Rhythm of War
Oathbringer, from epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar's crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin's scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength. At the same time that Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with his changing role within the Knights Radiant, his Windrunners face their own problem: As more and more deadly enemy Fused awaken to wage war, no more honorspren are willing to bond with humans to increase the number of Radiants. Adolin and Shallan must lead the coalition’s envoy to the honorspren stronghold of Lasting Integrity and either convince the spren to join the cause against the evil god Odium, or personally face the storm of failure.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
7mentions
6people
2020–2023years
57% recommend29% neutral14% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I've also read nearly every other Sanderson book after Stormlight. While they're still quite good, none of them quite compare to the depth or significance of the Stormlight Archive.
I'm not Christian and as such am not familiar with Biblical stores, but I would be inclined to agree that the messages Sanderson conveys in Stormlight could perhaps be derived from those stories. However, something that strikes me is that Sanderson mentions faith and religious conflict in all his novels, but seems to transcend a singular true faith (eg. in portraying Jasnah's atheism, I've seen people mention her reasons for rejecting God are surprisingly accurate to what real people believe, and Sanderson attributed that to spending time on atheist forums to understand their beliefs better).
> the book definitely has me feeling inspired and motivated thus far.
I found Rhythm of War to be the most (read: exceptionally) inspirational and motivational of the four novels (followed by Words of Radiance) , so I would wager that there will be much more in terms of inspiration in the following novels. And good luck with your reading journey! The Stormlight Archive was truly a wonderful experience to read (and I've re-read it since then) and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
"Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination."
- I recommend starting with Stormlight, but if you want to fully understand it, you should probably read the first Mistborn book before Rhythm of War and Warbreaker before Oathbringer (Warbreaker is probably my second-favourite Sanderson book, due to its "wholesomeness"). You should also read the novellas as you get through Stormlight, but I believe Dawnshard has far more more plot significance than Edgedancer. Mistborn is pretty good, but it's not as meaningful or deep as Stormlight.
- Fantasy nerd.
Rhythm of War, book 4 in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. Love most stuff by this author.
And in response to Amazon making a Wheel of Time tv show, rereading that. Pleasant experience, very nice to get immersed in this huge universe.
- I'm about halfway through both of these, but I think they're both great.
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (Book 4 in the Stormlight Archives series)
Love him, or hate him, BS is prolific. He somehow maintains a superhuman level of efficiency in writing. This is the 4th of a planned 10 book epic fantasy series. I can't possibly summarize the 3.5 books I've read in the series so far, since each is approximately 1200 pages. Really they're about 3-4 of an average sized trade paperback each. That's not to say they are too long either, with the exception of the first book (a common/unavoidable problem the with epic fantasy genre, there's just a lot you need to say to get people fully invested), they pick up from the first word on interesting storylines and just keep churning.
and
Children of Dune by Frank Herbert (Book 3 of the Dune series)
Dune is one of my favorite books of all time. SOmehow, I've never read the rest of them. I re-read Dune this year, and decided to continue the story. I really wasn't a huge fan of Dune Messiah. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but let's just say it's probably because flaws of the main character are too humanly frustrating to watch unfold. Children of Dune is, so far, as good or better than Dune in my opinion.
- Re "Epic Fantasy"
I'm a recent fan and discovered I enjoy the worlds. I find them engrossing. imo Sanderson could cut down 10-20% (Rhythm of War in particular suffered from length). But, I did appreciate his own defense of length in the genre.
https://www.tor.com/2014/03/04/words-of-radiance-and-the-art...
His insight seems to boil down to
1. Treat it as multiple books if you prefer. 2. "I get the chance to write what I enjoy. I understand it's not for everyone. That doesn't bother me."
- Seen these kind of threads from time to time, and I've got some great recommendations from them.
I'll start:
* Re-reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. I had forgotten the story leading up to Rhythm of War. I had forgotten how fun Sanderson's world is.
* Just finishing up Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Great book. I didn't read Artemis, but The Martian was awesome.
* Grit by Angela Duckworth. Really speaks to me and has me re-examining my own loss of focus and tenacity in pursuits, and my expectations of how long achievement takes.
I'll probably pick a few more once I'm done with these.
