Book Review: The Rhythm of War

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson


This is the fourth book in the Stormlight Archive series, and like the others, is as hefty a book as one can expect from Brandon Sanderson. Dalinar has a minor plotline trying to win a war in somewhere or another, diplomating with the other kings and at one point, trying to cozy up with an insane Herald. He also spends time bossing around the Stormfather and trying to make deals with Odium. But this isn’t really Dalinar’s book, for once.

Kaladin/Teft form one of the main plotlines revolving around mental illness. At the start of the book, Kaladin is taking a break from killing people to spend some time trying to heal people instead. He and Teft find out that their culture’s current methods for healing shell-shocked people (of whom there are many) isn’t good. Kaladin decides to start a support group. They drop that plotline when shit gets real at Urethiru, but pick it up again at the end.

Venli also has a lot of plot development in this book, since she’s at Urethiru when the main event happens. But Venli also gets considerable back story development, as does her sister Esshonai. The Esshonai backstory felt kind of weird to me, since she died like a book or two ago. I felt like the Venli-Esshonai stuff should have happened much earlier, when it would have had more emotional impact. And the whole redemptive arc for Esshonai was too-little too-late. She was a great character and I was disappointed that she died, but she did die, and spending time developing her character felt like a waste.

Navani is also at Urethiru, and has a pivotal role in the main plot there. I loved Navani’s character development in this. I don’t know that I’ve ever really read a fantasy novel that had this kind of Manhattan-project plot in it. We get more backstory as to her relationship with King Gavalar, and about their crappy marriage and her attempts to pursue her main love, the love of science. The steampunk-esque fabrials and Navani’s complicated relationship with Raboniel were my favorite part of this book.

Shalan and Adolin go to Shadesmar for this novel, which disappointed me. I hate Shadesmar. I hate everything about it. Adolin’s plot ends up revolving around a courtroom drama (another unusual trope to introduce in a high fantasy novel) and while I commend the effort, it bored me because it felt overdone. Wasn’t there at least one Star Trek episode in which humanity is put on trial for its crimes? Adolin has daddy issues almost as bad as Kaladin does, but that doesn’t really make him as interesting a character as some of the other deeply flawed people in this series. They finally did something with Maya, his shardblade-spren plot point though, so that was cool.

Shalan is so messed up she makes Kaladin seem happy and healthy in comparison. She’s got the split-personality of Veil-Radiant-Formless thing happening, and that comes to a head when she had to make a decision about whether or not she’d going to be an assassin for the Ghostbloods. I still don’t understand the Ghostbloods, and at this point I don’t care about them. The mystery intrigued me when they were first introduced, several books ago, but Shalan’s obsession with them feels so forced it’s almost like an authorial insert. The secrecy hit a tipping point where it went from “ooh, secret society, how intriguing!” to “some posturing a-hole with a god complex who so desperately wants you to guess his secret. Come on, guess! Guess! No, wrong, guess again! BORING.” Shalan has an even more messed-up past than we knew about, and she has to come to terms with her unfortunate habit of killing people accidentally and/or on purpose.

Jasnah and Wit have plot arcs in this as well. Jasnah decides to swing her sword around, metaphorically as well as literally, to prove she has the right to rule in battle-obsessed Kolinar. She’s got a thing for Wit too, which unfortunately is one of the many things Jasnah and I don’t have in common (I also do not possess a brilliant scholarly reputation, a royal pedigree, or a spren). Wit is my least favorite character in the series. In this book he’s somehow picked up his own spren, but as usual he mostly stands around making mean, un-funny jokes or pointlessly cryptic comments, and acting smugly superior to everyone. He tells stories to main characters when they need some kind of spiritual epiphany, but every time he makes some non-Roshadian reference, the fourth wall gets broken, like we’ve been interrupted by some know-it-all who wants to explain things because he thinks he’s smarter than everyone.

There’s a few other characters who show up in this. Teravangian has a bit of a plot arc; I thought he was an interesting and somewhat sympathetic character. Moash shows up too, and he’s also an interesting and somewhat sympathetic character. The disabled merchant girl with the stormlight-eating pet didn’t come back, and Renarin barely appears. Lift has a plot, and even some backstory, but not so much. Even though the book ends on something of a tense note “we have ten days to save the world” I don’t feel hyper-anxious for the next one. This book was interesting enough that I listened to the end, but it also felt like it had a lot of tedious padding, so the series started to lose inertia.




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