Wind and Truth sticks the landing for The Stormlight Archive's first arc (SPOILER-FREE review)

Wind and Truth, the fifth novel in Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy series The Stormlight Archive, is finally here. Sanderson has a reputation for publishing quality books with mach speed and is loved by fans for it, but even by his own standards, Wind and Truth feels momentous. The Stormlight Archive is one of the few door-stopping epic fantasy series running right now that's on the level of genre greats like Malazan Book of the Fallen, A Song of Ice and Fire, and The Wheel of Time (for which Sanderson wrote the final three books following the death of author Robert Jordan). Any new Stormlight book is a big event, but Wind and Truth also marks the middle point for the series, and the end of its first arc. After this, Sanderson will take a six-year hiatus from working on the series to focus on other books. The sixth Stormlight Book will be set 10 years after this one.

Wind and Truth is also the culmination of the first half of Sanderson's sprawling interconnected universe, the Cosmere. Each of his adult fantasy series, like Mistborn and Elantris, take place in this fictional universe, on different planets in different solar systems. The overall mythos of the Cosmere has often been pretty opaque, but as the series has gone on, the connections between his discreet series have grown more and more pronounced. It's one of the few fantasy book franchises that has a similar sort of trajectory to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, giving fans many different layers to parse through as its interconnected universe comes more into focus.

That's a lot of pressure to place on one book. Sanderson has spent more time working on Wind and Truth than almost any of his previous novels, even going so far as to write multiple endings to home in on the ideal climax.

So how did it turn out? Is Wind and Truth the epic Cosmere novel we've all been waiting for?

I'm thrilled to report that in my opinion, yes, it absolutely is. I was lucky enough to read Wind and Truth in advance of its release date, and was blown away by how Sanderson handled this crucial juncture in The Stormlight Archive. Since the book just released and is a whopping 1,330 pages long, this will be SPOILER-FREE REVIEW — at least as far as Wind and Truth goes; we will be referencing a few plot details from previous books. We'll discuss all the mind-blowing revelations from Wind and Truth later on, once it's been out for a while and you've had a chance to read it.

The journey has been an incredible one, and at last, we've arrived at a major destination. So strap in, and let's return to Roshar.

Book review: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

Let's start with the set up. At the heart of The Stormlight Archive is a growing conflict between the Knights Radiant — led by characters like Dalinar Kholin, Shallan Davar, and Kaladin Stormblessed — and the forces of Odium, a deity who has bent the indigenous Parshendi people of Roshar to his will. Over the course of the first four books we watched the Knights Radiant return after they'd vanished in ancient times, and ultimately Dalinar agreed to a contest of champions with Odium to settle the fate of Roshar once and for all.

The previous book, Rhythm of War, largely covered the occupation of the Radiant tower of Urithiru. After Odium's forces were ousted from the place, Dalinar and Odium agreed the cost of this war was becoming steep enough to warrant a contest of champions: in 10 days time, they would bring their chosen heroes forth, and the lines of conquest would freeze on the map. Whatever the two factions had managed to capture by that point, they would keep. And whoever won the contest would receive an extra boon: if the Radiants were victorious, Odium would return several precious kingdoms to humanity; if Odium was the victor, Dalinar would be forced to become his general on a campaign to conquer the wider Cosmere beyond Roshar.

Those are some pretty lofty stakes to kick off Wind and Truth, and that's not even getting into the minutiae of characters like Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar's son Adolin, and the assassin Szeth. Kaladin began the series as a fairly typical Chosen One hero, but Sanderson flipped that idea on its head in Rhythm of War by having Kaladin try — desperately — to retire from fighting after years of it have utterly traumatized him. Instead of being the war hero everyone expects him to be at this crucial moment, Kaladin essentially becomes the world's first therapist, because he's suffered so long with depression and trauma that it's given him an innate understanding for how to help others with their own darkness.

Meanwhile, Shallan finally made peace with the fact that she has multiple personality disorder while journeying through the Spren dimension of Shadesmar, her husband Adolin at her side. Szeth embraced his path as a Skybreaker and swore himself to serve Dalinar Kholin. And atop it all, Odium shed his previous incarnation and inhabited an even more dangerous avatar.

With a new Odium on the rise as the contest of champions nears, Wind and Truth has a great starting point. The book only gets better from there, with an ending that is among the best Sanderson has ever written. I won't lie to you, I cried at one point. It's emotional to see big conclusions to this chapter of The Stormlight Archive, and Sanderson took some frankly wild risks as he sets up what comes next. It's hard for me to imagine any Cosmere fan being disappointed with this book.

The Format

Something that is very interesting to me about Wind and Truth is the format, which in some ways is indicative of the larger ethos of this work. So far, The Stormlight Archive is probalby the most static series in Sanderson's catalog from a format perspective. Each book is broken into five distinct parts, with interludes peppered in between. There are lots of little formatting traditions Sanderson follows in Stormlight, right down to the titles: when they're all put together they roughly form a "ketek," a symmetrical poem unique to Roshar.

Wind and Truth shows that, despite how entrenched he has gotten in his way of constructing stories in the Cosmere, Sanderson is still willing to take some risks. The format for Wind and Truth is different, which I don't feel is a spoiler since it's been talked about openly at this point, including at Reactor where they've been sharing sample chapters from the novel. Instead of the usual five-part format, Wind and Truth covers each of the 10 days leading up to the contest of champions, with the usual interludes between.

The downside to this is that this novel takes place over a fairly short amount of time compared to, say, The Way of Kings, which spanned years. But thanks to some pretty bold narrative choices, it doesn't always feel like it takes place over that short an amount of time. These are 10 of the most important days in the history of Roshar, and Sanderson makes the most of them.

The Plot & Characters

Now let's touch on some of the most important elements for any story: the plot and characters. The Stormlight Archive is known for huge sweeping arcs that leave readers in awe by the end, full of twists and turns, betrayals and battles. They also feature many of Sanderson's most iconic characters, like Kaladin Stormblessed and Shallan Davar. Does Wind and Truth live up to the rest of the series?

What I'll say is that Wind and Truth is an interesting book in more ways than one. I am firmly of the opinion that it's one of the best novels in The Stormlight Archive, but some aspects of it might divide fans a bit, similar to the fourth book, Rhythm of War. My journey with this book went something like "wow, this is incredible" followed by "oh, this is a little weird. Do I like this?" followed by "oh my god, this is incredible." This book is a journey, and I expect readers' feelings will shift as they read. But overall, I'd say that Wind and Truth managed to bring this first arc of The Stormlight Archive to a head in admirable fashion. I was left extremely satisfied by the time I finished. And the "Sanderlanche" — the bombardment of climactic events Sanderson tends to put at the end of his books — is very real here.

As for how Sanderson handles the characters, once again, he nails it. The Stormlight Archive isn't always even-handed with its characters; different books pull different ones to the forefront, which means others linger in the background. For example, Szeth played a relatively small role in Rhythm of War while Navani Kholin became one of the main characters. In previous books, Navani played a much smaller role while others got more page time.

Since Wind and Truth is the end of this arc and there's a 10-year time jump around the corner, Sanderson couldn't get away with that quite as easily. Instead, he strikes a balance between all of the major players introduced so far, giving each of them time to shine. He also spends a lot of time building up some other characters who will presumably be even more important in the back half of the series. And he takes some of the more unexpected character developments from previous books, like Kaladin becoming Roshar's first therapist, and builds on them in a way that feels reverent to their entire character arc from the beginning of the series. So while I do anticipate fans having some complicated feelings about some of the plot decisions in Wind and Truth, personally, I think Sanderson knocked it out of the park.

The Writing

Another thing I was curious about heading into Wind and Truth was, obviously, the actual writing itself. Now, if you're this deep into the Cosmere, you know what to expect from Brandon Sanderson; he can be a bit goofy with his sense of humor, throws in some modern parlance, etc. I don't hold any of that against him, because if you're on book five of The Stormlight Archive, you should already know whether you like his style or not.

The gauge for me is how Wind and Truth stacks up to Sanderson's own previous works and standards. I always thought that the prose in the third book in The Stormlight Archive, Oathbringer, was a little looser than usual, perhaps because Sanderson wrote it while coming off an insanely exhausting tour schedule for the previous book, Words of Radiance, that was so bad it made him "physically ill." For whatever reason, that's something that has always stuck out in my mind; Oathbringer was a solid book, but is still probably my least favorite in The Stormlight Archive.

Wind and Truth is the opposite. This is an immense novel, and it's obvious Sanderson tried really hard to get it right. The prose in this is among the best Sanderson has ever written. It can get a little weighty and philosophical at times...but honestly, that's something I've always enjoyed about The Stormlight Archive. He strikes the balance really well between those moments and others where he unleashes his full capacity to write thrilling action scenes.

The Setting

The setting itself has always been one of the strongest aspects of The Stormlight Archive; there just aren't any other fantasy worlds out there quite like Roshar, with its shelled plants, highstorms, crab-like animals and dramatic vistas. Obviously, returning to Roshar will always come with a certain amount of wonder.

However, this is one aspect of Wind and Truth where Sanderson spends a little less time than usual. We've already spent ample time getting to know the world of The Stormlight Archive, so there isn't as much of a need to describe the landscape as in the previous books. For the most part, I didn't mind that, but I did miss some of the wonder those early books gave me with their focus on just how strange the little details were compared to our own world. A large part of Wind and Truth also deals with the Spiritual Realm, and while Sanderson does describe that setting really well, by its very nature it's a much more nebulous place. So while the setting has always been a highlight in Stormlight, I found it to be a little less so in Wind and Truth.

The big exception to this is Shinovar, which is easily my favorite setting of the novel. In Wind and Truth we see this new location from Szeth's native perspective as well as the perspective of someone who is used to the rest of Roshar's rockier landscape. I devoured every second of the Shinovar storyline and think Sanderson did a wonderful job portraying its landscape, history, and culture.

The Flashbacks

Another aspect I want to shout out is the flashbacks; so far, we've learned about a different character's past in each book. It's no secret at this point that the flashbacks in Wind and Truth are from the perspective of Szeth-son-Neturo, the mysterious assassin who kickstarted the events of the series when he murdered Dalinar's brother, King Gavilar. Szeth has undergone a lot of change throughout the series, and at last, we get to find out how he became the morose assassin we met at the start of The Way of Kings.

Szeth's flashbacks are something which have a certain mystique about them in the fandom, because Sanderson originally planned to include them all the way back in the third book. Then they got bumped to book four, and then finally to Wind and Truth. "It felt natural not to delve into his story until I got to the end [ofThe Stormlight Archive’s first half]. It matched what I was planning to do in this book for reasons I won’t say," Sanderson told Esquire in a recent interview.

Having finished the book, I very much agree with that sentiment. It's hard to imagine Szeth's flashbacks fitting as well anywhere else in the series as they do here. Just like how Kaladin's flashbacks bolstered the main story events of The Way of Kings, Szeth's add a whole new layer to what we see during the main story of Wind and Truth. I think holding them back for this point was absolutely the right choice, and I think they are very solid. Fans who have been waiting more than a decade to discover Szeth's secrets will be pleased.

Roshar & the Cosmere

The last aspect of Wind and Truth I want to discuss is how this book relates to the wider Cosmere. Since this is the culmination of the first part of The Stormlight Archive, and we're now at a point in the Cosmere where things are starting to cross over a bit, you might be wondering if this is a novel you need to have done a lot of homework to understand. Will this have an Avengers-level amount of references and easter eggs? Will it still be comprehensible if you haven't read all seven Mistborn books, Warbreaker, Elantris, and all the various short fiction of the Cosmere?

My answer to that is yes...and no. Sanderson has long held that each discreet series in the Cosmere is meant to stand on its own, without requiring you to read everything else. But if you do read all the rest, you'll get more out of them. I think that's especially true of Wind and Truth. I vascilated between feeling like this was a very Roshar-centered book (as it should be), and one which felt like a gateway to the story of the wider Cosmere. It has a lot of references to other Cosmere books, but even if you miss them, you'll still absolutely be able to enjoy Wind and Truth. This is, first and foremost, a Stormlight Archive book, and that is what gets the main focus.

However, Wind and Truth also feels like the book that finally brings the conflict of the wider Cosmere into focus in some pretty major ways. The deep lore of the Cosmere has largely been confined to fan wikis and interviews with Sanderson, but at long last, it's starting to become relevant. Even better, it's becoming relevant in a way that feels organic, rather than just tacked on so Sanderson can expand his MCU-style book universe.

If that intimidates you a little, I'd say don't worry. I'm going to give you two specific examples of how my own ignorance didn't impact my reading experience at all. The first is a reference to a name from one of Sanderson's other Cosmere books, which I read years ago. When I hit that reference in Wind and Truth, I knew on some level that I should know what it meant, but couldn't quite remember which book it was from. But I kept reading, and after I finished, I circled back to the internet and did some digging. Then my mind was absolutely blown. But in the moment, it didn't impact my reading experience whatsoever, aside from knowing a few sentences were more important than I could fully wrap my head around.

The other is that, I am ashamed to admit, I haven't yet read The Lost Metal, the final book in Mistborn Era 2 (I was waiting forever for the mass market paperback release, because they need to match on my shelf, damn it). Even though I haven't read it, I know The Lost Metal has important implications for the wider Cosmere, which undoubtedly have relevance to Wind and Truth. But my enjoyment of Wind and Truth was in no way diminished by not having read it; if anything, it just makes me more excited to get to The Lost Metal now.

So whether you've read every single book in the Cosmere or only a smattering, as long as you're current on The Stormlight Archive I think you'll have a grand time with Wind and Truth. And once you do fill in all the rest of your Cosmere knowledge, revisiting it will only make it better.

Verdict

At the end of the day, Wind and Truth is a special book. We live in a time where dozens of new fantasy and science fiction books are released every single month...which just makes The Stormlight Archive stand even further apart. Sanderson is a master storyteller, and here he brings every tool in his arsenal to bear to create a massive epic that can stand alongside the genre's best. This is a dense fantasy book made for people who love big dense fantasy books; it's not trying to pretend it's more mainstream just for broader appeal. Since I'm one of those fantasy nerds who loves a door-stopper, that just makes me love it more.

Wind and Truth sticks the landing for the first arc of The Stormlight Archive, while opening new doors for the bold next chapter of the Cosmere. If you've been enjoying the journey, I think you're going to be really pleased with this destination.

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