Wind and Truth

I finally finished the fifth book of The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. The audiobook was only 62 hrs 48 mins long. The book is 1330 pages…that is over 487,000 words. Brandon, please…for Stormin’ sakes, make these books shorter! Maybe 20 books instead of 10. I am just kidding, I loved the book, and thought this was the perfect ending to the first half of the Archive.

Wind and Truth takes place over the ten days until Dalinar and Odium’s Contest of Champions. We have our main characters split apart to try and help Dalinar and the rest of Roshar. Kaladin and Szeth head to Shinovar to cleanse the land of an Unmade, Shallan teams with Rlain and Renarin to stop Mraize and the Ghostbloods, while also learning about Ba-Ado-Mishram. Dalinar and Navani head to the Spiritual Realm to learn about what happened to Honor. Adolin is off protecting Azimir, Jasnah must stop the invasion of Thaylen City, and Sigzil must protect the Shattered Plains with the rest of Bridge Four. 

Okay, from here out there will be spoilers…

-Adolin is easily my favorite character. He befriends the Emperor of Azimir (Yanagawn), and begins teaching him to play Towers and train with Shardblade and plate. His battle with Abidi in the throne room was excellent. Again, the growth of Adolin has been cool to follow.

-My other favorite storyline is Szeth and Kaladin. The debates between Kal and Nale about the law were fun (it was interesting to see the cracks in Nale’s mind). Not going to lie, when Kaladin swore the Fifth Ideal, then went into superpower mode gave me chills. It was even cooler that he was so full of Stormlight that Nightblood could feed for awhile without feeding off Szeth. I did not expect Kaladin to become a Herald at this point. This felt like an option that would happen much later. I still loved it. 

-Shallan is finally coming to grips with her mind. Oh, and it turns out her mom is a Herald. That felt like a huge revelation, that did not get much mention. I had to go back and see if that was something we knew in the last book, and I do not think it was. Also, did I catch at the end when she is stuck in Shadesmar that she places her hand on her belly? Is she pregnant? I want a side book about Adolin as a dad.

-I was annoyed with the Jasnah story. Her going up against Taravangian in a battle of logic was excellent. But then he defeats her by showing Queen Fen an order that Jasnah had written to assassinate Fen, BUT…Jasnah never counters that she destroyed the order. To me that kind of negates it. Yes she considered it, but she decided it was wrong and threw it in the fire. She did try to say that, but I feel like she could have focused more on Taravangian using magic to provide his only evidence. It just felt weird.

-Rlain and Renarin are a cute couple. I am sure some fans will scream that Brandon Sanderson is going WOKE!!!

-I have to be completely honest, there are times, especially during the Interludes, or when they talk about the Shards, or Adonalsium, that I have zero clue what is going on. I get that some of the stuff comes from other Cosmere books (I only read the first Mistborn Trilogy, but I am guessing Odium did some Hemalurgy to Moash). I think I need to spend some time either reading other Sanderson books (there are just sooooo many), or reading everything on The Coppermind.

-The ending was interesting. Dalinar ends up losing the contest because he decides to renounce his oath. Honor bounds with Odium creating Retribution (it was all a bit confusing, I may need to go back and listen again). It seems to me that Dalinar realized Honor (the power) is very naive and needs to learn about nuance. But in releasing Retribution from their deal, it now means other gods can go to war against Taravangian (it can be so confusing with all the different names for themselves)–It seems that Taravangian was ready to take a few centuries to grow accustomed to his power, and train his forces before heading out to conquer the Cosmere, but Dalinar is speeding that process up. Also, Kaladin becomes a new Herald, which allows the Oathpact to reform, but instead of the Herald’s minds going to Braize when they die, just their bodies go, while their mind goes into some other realm where Kaladin can try to bring them back to sanity. 

So what did you think of the book? Are you excited to see where the second half of the series goes?