Rhythm of War

I've really returned to the world of Roshar in my 2020 re-read, so much so that I practically feel like I was living there in the latter half of the year! So with the release of Rhythm of War this year I was very excited to climb back in to this fascinating planet with its great story and fascinating peoples! 

There are, of course, SPOILERS for the events of the three preceding novels. You can find my reviews for those here, here, and here if you want to dip your toes in the water, but otherwise, proceed at your own risk!

The story picks up roughly a year after the events of Oathbringer. The Everstorm ravages the land, the Voidbringers and their singer allies have taken much of the world. Dalinar, his reforged Knights Radiant and their coalition of allied monarchs fight tooth and nail to reclaim as much of the world as they possibly can, but the war drags on. The reforged Radiants battle the emerhing forces of the Fused, the favorites of Odium, and Kaladin Stormblessed finds himself unable to keep up with the fighting. Shallan Davar meanwhile, works to keep her order of Lightweavers alive to fight another day, but without the help of more spren, will find herself succumbing to the many facets of her personality. Adolin Kholin, her husband, also struggles in a world where demigods soar through the skies and he is merely the most competent swordsman with no powers of his own. Meanwhile, Navani Kholin, husband to Dalinar, must try and run his small kingdom in the lost city of Urithiru, trying to unlock its secrets. Finally, the former listener scholar Venli attempts to keep her head down as Odium uses her people as disposable pawns, and potentially, find a way to fight back.

Rhythm appropriately starts off showcasing how this war has displaced so many. Long lines of refugees flooding into Kaladin's occupied hometown. It is, in my opinion, a very effecting way of showcasing the horrors of war and the toll it takes on nations, communities, and individuals. The fighting in the opening is fantastic, the characterization is superb, and the opening section here is probably one of the best Sanderson has written. I was immediately sucked in to what was happening, felt a real raising of the tensions and the stakes, and could tell you what had happened and what was going on. It reminded me a lot of the opening of The Hero of Ages for getting you situated in this world again, and keeping the story fresh and fast.

Kaladin's arc this book leads him down the path of someone suffering from "battle shock" or PTSD. It is done well, alongside handling his lingering issues with depression and anxiety to a really realistic level where he tries to fight through the pain and overcome his own feelings of worthlessness. Shallan meanwhile is attempting to fight past her three different personalities which cover up a multitude of sins, while keeping a nebulous fourth personality from emerging and taking her over.

The three most compelling arcs though, IMO were those of Venli, Navani, and Adolin. While we had some very solid movement on our three mains like Kaladin, Shallan and Dalinar, we've only gotten some time in the last three books with each of these characters, and of those Adolin took up the most space. Venli only came into her own in Oathbringer, and Navani has been more in the background of these books. Adolin was always in the forefront, but this book was truly his chance to shine. Though, unfortunately, his and Shallan's plots were relegated to the background for much of the book.

First I'm going to outline a spoiler free part before leaving more below.

The first half of the novel, after Part I is a little slow and had some events that felt rushed or overlooking certain outcomes at the end of Oathbringer, but it made for a workable opening. Kaladin's arc seemed to bog down in the middle, not because it was boring IMO, but because there just wasn't enough real material to work with. I felt you could have truncated his story in this book considerably and not really lost anything.

Meanwhile, Adolin and Shallan's stories in this book were almost completely overlooked. There was still progress and work done on them, but it felt like we had to wait forever to get through much less interesting storylines to see it, and an inordinate amount seemed to get wrapped up at the very end of the story. Adolin trying to move out from the shadow of both his Radiant wife and almost demigod father is still very fascinating. Add that to his relationship with his sword, and I think we had a much greater potential for a powerful story here.

This story though, is far more that of Navani, Venli, and Kaladin. For all that Navani and Venli are given the center stage though, I can't really say much about Venli's story. Her story seems to be much slower because, unlike the last three books, she doesn't have interludes begin which bring her to the center stage until almost a third of the way into the books. That means the looks back on her past and her build up as a character drag excessively compared to the detail put into building up Navani and Kaladin.

Navani's story is excellent however. I liked her on page presence and her struggles as a leader and someone who felt imposter syndrome as she led, but did not consider herself, a scholar. This is well reinforced in the prologue by showing off her strained relationship with her former husband Gavilar. That she has to struggle first as a leader, a scholar, and then a war leader, makes her go through many mental stresses and deal repeatedly with the cost of failure. I like her growth, and the revelations and ultimate build up for her ending were very satisfactory and made me very much enjoy building her into a main cast member in her own right.

The first to middle sections of the story though, did drag somewhat, and I did find myself not breathlessly racing through them in the same way I did in Oathbringer which I found myself doing in my original read-through of that book's Kholinar arc. The finale though, really brought the whole book together in ways that I genuinely appreciated, and I had to put the book down to dry my tears for a few moments with some characters. The send off for Eshonai was, IMO, one of the most touching moments in the book. 

Upon my first re-read, I do think that Oathbringer is actually a stronger novel than Rhythm of War simply because there was more action in that book than this one. Much was thrust on the shoulders of almost too many characters for really good build up for each of them. That being said, of the three main characters who had the greatest build up, Kaladin, Navani and Venli had some of the best work done, and poor Adolin and Shallan were somewhat left out till the end. That said, they still got excellent characterization and great moments of triumph as they found their way through this plot.

My only real criticism of this book might be that here, beyond any doubt, we get to the point of a continuity lock-out. If you haven't read all the cosmere material up to this point, you probably won't understand the implications of Shallan's plot. Many scenes won't make sense, and much of the Ghostblood's plot will seem completely unrelated to the main characters on Roshar. Casual readers will, probably be put off by this, which makes me think that beyond this book the Stormlight Archive will be primarily for fans of the cosmere.

At the end of it all though, I still enjoyed this book, and really hope that upon re-reading I'll pick up on more that I've missed and can say that this was, once again, a well done piece by Brandon Sanderson! Still, for a book that delves into not just the physical wounds, but the mental pain and anguish that can hold people back, I think this is a wonderful series to read!

Major SPOILERS below the cut!

The biggest takeaway from this book was the sudden Ascension of Taravangian to the position of Odium. That scene I had to re-read many times to understand. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it overall. That Taravangian was being bred as some kind of big bad for the series is not surprising ever since the first reveal at the end of Way of Kings, however, it felt almost like it needed to wait until the fifth book. 

My own take on the scene is that it was - for such an important one - far, far too rushed. I had difficulty understanding the mechanics of it, and almost felt that I had to suspend my disbelief to accept it. Now, I'm fairly hopeful that this will be satisfactorily used in the next book, and we've already seen Taravangian using his powers more craftily than Odium could. I think he will make for a very good villain, but I'm hoping that on reread I'll find this twist more impressive.

One final twist which honestly needed more work was that surrounding the Herald Ishar. He's an unconnected bondsmith with no filter and who is ranging between insanity and becoming a god. He, well, wasn't very well built up and his sudden clash with Dalinar at the end was not served well by the Shadesmar arc being so disconnected from the main plot for so many pages. I'm a veteran Wheel of Time reader so I'm used to being able to go hundreds of pages without characters, and even entire books, but the problem for me here was that we got so much time devoted to Urithiru that Dalinar's need to find a bondsmith teacher and the sudden issues with Ishar were just slammed into the last few hundred pages.

Alongside the continuity lock-out issues mentioned above, this is probably the biggest problem I have with the book. Enormous plot and cosmere wide ramifications are glossed over for many, while satisfying, honestly plot irrelevant moments which could have been removed. Even then, characters like Raboniel and the Pursuer popped into the plot and almost came off feeling like X-Files monster of the week villains who served no greater purpose. The introduction of El at the end of this book was, well, similar. I didn't care about these characters as villains and felt almost divorced of context from them. The society of the singers and the Fused was not explored with as much depth as would have helped, which was another reason I think that the Urithiru plot fell a bit flat for me, as it would probably have been better served happening in the middle of the book, and Part II being spent more on the build up to the invasion with more of Adolin and Shallan mixed in.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Others may disagree, which is perfectly fine. For now though, these issues just make me rate this book under Oathbringer and hope for more in book five!