Rhythm of War

Liebe.

Ich muss gestehen, so sehr wie ich die Bände davor an einem Stück durchgezogen habe, so sehr hab ich mir hier Zeit lassen müssen - und es war die richtige Entscheidung. Man merkt, dass das Buch lediglich die Vorbereitung für eine Art Finale ist. Es wird viel aufgebaut, es werden viele Charaktere etabliert und die bestehenden eher "nur" auf dem Schachbrett verteilt bis es los geht. Einzelne, kleine Szenen haben später plötzlich so viel Bedeutung und auch die kleinsten Details aus den Vorgängern werden wieder aufgegriffen. Wenn man vergleicht, wie komplex diese ganze Geschichte im Vergleich zu Buch 1 geworden ist ... Das ist Wahnsinn 🤯 und ich liebe alles daran. Was mir besonders gut gefällt: niemand ist hier der strahlende Held, keiner der Charaktere wird von allen geliebt und sie alle machen Fehler. Brandon Sanderson hat hier - zumindest für mich - eine der besten Repräsentationen von Depressionen auf Papier gebracht und ich habe sehr mit der Figur mit gelitten. Man merkt auch, dass bei vielen Charakteren noch so viel zu entdecken bleibt und gleichzeitig fragt man sich, wie viel man überhaupt über diese Charaktere noch erfahren wird oder ob sie so ominös bleiben. Hinzu kommen die Anspielungen darauf, sie groß diese gesamte Welt eigentlich ist und dass sich vereinzelte Figuren dessen sehr bewusst sind und ausdrücklich sagen "ey, nehm dich Mal nicht so wichtig. Da draußen gibt's noch anderes. Größeres." Kurz gesagt: das Buch hatte seine Längen, in denen es sich wie ein Fülleband anfühlte, aber das alles ist auf einem so hohen Niveau, dass es okay ist, wenns mal langsamer voran geht. Für mich definitiv weiterhin mit das Beste, was die High Fantasy derzeit zu bieten ❤️

I loved this book!!! It’s my second favorite in the series so far and I can’t wait for more

Here we are again. Another Stormlight Archives book, and in my opinion this is the weakest entry in the series so far. This does not mean that it is a bad book, but it does have notable shortcomings. Firstly, there's a time jump of over a year, skipping events that felt too significant to be omitted. They are mentioned, and I understand why Sanderson made this jump, but I feel it was excessive. Usually a strength, the pacing stumbles a bit here, with the middle section of the book dragging in a way that I'm not used to when reading a Sanderson book. This is unfortunately reinforced by the flashback chapters focusing on Eshonai, a character who, sadly, never captured my interest in the same way as Dalinar or Shallan in previous books. However, the book truly shines in its unflinching focus on the mental health of the characters. More than ever before, the characters' psychological struggles take centre stage. Shallan's battle with her fragmented identities grows increasingly complex. Kaladin's depression and feelings of failure and worthlessness are laid bare with painful honesty, and the narrative never offers easy solutions. Instead, it portrays recovery as messy and non-linear work that requires support and understanding. For me, this commitment to portraying trauma and mental illness with such authenticity is one of the most valuable aspects of the entire series. The expanded Cosmere connectivity also propelled me through the slower sections. The larger universe bleeds into this story in many exciting ways, and as someone who adores connected storytelling, I loved it. I even predicted a major 'twist' based on things I'd picked up from other books, as well as context clues in previous chapters, and the feeling I got when I realised I was right? Absolutely glorious! I sometimes felt like the guy with the conspiracy board, though. I would also like to highlight the wonderful representation of an asexual character in a relationship with an allosexual person. I did not expect this, but I loved it so, so, so, so much! After all the twists and revelations, and that ending? I am beyond ready for the fifth and currently final book in the series, which marks the end of Stormlight Archives Act 1: Wind and Truth. Also I think it’s funny how large these books are. Any other “normal length” book feels short compared to these 1200 Page Monsters.

I finally beat this monster (and it beat me)! What a ride, I wouldn't even be able to write all me emotions for it down, NO WORDS. It was brilliant.

2.5/5 Disappointing. The last 100 pages and a few of the moments in-between were somewhat enjoyable and Sanderson still manages to tease these moments out occasionally, but this book definitely did not earn its page count. Large parts of it were repetitive, unengaging and inconsequential. I liked Raboniel and Navani, Adolin and the baddie. Another positive aspect is that there wasn't a single "overly cinematic" battle this time around, which I liked. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you're heavily into Cosmere. Or you're okay with skimming. Edit: I found out that there will be FIVE more of these books. Good god. I think i may be done with Sanderson. Way of Kings was amazing, but he's kind of lost the thread here. He's so busy setting up future plotlines and cosmere stuff (which i couldn't care less about) that he ended up with a book that had the plot of about a 300 page book (it has 1200+ actual pages). A lot of the in-between stuff was setup/cosmere/etc. If you ignore the last 100 pages, you're basically right where the book started. Apart from the aforementioned cool moments. Sanderson wants to create his MCU, it seems and i'm more interested in a focused story that doesn't need to set things up for 10+ books, so it seems we're going to part ways. It's been a ride!

Für mich persönlich tatsächlich bisher der schwächste Band. Dank eines Zeitsprunges zu Beginn, viel mir der Einstieg echt schwer. Auch wenn es ab dem zweiten Aprt einfach wurde und auch spannender. Hatte dieser Band im Vergleich zu den anderen eine sehr seltsame erzählstruktur, aber ich freu mich trotzdem weiterhin sehr auf Band 5.

Reread update: 5/5 I enjoy Stormlight more on rereads, and its no different with Rythm of War. What makes it my least favourite of the first four is the time it takes to actually hook me, we're talking about 700 pages, which is quite a chunk. This chunk isn't bad at all but it lacks the excitement the rest of the book offers. The last half of it though, and especially the last 200 pages, are pure hype. What makes this better on a reread is, of course, the deeper knowledge that I have of the Cosmere as a whole now and my appreciation for the setting of RoW, which is way more confined and science focused than the previous installments. This threw me off a lot at my first read, since it is in general kind of a step down in terms of epicness and scale and wasn't what I had wanted at that time. I love RoW now though. It well deserves its place in my favourite series. ------------------------------- 4/5 I took my time with this one and I am glad for it. There are just some books that I can´t enjoy as much, when I have a feeling of rushing them. Holding my expectations for this one not that high, I wasn´t disappointed and got more out of it than I expected. What I did not expect at all were the large amount of Cosmere references, which I loved. Although I adored most of the book, I also thought that it could have been a bit shorter. I usually like it when books take it slow and go for a steady and well thought out plot and character development. This overdid it a little for me though and is also the reason why I did not like it quite as much as other installments in the Stormlight Archive. That said, this was still a fantastic entry in the series and I can not wait to see what Sandersons next plans are for the Stormlight Archive especially in relation to the Cosmere.

Sooo I needed some time to rethink my review a bit. As the other Stormlight Archive books, this one too, dragged on for quite some time. If I had to read this book, I would have probably given up. Luckily audible books are available now. But still, it's about 50 hours of talk-talk-talk and the last 5 hours suddenly get interesting. Only this time, it was not an interesting worldbuilding kind of talk, but -at least for me- very boring sciency talk. I don't even need to know how my computer or my mobile actually works, why should I read about the detailed fabrial science stuff. Not really my thing... There was also quite some talk, that did not make any sense. After doing some research, I now know that reading the other books from the universe, does seem to be a must, to actually understand the deeper parts of the book. (Did not plan on doing so before, want to do so even less now....) So the characters: Still really like the hero figure of Kaladin. Even though he is basically running, hiding and emotionally struggling in this book. Still a good hero to have. Also liked his character development, the PTSD and the struggle of fight/flight. No real Szeth, Renarin, Jasnah or Dalinar, unfortunately. Maybe it just feels like that, cause in the last 30 hours they didn't get any real showtime anymore... Fleeting moments, with no real story input. Venli: Interesting, also liked the flashbacks with the history. It was a good character analysis, although it did not push the storyline along at all. Shallan? Oh geez, I could not get anymore annoyed with this woman. I stopped listening whenever the story turned to her. So much whining and annoying "whuu me, poor me..."-stupid talk... Navani: Bored to death. So much science talk. At first her very unbelievable "Oh I am no scientist, I am just a queen, but I shall strive to help scientist" thinking, and then her -oh ho- becoming her very own scientist: changing science and beliefs along the way... I much preferred her relationship with Raboniel. Her bound with the spren no surprise there at all- sooo many hours of bullshit, for a conclusion that I had after like 2 minutes? Really necessary? Not gonna talk about everyone but there were some highlights: liked Adolin and his Maya, Rlain and Teft. Well so all in all: Good if you do not have to read it. Still super interesting world. Some good, some boring characters. I can still see the potential in quite a few characters and their storyline. Writing style is actually getting worse by the book. I will probably get the next book as an audio again. Kind of want to see the world and characters develop and grow, but really do not look forward to another 50-60 hours of blabla...

4,5

Tehnicki gledano odlicno napisano, mozda cak i njegova najbolje napisana knjiga, likovi jako dobro sazrili i sve je slozeno za finale u 5. dijelu. Bilo je srceparajucih trenutaka, kao sto smo navikli od Sandija kao i epskih momenata. Mnogo (i to bas mislim, mnogo) Cosmere referenci smo dobili ovdje tako da bi predznanje ipak bilo korisno, kao i otkrivanje nekih tajni koje su bile tu od pocetka. Ali opet, kad sagledam sve, ostaje ustiak da je knjiga malo cudno konstruisana. Tako da npr (da drugacije ne spoilam) jedan lik krene ka jednom mjestu, i vise o njemu ne cujemo nista do nakon nekih 300-400 strana poslije mi je ipak malo smetalo. To govorim o knjizi koja ipak pretrpana drugim stvarima, koji jesu bitni, ali se bar po meni mogli malo skratit. Ali opet, sveukupno gledano, ova je knjiga barem meni jako blizu Oathbringeru, koji mi je najbolji dio serijala dosad. 4.5*

“This is life, and I will not lie by saying every day will be sunshine. But there will be sunshine again, and that is a very different thing to say. That is truth.” I love this series and I am so very grateful for Sanderson's admirable work ethic and consistent pumping out of 1000+ page long books a year. It really helps to know you'll get a conclusion to such a big project, especially with stakes being as high as they are. I continue to be impressed by Sanderson's ability to create characters with godlike abilities while the plot never loses momenton and the villains keep being an actual threat. It kind of reminds me of the Avenger end-game arc which was highly ambitious and impressive by pulling off a movie with a bunch of super-powered/intelligent heroes all fighting the big bad. In the stormlight archives our heroes never lose their relatability or their relevance to the plot, nor are they Mary-Sues and their struggles feel so real that when they overcome them it is all the more satisfying for the reader because we can see how hard they try and how desperately struggle. It helps that the cast of characters is so very diverse and even the villains at times aren't nearly as black and white as they are painted to be initially. But I guess that's the hallmark of Sanderson for this series in particular, he's big on his redemption arcs but he makes the protagonists work for it. For one, I severely disliked Venli in the previous books and still did to some extent in this one but she does get to deal with the ramifications of her actions and actually makes some effort to fix things. Raboniel meanwhile was the perfect foil for Navani who really was the star in Rhythm of War. I really love her. It's no wonder Jasnah turned out the way she did with a role model like that. This book centered a lot on mental health and we get to follow Kaladin's continuous struggle with PTSD and depression, as well as Shallan's split personality and childhood trauma. I loved those parts but I was quite disappointed that they didn't get to interact in this installment. In general, all our main characters were split up for the whole of the book and the middle part dragged on a bit. So it didn't quite have that addictive factor of the first three books for me but I can't wait for the fifth one because that's the semi-finale that Sanderson has been stringing us along for and it's gonna be good! The wait is gonna feel very long though.

Great description of some characters' psychological difficulties, if sometimes hard to stomach because I've grown to love these characters so much. A bit slow with continuing the main story. And for me the physics experiments were a bit much and tedious. Overall still a great read.

Ich weiß nicht so richtig, wie ich das spoilerfrei zusammenfassen sollte, da es der 4. Teil der Reihe ist. 🚨 Also bidde please NICHT lesen, wenn ihr noch vorhabt in Stormlight Archive reinzugehen und/oder den 4. Teil davon noch nicht gelesen habt! 🚨 Die Kacke ist ganz schön am Dampfen auf Roshar. Unsere Gruppe von Knight Radiants versucht Roshar gegen die Singer (wir wissen ja, es sind nicht mehr die Voidbringer *gasps*) zu verteidigen. Taktik hier, Strategie da, das ganz normale 1 Mal 1 des Krieges. Naja, bis auf kleine Details, dass hier z.B. geflogen wird, Körperteile nachwachsen können und auch sonst vieles nicht auf herkömmliche Weise läuft, denn Bitches (Knight Radiants) are back in town. Also, bis die Knight Radiants in Urithiru plötzlich alle umfallen und in einer Art Koma gefangen sind und der Turm von den Fused eingenommen wird. Gut gegen Böse, wir gegen die. Es könnte alles so einfach sein, aber es wäre ja nicht Brandon Sanderson, wenn dem so wäre. Und deswegen fühlt sich alles ein bisschen nach Schleudertrauma an, bei dem du denkst „So *klatscht auf Oberschenkel* schlimmer kann es ja jetzt nicht mehr werden und dann wird es noch schlimmer. JONGE WAS WAR DAS?? Ich finde es unfassbar, wie spannend und herzzerreißend Sanderson der Geschichte Leben einhaucht und dann zwischendurch so wahnsinnig witzige und kluge Dialoge einfließen lässt, so dass ich teilweise wirklich laut auflachen musste. Aber ich habe auch oft genug geweint wie das Bebi, das ich bin. Ich geh meistens einfach mit dem Vibe und bin dann komplett bamboozled, wenn wieder was Krasses passiert, was man überhaupt nicht hat kommen sehen, aber rückblickend betrachtet richtig viel Sinn ergibt. Hab auch ein bisschen (sehr viel) Angst jetzt vor Wind and Truth. 😳🫩 ABER AUCH RICHTIG BOCK!!

Großartiger 4. Teil. Nach "Words of Radiance" eindeutig mein Lieblingsband in der Reihe.

Oh well - this took me quite a while. I must admit my focus shifted a bit and I read a bunch of specialist books while this was on my reading list. The story itself is just amazing, a bit lenghty and overall pretty dark in the middle, but the ending is just a big surprise and makes it totally worth.

I was, sadly, quite bored by this book. I’m planning to reread it soon in preparation for Stormlight 5. I hope it improves upon reread…

4'5 STARS “This is life, and I will not lie by saying every day will be sunshine. But there will be sunshine again, and that is a very different thing to say. That is truth.” Ultimo libro del archivo publicado hasta el momento veía tan lejano este momento cuando Jess y yo comenzamos a leer el cosmere no me creo que estemos al día del archivo ♥ que para mi dentro del Cosmere es mi saga favorita y creo que a nivel sagas de mi vida también porque esta historia y estos personajes los voy a amar siempre que bien lo has hecho Brandon ♥ Dudaba entre poner 4.5 o 5 estrellas quizá al final me he decantado por el 4.5 porque había veces que me costaba entender o ha habido momentos algo mas lentos que otros pero sin duda ha sido un LIBRAZO puedo decir que este libro tiene 3 de los capítulos que más me han gustado del archivo y uno en especial que jamás voy a olvidar Momentos C A P I T U L A Z O Este es un libro de sufrir con los personajes que conocemos y un libro en el que Brandon nos suelta muchísima información que necesitas reposarla y entenderla, del libro 1 al 3 es un set up digamos y aquí ya es a tope cosmere. Quiero mucho a todos los personajes de este mundo pero es que Kaladin/Syl (esta relación en este libro me quería morir) y Shallan/Patron están a otro nivel y Adolin/Maya les quiero mucho ♥ El final me da mucho miedo de lo que pueda venir en el 5 esta claro que vamos a sufrir porque es el último y va a morir gente y le tendremos que pedir a sanderson que nos pague el psicólogo “Journey before destination, you bastard.”

4.75/5 e 9.50/10 Questo libro l'ho adorato e mi ha fatto salta i nervi, però comunque la trama era talmente bella a e avvincente che io non sono riuscita a staccarmi comunque. Alcune scelte dell'autore nono le capisco (ne parlo meglio nella zona spoiler), però il resto assolutamente innamorata di questa serie. Non vedo l'ora di poter andare avanti (sia con Stormlight che con Cosmere) e il 2024 mi sembra sempre più lontano. Parte spoiler---------------------------------------------------------------- Allora la cosa che non mi è piaciuta e mi ha fatto girare le scatole sono tutti quei momenti in cui personaggi come Dalinar e Jasnah che hanno comunque una mente brillante e addestrata a riconoscere gli imbrogli (almeno per Jasnah) e un'altra che dovrebbe essere militarmente accorta, commettono errori su errori che li ho trovati veramente stupidi. Esempio: 1) il fatto di non imporre un addestramento militare ai cavalieri Radiosi che non prevedesse l'utilizzo della folgoluce. (E Shallan l'ha imposto ai sui compagni Tessiluce) 2) il fatto che tu decidi di partire per la campagna a Emul e non ti sale il dubbio quando Taravangian approva. Non prendiamo in giro. Già il fatto che tu non sei riuscito ad allontanarlo dal consiglio anche se sapevi che lui aveva tradito la coalizione è da cretini. 3) (quella più grave) sai che il nemico è molto pericolo anche per i Cavalieri Radiosi e ha un arma che permette di togliere la Folgoluce, e tu durante la campagna a Emul lascia a Urithiru solo un manciata di Cavalieri Radiosi non sufficiente a pattugliare i piani meno difendibili della Torre insieme a un gruppo di guardie umane addestrate per fare da supporto ai Radiosi. Questa veramente mi ha fatto cascare le braccia. Se queste cose fossero state tenute in conto diciamo che la trama di questo libro non sarebbe stata questa. Poi anche l'ingenuità di certi personaggi (es. Navani) la capisco e la comprendo. Ma dopo che sei stata fregata una volta perché continui a caderci? Suvvia. C'è una scena che non mi è piaciuta molto (quella in cui Arguzia dice a Jasnah chi sono i Sanguespretti ma a noi lettori no), anche se capisco perché l'autore ha voluto lasciare il sospeso però non mi è piaciuta. soprattutto considerando le implicazioni a livello di trama del Cosmere. Non l'ho trovato giusto. Bastava che la raccontassi tipo storiella come Arguzia fa di solito e vedi come solo alcuni potevano capire chi fosse il capo. Tutto il resto l'ho adorato.