You can tell he still doesn’t quite know where this story is going. Def journey over destination. However in this book he repeats a lot of the same language, the same debates, the same mechanisms. The characters are starting to feel stale. Their lessons they are still learning should have been learnt by now. The conflicts between their enemies feel repetitive. I love that he FINALLY added some actual romance in characters who should be able to portray love in more than a familial way. While still fun to read, because I’m a massive fan, it slogs. It’s just more teasing with drops of reveals. I mean it covers just 10 days but still. Eliminate some more characters or join them all together. And the backflashes can be done at this point. Move the story forward! This may feel more critical than I intend it to but I mean it more as a suggestion for where he takes the next arc. All in all def a 3. 4 if you love fantasy as much as I do.

Will try to keep this spoiler free. I am an enormous fan of Brandon Sanderson. I have read every single one of the Cosmere novels, and I have read some of my favorites multiple times, especially the “Way of Kings” and “Words of Radiance”. This was not Brandon Sanderson’s best work. In previous Stormlight novels, it felt like I was experiencing a character’s development in the moment, growing as they did. Not so in this novel, where I was just told flat out what was happening to the character instead of living it with them. I think that part of this is explained by the premise. It is hard for much to change in ten days, and I think Sanderson limited himself by constraining this novel to those ten days. I have so much more to say about this book but will stop myself in order stay spoiler free. Let me say this. In the other Stormlight novels, there is at least one moment (and often more) of intense emotion that would bring me to the verge of tears. Not so in this one. Many of the twists in this novel are very predictable. Very little action occurring. A rare miss from Brandon Sanderson. 2.5/5

I have read many books in my life but not many have affected me as much as this series has. Brandon Sanderson is a storming genius. All I can say is the journey through these books was so worth the destination and the best part is, that it isn’t finished yet. I could not recommend a series more strongly to someone than this one.

Brandon Sanderson is a talented story teller with the ability to weave deep truths about what it means to be human and deal with real life topics into fantastical fiction. He continues to share the realities of war and mental health struggles without it feeling like a psa. This is a must read for sci-fi and fantasy fans. I’d highly recommend reading Mistborn, Elantris, and all 4 previous Storm Light archive books before reading this one.

I didn’t know that I wanted the entire last book of the series to be a Sanderlanche until I read it. Can’t wait for book 6!

I’m exhausted, but happy, and I want more. It’ll be a while til we get 6-10, but in the meantime, we have plenty of Cosmere to quench our thirst.

Read the book non stop and it’s awesome! Can’t wait for the next arc