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A review by pagesplotsandpints
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
Read Completed 11/19/20 |
Naturally, I thoroughly enjoyed RHYTHM OF WAR. I always have a good time diving back into Sanderson's works and spending more time with some wonderful characters.
This book is very mental health-heavy and I appreciated the mental health rep and how in depth Sanderson really explored these characters and what their traumas have done to them. Not every book character can just close everything off and go kick ass on the battle field using the trauma as fuel for the fire. A lot has happened and the more they go through, the more they have to address these pains head on. We spend a lot more time looking at Kaladin's depression and Shalan spends almost the entire book broken up into different personalities. It was really hard to read Shalan's chapters, though. I was frustrated that while her closest people wanted to support her, they really ended up enabling her in a lot of ways and it was hard to enjoy her chapters just watching her go along in her life avoiding the trauma of her past. This was a few books coming so I think Sanderson could have pushed that along a little bit so we could have had a bit more of a resolution within RHYTYM OF WAR to allow Shalan to accomplish a few more things. Her character development just took a bit too long for me here. I also loved seeing more of Aedolin and Navani and didn't really care for Venli's chapters. She became an important part of things but it didn't feel THAT important for her chapters to be so prevalent.
This is the first series I've read from Brandon Sanderson that isn't a three part story so it was interesting to see how this book developed. It did feel like a lot of set-up for the last book in this era the Starlight Archive but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy spending time with these characters and there are so many to love that I enjoyed seeing all of their various paths and how they're going to end up being important for the final showdown of the book. There's also a lot to unpack plot-wise, especially developments and revelations regarding the spren. Sometimes it's a weird concept for me to grasp so I'm still wanting just a little bit more to help ground me in that concept that didn't quite come in RoW.
There were some amazing brain busters, especially at the end of the book, and I can never get enough glimpses of the World-Hoppers. I still enjoyed the book very, very much but there are also still big, over-arcing concepts that I keep hoping to latch onto that I'm still not. I think it's just that there are SO many things to take in that the rereads really help cement everything, so a first read is not always the best read! I'm also such a sucker for the world-building that I keep wanting things like novellas/shorts about the Heralds to really help me understand the creation of this world better, but I guess that's kind of the point of some of this big reveals as the series progresses... and just the revelations about the Cosmere in general! There's always another secret...
Naturally, I thoroughly enjoyed RHYTHM OF WAR. I always have a good time diving back into Sanderson's works and spending more time with some wonderful characters.
This book is very mental health-heavy and I appreciated the mental health rep and how in depth Sanderson really explored these characters and what their traumas have done to them. Not every book character can just close everything off and go kick ass on the battle field using the trauma as fuel for the fire. A lot has happened and the more they go through, the more they have to address these pains head on. We spend a lot more time looking at Kaladin's depression and Shalan spends almost the entire book broken up into different personalities. It was really hard to read Shalan's chapters, though. I was frustrated that while her closest people wanted to support her, they really ended up enabling her in a lot of ways and it was hard to enjoy her chapters just watching her go along in her life avoiding the trauma of her past. This was a few books coming so I think Sanderson could have pushed that along a little bit so we could have had a bit more of a resolution within RHYTYM OF WAR to allow Shalan to accomplish a few more things. Her character development just took a bit too long for me here. I also loved seeing more of Aedolin and Navani and didn't really care for Venli's chapters. She became an important part of things but it didn't feel THAT important for her chapters to be so prevalent.
This is the first series I've read from Brandon Sanderson that isn't a three part story so it was interesting to see how this book developed. It did feel like a lot of set-up for the last book in this era the Starlight Archive but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy spending time with these characters and there are so many to love that I enjoyed seeing all of their various paths and how they're going to end up being important for the final showdown of the book. There's also a lot to unpack plot-wise, especially developments and revelations regarding the spren. Sometimes it's a weird concept for me to grasp so I'm still wanting just a little bit more to help ground me in that concept that didn't quite come in RoW.
There were some amazing brain busters, especially at the end of the book, and I can never get enough glimpses of the World-Hoppers. I still enjoyed the book very, very much but there are also still big, over-arcing concepts that I keep hoping to latch onto that I'm still not. I think it's just that there are SO many things to take in that the rereads really help cement everything, so a first read is not always the best read! I'm also such a sucker for the world-building that I keep wanting things like novellas/shorts about the Heralds to really help me understand the creation of this world better, but I guess that's kind of the point of some of this big reveals as the series progresses... and just the revelations about the Cosmere in general! There's always another secret...