’e not only missing out on great stories but you will be really lost by the ending of this book. There are so many little things that have much more broad Cosmere consequences you literally can’t understand without Mistborn eras 1 and 2, Warbreaker, Elantris (just a tiny bit here really) and Arcanum Unbounded.
As a final overview: the characters were Radiant (well, mostly anyway). The story was suitably epic and didn’t (for me) drag at all. The overall theme of Strength before Weakness was felt throughout but also not pushy in almost all cases. The world we have seen is expanded and deepened in ours and the characters’ understanding. Sanderson has proven once again that he is a master of the genre.
Spoilers below here. Don’t look unless you’ve finished the book! I promise, you don’t want to see.
The italics are from my expectations post. They have been shortened a little to keep this from being its own novel.
Knowing this is the fourth book in a 5 book arc of story gives some expectations. The ending is going to be spectacular, as they all are. But it will not necessarily be happy or wrap things up the way you really want it to. There needs to be some imminent peril to drive us to the conclusion of book 5. I have also heard from multiple sources that book 4 is the darkest we have seen yet. I’m not expecting sunshine and rainbows here. But I am hopeful for some things. Here are my most closely held hopes… Wow, not sunshine and rainbows was correct! This book is DARK. Like seriously. The slightly over-the-top humor from a few characters was less than in most of his books, and it was also necessary to keep this from being one of the most depressing books ever. There are so many things, from secret spies and traitors, to emotional abuse and trauma that make this book hard to read. And that is like so much of life this year and (for many people always). Not that there aren’t a few rainbows, but they’re far between.
Characters:
Kaladin: I really really want him to work through his depression and be able to function. I’d LOVE to see a Fourth Ideal from him by the end of the book. I at least hope that Syl will be her normal helpful chipper self and maybe help him through the darkest bits. Kaladin had a really tough arc. He lost everything at one point, including his Spren, his family, and all of bridge 4 especially when Teft is killed (see, I said there would be spoilers here). I loved to see him start the therapy group though, and his 4th Ideal was perfect as always. Yes, there were literal tears.
Shallan: I just hope she has no baby. Please let her not have a baby! Figuring out how to get all her personalities back into one would be nice, but I’m not sure she’s stable and willing to work on that yet. At least she chose Adolin, so that is (maybe? I think?) out of the way. Wow, Shallan was a mess for a lot of the book. Her fractured personality was so hard to read. But at the same time, it felt very authentic to her character. I loved how she was able to say her Truth and remember the holes in her memory. A deadeye and Pattern!?! How amazing is that. Two shardblades? But so much trauma. No wonder she didn’t want to remember. I like how she progressed and was able to incorporate Veil into herself by doing this. She’s on a much more stable path than she has been in a couple books. And no baby, as far as I can tell. Unless I missed something… I better not have!
Dalinar: I don’t expect to see as much of him as we did in OB. I’m guessing the whole ‘High King’ stuff got worked out in the timelapse, so he will be busy leading Radiants and… whatever else Bondmiths are supposed to do. But it won’t be front and center, whatever it is. Well, I hit that pretty much on the nose. Helping lead the coalition as King of Urithiru and learning how much he doesn’t know about Bondsmithing was great. He didn’t have nearly the screen time of OB but I wasn’t hoping he would and the parts that he did have-helping Kaladin in the storm and Connecting him to the Spiritual Realm as he was falling at the end were appropriately epic. And speaking of Bondsmiths… Ishar is SO creepy!! But the powers are awesome, can’t wait to see Dalinar try some of that… to bad guys.
Adolin: He got the girl, I hope that’s going well. And I hope he is officially Highprince now. But Storms, I really just want him to wake up Maya and be the Edgedancer I’ve been dreaming of. Adolin totally rocked it in the Shadesmar sections. He has grown so much and become the Highprince he needs to be. Not a copy of Dalinar for sure, but not a swine like Sadeas and a few others. His bond growing with Maya was great to see, and to the point that she could SPEAK at the trial was amazing. Yes, tears here too. We are still learning how much we just don’t know about the Recreance and the true history of Roshar.
Navani: I love this woman! She has done amazing things already and I don’t think she’s done yet. I really want her to bond the Sibling and wake up Urithiru (assuming both of those go together…). I want to see her as queen, mom, wife, grandma, AND Radiant. Well, this could have been written AFTER I read it. She does all these things, plus coming into her own as a scholar and artifabrian. Her experiments with light and sound were epic. I love the idea of the light waves and the sound waves working together. What a great magic system we have. As a woman who has spent most of her adult life being principally mom and housewife it brought me so much joy to see her move past the things she did because she had to and into her own place that she chose. And how doing that will allow her to continue fulfilling her other roles even better in the future without giving anything up.
Szeth: I WANT MORE SHINOVAR!! Please go cleanse the Shin of their mistaken beliefs and bring them to our side. This is most likely something that will be in book 5, but a girl can wish right? Yeah, not much to Szeth besides following Dalinar around and being paranoid. But he’s about to set out on this quest and I can’t wait to see it. With his partially-detatched soul, I wonder how much of what Taravangian did in killing Rayse was visible to him. T didn’t think he saw, but did he really? That’s a RAFO for sure (has someone asked that? I need to reread still too.)
Bridge 4: I want to be all leveled up to the Second or Third (and maybe someone gets Fourth?) Ideals, and all with their own Squires. I want to see a huge air battle or ten. Yep, we got this. Except for Rlain, they’ve all advanced as I hoped. We saw some epic air fights in part 1, and evidence of it on Dalinar’s battlefront in Emul. And Rlain gets to be a Truthwatcher Renarin-style! I want to see how that goes, I bet it will be awesome. Another thing that Odium can’t see is always good.
Other Radiants (Jasnah, Renarin, Venli, etc): I want to see powers and awesomeness. Especially from Renarin. Jasnah as queen was great, I loved how she pushed Ruthar into something he was not at all ready for. And seeing her fight in the battle to get experience was good too. Her being with Hoid romantically was… interesting. Not bad, but it made me think. Renarin was not much in evidence, but what we saw of him was good! Venli surprised me. I didn’t think she was as into all the destruction of her people as knowingly as she was. But she accepted what she did and worked to change it in the present. I loved how she used her authority and Radiant powers to free multiple people. And I’m excited to see where the Listener remnants as Willshapers goes from here.
Plot: I want them kicking some Voidbringer (okay, mostly Fused) booty. I want the coalition to hold and maybe grow. From the cover, we know Shallan and Adolin visit Shadesmar again and I’m excited to see how that goes. I hope the Honorspren listen to them so we get SO many more Windrunners. I want (in vain, I know) for Taravangian to stop being a traitor and help them for reals. I also would like, adding to this pipe dream, for the Heralds to be sane and able to lead again. But settling for Ash and maybe Taln to be occasionally helpful and maybe Radiant as well would be a good realistic goal. Well, many of those things did end up working out. They beat an army of Fused/Singers in Emul, as well as taking all of Hearthstone to Urithiru. The Shadesmar trip took a lot longer than I was expecting it to, but it worked out great. The effects of Gravitation as a Surge in Lasting Integrity was ingenious. I would 100% not like to visit though. The Heralds were consistently not helpful in the ways everyone wanted, but we have gotten information from them that has helped a little. And now for Taravangian. Or should I say the new Odium?! So much emotion that he couldn’t help but take up the Shard when he killed Rayse. And what he did to Hoid?!!!! Oh boy, I’m truly afraid for what might happen as a result of this. Fictional characters don’t often keep me up at night, but this one has for sure. I really wonder what game Cultivation thinks she’s playing here. It has seemed that she was trying to help our heroes in the past, but maybe not? I hate waiting three years for more answers!!
And lastly, I want Cosmere answers. I want in a week to be able to have answers to many of the questions we just don’t know enough to answer now. I want to see how the results of Dawnshard play out with the rest of the world. I want new and amazing Worldhoppers. Well, we got quite a few Cosmere chunks here. Characters who know now about other worlds and perhaps how to get there. We know Keliser (as Thaidakar, Lord of Scars) is in charge of the Ghostbloods (and Mraize is NOT a good guy; good guys don’t put Lift in a cage). We have seen how different Intent for Shard and Bearer can weaken the Shard. Vasher shared about types of Invested beings in part 1. On Roshar, we learned about Light and Music with Intent and precision create magic. The letter from Sazed to Hoid in part 2 has a lot of good nuggets. And lastly, we saw Odium strip Hoid of his memories that were stored in Breath. Seriously, so much stuff that has a lot of implications for the entire Cosmere going forward. I CAN”T WAIT to see what happens next! Except it isn’t written yet, so I have to. Anyone else need to decompress a little about the book? Comments *should* be open below assuming I know what I”m doing here.
Art by Michael Whelan, cover art for Rhythm of War published by Tor.
