Wind and Truth

A review of two minds here.

Wind and Truth is an impressive novel. Nobody has ever tried to write a Western epic fantasy series of this scale before: of cosmic proportions, with thousands of characters, gods, and varying degrees of reification, and most importantly, an ending. And Brandon Sanderson has successfully pulled it off without letting it develop into a web serial soap opera. He has concluded most of his threads, finished most of his arcs, and found some organization in a 2.5 million word behemoth of a story. The series is moving, epic, and an extraordinary feat of fantasy writing. We must all appreciate his effort, spirit, and hard work.

Conversely, he has somewhat finally fulfilled a pathway to becoming a caricature of himself. The oversincere moments of his early career and the granitic, heroic character arcs of the mid-2010s have yielded to a neverending sequence of distant, withdrawn sketches reminiscent of improv comedy; parables and skits that sometimes pack emotional punch but more often just are there to keep us entertained. The first half of this book read as prefatory action to a promised massive conclusion, which somehow limped towards a visible finish line with stops at a couple aid station plot twists along the way. For me, the duty of drawing the series to a midpoint eclipsed the enjoyment, surprise, and escalation that one usually anticipates from a Sanderson ending. His talent and earnestness have created an expectation that even he cannot fulfill.

Unlike Rhythm of War, the story arcs in this one did not read as separate novels, but Shallan's arc, which shifted towards an incredibly moving and sweet romance between Rlain and Renarin, was the standout here. An honorable mention goes to the main focus of the book, the journey of Kaladin and Szeth through Shinovar, which contained a much better flashback sequence than the previous book and a stodgy and heavy handed, but moving, theme of self-discovery and healing.

While Sanderson and his team have thankfully eliminated much of the fan service, I do worry if the book is too fundamentally esoteric for a reader who has not immersed themselves in the most recently available theories. And I wonder if Sanderson dropped too many hints in previous books for theory connoisseurs to be shocked by many of the climactic reveals.

Readers outside the immediate fandom will deem the closing arcs of the first Stormlight Archive series a slight failure, unable to meet the burden of expectation the first two books established. There are undeniably bright moments. I hope Sanderson, as he has discussed in interviews, will write the second series on a slightly smaller scale, potentially with 200-300k word books. It certainly seems time for Sanderson, like his characters in Wind and Truth, to break free of duty and start something new.

6.5/10