Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive 5) - Brandon Sanderson

⭐ 6.3/10

This is book 5 of a planned 10 book series, but the series is split in to two major arcs, with this being the conclusion of the first. It has been a long time coming, with the first two being some of my favourite fantasy works. My faith in Sanderson has withered since those first two, coming desperately close to shattering. I have been waiting years for this book to restore my love for this universe he is building, but 80% of this book was a disappointment.

I'll get the main gripe out of the way first. I really like in the first two how its people with issues that get powers. Everyone is fighting their own internal battle, and leveling up in their journey equals leveling up their powers. Kind of a cool concept, with intent and expression of that intent unlocking magic. Okay its corny to say out loud, but I thought it was unique and resulted in some great sequences. Well five 1300 pages books in and all characters are still fighting the exact same demons. It feels like no progress has been made. Kaladin cries about the people that have died because of him once every 50 pages, its actually insane. They all do! I actually like the endpoints of a bunch of characters in this story, but I honestly think each book could be cut in half, their introspection drives me insane and they all have the exact same voice. Also, each of them has a magical spren inner voice that they get to use as a therapist. Brandon's writing might be sensitive to these issues, but it is certainly not interesting and bloats these books beyond belief.

Speaking of therapists, that's what our main character is all book long. Literally does nothing cool, sits and watches and uses therapy speak to try to make another depressed character not depressed. If you told me that would be his arc in the climactic book when I started the first book I actually might have stopped. We live in a therapy speak world and Brandon just spews it out. Oh, and every illness is represented here! We get sentences sprinkled throughout of minor characters sharing their insecurities about being gay, or having an eating disorder, or blaming themselves for their parent's divorce, or being autistic, seriously every single one is included. Representation is great, but not if its just for the sake of representation! None of these things improve the story, and it feels like Disney slapping two women kissing at the end of the last Star Wars so they could pat themselves on the back for inclusion. You are a coward Brandon, as bad as Disney! I kind of get it, I know he gets fan mail constantly that is people being like, I was suicidal and then I read your books and related to the characters and I didn't kill myself, and that would break your brain as a human. So maybe these books just aren't for me anymore. But that is so painful after all the time and mental space I have devoted to these books. Again, I love a bunch of these!

My last 10 Sanderson reviews have noted that he is the least funny person alive, and that holds true. Juvenile humour that I read in his actual voice, as a dorky dad to young kids who probably think its funny. Sassy sarcasm, jokes that try to be racy or raunchy but comes across like its delivered by a high school student. These books are so overly serious and the humour is always an eye roll and never a way to change the mood. Another cardinal sin is that I think he's gotten worse at pulling me out of the immersion by using modern words or phrases. The worst one in this book is someone asking Kaladin if he is the body guard of his companion, and he says "No... I'm his therapist". I read this book at a cottage and if we were by the fire I might have considered just tossing it in.

I was reading that Brandon and his long time editor split after the third book in this series and that actually makes so much sense. I didn't love 3, but I did reread it before 4 and appreciated it a lot more that time around. But every book since then has been literal garbage. I know his whole thing is pumping out tons of content, but it feels like he has surrounded himself with beta readers that are mega fans and can't push back on any of these things. Or he's just so popular and this is what he wants to write about so he has a blank cheque. I really don't know, but I think he's going to have to make something really special for me to come crawling back. Or I will be a weak marvel pig-boy that returns to the trough when he fills it up.

I did give this book some points, mainly because I thought this was better than 4. As I said I like a bunch of the major plot points in this book, and the last 200 pages had some of that classic Sanderson momentum. I read this basically in a week at a cottage in long stretches while other people watched my kid, and the whole book actually had great momentum, with short punchy chapters, even if they could get repetitive. When I put it down at the end I had tons of questions about the future of this world, what happens to each character, how it connects to the other books, and that's the exciting stuff that he can pull off here. If this book was a third of the size and hit all the major plot points I think I actually would have really loved it.

The main storylines for the major characters were kind of lame. Kaladin and Szeth, what should be the best characters, are basically on a video game quest to conquer 10 spots on the map, which could be cool and has a couple curveballs, but again Kaladin is just a spectator worrying and therapizing. Dalinar is on an Avengers Endgame time travel arc to discover the key to defeating the final boss, where each stop in the past is an exposition dump. I know Brandon loves that movie so its natural that he copied it in his mega finale book. Shallan is backsliding into her multiple personalities for the 100th time basically just observing the past as well (with a surprising twist that was cool but didn't add really anything). The one arc I really liked is Adolin, the handsome knight who doesn't really have mental health struggles, which means he is not super powered! The idea of him no longer mattering in this world since his strengths pale compared to these magical people that are now everywhere is really great, too bad he ponders this idea without nuance every chapter he is in.

Maybe that's the final note here. There is no nuance in this writing at all. I'm not an author, but "show don't tell" is an adage even I am aware of, and every character is telling you point blank what they are feeling and why and trying to talk themselves into a solution for these feelings. It's boring and exhausting, and I do think a good editor could be like "so you have good bones here, maybe don't resort to every character pouring out their souls every chapter?". 

This is a long review, but I spent a lot of time in this world so I am allowed to complain for a while. There is a lot more I could say, but mostly I am disappointed. I'm sure I will come back when book 6 of Stormlight is released in 10 years, or even when the next Mistborn trilogy happens, but I am certainly not going to be in a rush. I no longer feel like I need to be a completionist about this world, which is one step towards just not continuing at all. And that makes me sad.