Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive Hardcover – December 6, 2024

When I read The Way of Kings way back when it first came out, I remember a couple recurring thoughts popping up throughout the reading: "Wow, I'm X% through a 1000+ pg book and I'm sad I only have Y more pages of this awesomeness" and "Holy crap this entire book is basically a prologue to something bigger."Wind and Truth started slow. It felt like a soft lit reel of feel-good reflections by the main characters set to "Time of Your Life" by Green Day as they mournfully braced themselves for the epic final adventure. This bugged me more than most of my friends apparently.Me: "Ugh this is Brandon's slowest start to a book EVER. We get it. People have grown and changed and there's a lot of feels and goodbyes because probably people are going to die and the rest of the book is going to be insane non-stop action."Others: "I mean it feels appropriate and I kind of like it..."Me: [rolls eyes and looks elsewhere for commiseration]Given the context now of the, ahem, journey and destination, I'm allowing myself to feel the feels of those early chapters.Unsurprisingly for Sanderson, the master of sticking the landing, Wind and Truth delivers. In appropriate counterpoint to The Way of Kings, it feels like a 1000 page climax. That feeling that ultimately happens in a Sanderson book near the end where something VERY COOL happens alongside a surprising and satisfying conclusion? There were so many of those in this book starting around the halfway point. Taln on the pile of bodies and Ash's dying words... I almost jumped out of my chair. So much brilliant resolution of favorite character arcs (I'm left a bit breathless by Kaladin) - even the lingering unresolved tension in other arcs feels so very right (Shallan...).The significant criticisms are mostly true. Some of the writing felt slapdash. The book would have benefited from a powerful editor's red pen. There's a lot of telling rather than showing. There was some content new to Cosmere stories that made some readers uncomfortable (Rlain and Renarin's romance and the explicit "revelation" that some characters have sex). The mental health themes got a bit heavy-handed (Kaladin responding to Ishar "I'm his therapist" might be the low point of the whole series). And there wasn't as much resolution as many expected for the "end" of the five-book arc (I thought that was perfect, actually).Some of the criticisms are baseless contrarianism - as common as windspren when an author reaches a certain level of popularity. Stephen King writes great characters and sucks at endings. Patrick Rothfuss writes beautiful sentences but sucks at... actually writing. And for Sanderson, his prose isn't Dickens. But where he shines, he is brighter than Nightblood's self-perception. Sanderson uses the framework of fantasy to explore questions like "what is truth?" "what is good?" "what is leadership?" "how do people grow?" "why is there suffering?" and "what do healthy boundaries look like?" Rarely does he try and tell us what to think - even if a trusted character is coming to a conclusion, you can usually find someone else with a counterpoint or challenging a pithy answer with nuance. (A favorite exception in Wind and Truth is Wit's rant against the Thaylen Passions religion - a thinly veiled and fantastically vicious condemnation of health and wealth style religions.)This distinction is so important and addresses some of the gripes popping up in one star reviews. Is Sanderson "pushing" a worldview down his reader's throats? In my opinion, no. Do characters see particular worldviews as good and provide thoughtful reasons for them? Yes. It has always been that way in his books. Jasnah has been providing compelling reasons for atheism and Utilitarianism since The Way of Kings. Sazed argues for Universalism in Mistborn. Wayne (Mistborn Era 2) steals everything. I love Jasnah and Sazed and am not a Utilitarian or Universalist. I love Wayne and think his kleptomania is wrong. But I don't think I can believe in a thing if I can't provide compelling arguments for the opposing options. Part of why Sanderson's characters are so compelling is their willingness to think, argue, grow and change - just like us. What Dalinar was convinced was right and good changes as he learns and grows. Same with Szeth, Kaladin, Shallan, Navani, Adolin... you get the point. And the arcs are not necessarily linear - just like us they can be iterative and recursive. So to assume a character (or the author behind the pen) is telling you that their previously held beliefs are wrong because they've progressed to the next thing is an intellectual fallacy of progressive ideology (that Sanderson has already shown he does not fall for).Readers who are upset by Wind and Truth are reading fantasy for the wrong reasons. To be fair, the genre label is misleading. If you want saccharine thoughtless unchallenging escapism that fits and protects a narrow worldview, every flavor is available. But this is a series of books that is literally about people being challenged and growing.Seen for what it is, I think Wind and Truth is satisfying on a visceral "well that was freaking awesome" level as well as emotionally and intellectually. In my opinion, the people who don't like it haven't been paying close attention to the Cosmere books.No matter your opinions (and mine are high - it could be my favorite Cosmere novel to date), he has changed fantasy forever.

This was an action packed conclusion to the Stormlight arc, thrilling, surprising and breathtaking. I loved this book, so much squeezed into 10 days. Some of my favorites did not fare so well, but that did not diminish the story telling. Highly recommend this series and it may just hook you on the broader tales of the Cosmere.

I did not like this series the first time I read it.The second time, I loved it. When this series is finally done, I hope to have read it at least 4 times.All the greats merit multiple readings.

If I were a prospective buyer of this audiobook, I’d be reading reviews. By Book 5 of The Stormlight Archive, most readers are already invested and won’t need convincing but for those who are on the fence, I’ll be honest without spoiling anything.I enjoyed Wind and Truth. It’s a good book, but in my opinion, not the best in the series. Many early readers have called it one of Sanderson’s greatest works. I suspect those who rank it at the very top value “ah-ha plot” moments, major world expansion, and character arcs above all else and Wind and Truth certainly has plenty of those.However, I don’t think the writing here is Sanderson’s strongest. Normally, I’m drawn to authors for their writing style, and I love Sanderson’s, but this one didn’t hit all the same notes. At nearly 63 hours long, the book often felt bloated and slow, with stretches where not much seemed to happen. The “Sanderlanche” doesn’t arrive until the final few hours, and while some character choices were predictable (sometimes in a good way), others felt like forced twists, shock value over substance.What really took me out of the story were moments of what felt like blatant pandering. There are throwaway characters and scenes that reference contemporary social and political ideologies, including gender identity discussions, sexuality topics, and more explicit sexual content, that have never really been a part of the Stormlight tone before. It’s not that I object to these topics in fiction (I’ve read plenty of adult and YA series that explore them thoughtfully), but here they felt abruptly inserted and out of place for this world, disrupting the immersion I’d had throughout Books 1–4.That said, there is still a lot to love here. The world building is massive, character development is deep, and there are plenty of “oh wow” moments that fans will appreciate. But with so many cliffhangers and unresolved threads, it didn’t feel like the satisfying close to Arc One I’d hoped for. For me, it didn’t quite live up to the excellence of the earlier entries.

Engaging from start to finish. Right when I thought ol’ Brando Sando was turning back to his same staple “SAY THE WORDS” anime-for-book-nerds beats he subverted expectations just enough while maintaining the integrity of his characters.I’m excited and hungry for more Cosmere. I did not see that coming.

Love story line. Some of the greatest characters. Can't wait to see what comes next in this series. Kaladin is one of the best storylines I've read.

Wonderfully tied up at the end , I hope some streets from this story are followed and written forward. Storming good.

The main characters developed previously in the Stormlight Archive continue and individually are forced to confront their past failures, self doubt and fear of the dark times the future may hold for them.