3 min to read
Rhythm of War - full review
- Title
- Rhythm of War - full review
- Author
- Brandon Sanderson
- Published date
- 17/11/2020
- Pages
- 1230
- Publisher
- Gollancz
“Rhythm of War” is the fourth book in the “Stormlight Archive” series – an epic fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson. It was my most anticipated book to read this year and when I finally read it, I was not disappointed.
As I’ve already wrote in my initial review after reading first part of the book, the author is getting us right back to Roshar, serving us chapters full of action, daring pursuits, duels, and engineering wonders. After that, the action slows a bit, but the situation is getting far more serious and dangerous for all the characters.
In this book the most important role played characters’ development. For me, the main stars here were Kaladin, Shallan and Navani, with Adolin as a runner up. All of them will be forced to face their deepest and most painful traumas and memories to be able to move on. I love how Sanderson showed the mental problems and how those maladies were treated in his made-up world. The scary thing is, it was not a far fetch imaginary picture, but it rang painfully close to what is often happening in a real world too.
The fourth book in the series will be also a feast to all of the Cosmere fans. There are few bits and pieces from other books for readers to find (I probably miss some of them too), and the plot implies we will soon learn a great deal more about the events and characters that connects different parts of this universe.
“Rhythm of War” is fallowing a well-known pattern, typical for all previous books. We have a tension slowly building throughout whole book to explode in the most epic climax at the end. But it is oh, so worth it. I am always astounded as how the author can captivate me completely with his stories. I laughed, I cried, and I followed the heroes with all my heart. And once again there were twists and revelation that I have not seen coming. There was one scene when I had to put the book down, because I was too emotional to continue reading and needed to take a time off to calm down.
I am constantly amazed by complexity of Roshar world and the Cosmere as a whole. The amount of work that was put into meticulously creating all the little details is astounding. I often had to double check the details in Stormlight wiki, when I couldn’t recall all the bits from the previous books. But it’s one of the reasons I love this series so much.
Like in all other books, I love Wit’s stories. Each of them is a little masterpiece. Sanderson confirmed on one of his live streams that he plans to publish the two little stories: The Dog and the Dragon and the Girl who Looked Up as picture books for children. I will buy them for sure.
Once more I was impressed by Sanderson’s writing prowess. Some of his sentences were so perfectly written they made the shiver running down my spine while I was reading. I noted so many incredible quotes, but I can’t share them for a while, because they have too many spoilers.
It is no surprise that I love “Rhythm of War” and it’s my favourite read this year. Sanderson never cease to amaze me with each new book, and I wait impatiently for all new realises. “The Stormlight Archive” is one of the best epic fantasy ever written and I hope more people will read it. I still think it deserve far more publicity than it’s getting right now. Because with all it’s complexity it’s a masterpiece.
*****
