Rhythm of War is the fourth book in the Stormlight Archive. Congratulations if you’ve made it this far! I won’t go into very much detail about plot, since this is a fourth book, but we do get point-of-view chapters from Navani, Kaladin, Adolin, Shalan, Venli, Dalinar, and some other more minor characters. My brother tells me someone described this book as a lot of fake science and a little bit of Die Hard. That seems pretty true.
My feelings about this book are very mixed. The first 500 pages were a real slog. It took me a couple weeks just to get that far. By contrast, the last 500 pages probably took me three or four days to read. When I told my dad – who hasn’t read the series – that it took me 500 pages to get into the book, he raised an eyebrow and said, “Any book that takes that long to get into just isn’t worth it.” And normally, I would agree. On the other hand, I’m in the middle of the series, and I still trust Brandon will make it worth my while.
But was this particular book worth my while? I’m not sure. The ending made me cry – in a good way, so obviously I was emotionally invested in the characters, but an awful lot of the book felt like a chore. However, some of the viewpoint characters actively annoyed me every time I got to their chapters. Other viewpoint characters I felt pretty bored with. There were only a couple who I was really interested in following. Also, everyone in this book is stuck inside their head — in a bad way. I spent a lot of time wanting to get out of the characters heads and on with the plot. Also, the fake science can be a real problem. Some of the tension in certain scenes is built on the fake science — will the fake science work fast enough to fix the problem? — but if you stop to think at all, you realize that you don’t know how to determine how close or far the characters are from failure or success. This can really break the tension.
Ultimately this was about a 4-star ending attached to a 3-star book. Or a 4-star book at the end of approximately three 3-star books, and I don’t think the 4-star ending pulled the whole thing up with it. I give this book 3-stars.
So, should you pick up Rhythm of War? If you’ve read the first three — obviously, yes! Are you seriously considering dropping the series for a few hundred slow pages?
If you haven’t started the series does Rhythm of War make or break the series. Nope. I still think the series as a whole is worth picking up. Although, ultimately the answer to this question can only be answered after the fifth book comes out.
But of course, don’t start with this book! Start with The Way of Kings – which was awesome! Or, if you’re not sure about Brandon Sanderson, yet. Try The Emperor’s Soul. Joe just put out a review of it. It’s a good representation of what Brandon’s fantasy is like, but it’s a stand alone, so you can read one and done without any strings attached and decide from there if you want to join his hordes of fans.