Rhythm of War

Book Four of The Stormlight Archive

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer

Length: 57 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Powerhouse narrating duo Michael Kramer and Kate Reading bring their outstanding skills to this stunning continuation of the Stormlight Archive series... This audiobook is truly a masterpiece of story and performance." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)

An instant number-one New York Times best seller and a USA Today and Indie best seller!

The Stormlight Archive saga continues in Rhythm of War, the eagerly awaited sequel to Brandon Sanderson's number-one New York Times best-selling Oathbringer, from an epic fantasy writer at the top of his game.

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. 

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2020 Brandon Sanderson (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

Barnes & Noble Best New Books of the Year - 2020  

Meh - boring

The characters have been battling their emotions and their pasts for several books now. Instead of progress past these issues they continue to get worse and these issues are brought up non stop. It annoying and makes for a very slow story. I’m so sick of Kal’s dad. His is content to being a slave. His not going to be happy until Kal becomes a surgeon. Otherwise Kal’s just worthless to him.
I was really looking forward to this book. I’ve read some of the other reviews and like always their are those who give 5 star rating just because they like the author. They are just fanboys. This book just isn’t as good as the other books in this series. I’m not reading this book to learn about PTSD or schizophrenia. The author is getting lost in the details of his story and in doing so, is losing the thread of the story.
I understand that I’ll be among the few bad reviews for this book but I’m use to Brandon’s other books were I don’t want to set down the book until I’m done. I’m struggling to finish this book because all I want to do is just delete the book.

Missing PDF with Illustrations

THIS EDITION IS MISSING THE ILLUSTRATIONS.
WHERE ARE THE ILLUSTRATIONS, AUDIBLE?
I've no doubt the book itself is amazing, the reading performances entrancing and 95% of this is the perfect continuation of what has already been an outstanding series. This edition is missing an important part of the experience and I would recommend you do NOT purchase from here. Get the physical copy or get the audio edition somewhere else after confirming that it comes with the illustrations. Very disappointed in what I'm sure would have otherwise been a perfectly wonderful experience.

15 hours of good reading forced into 50 hours

I have to say, I am very disappointed with this book. Too many characters having the same issues that they were having from the last books. Sanderson seemed to take a plot that should of taken maybe only 1/4 of the book and forced it to cover all the book. Really spent most of the book wanting to fast forward to the end. It is rare in a book when you wish the main character would just die so you can just get on with the story.

a Dirty Trick

I had extremely high hopes coming off the fantastic Words of Radiance and Oathbringer, so Rhythm of War had big shoes to fill. Unfortunately it does not, and instead falls prey to the bloat that faces many similar series such as The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire. While it starts off strong, it loses steam around chapter 10 and then plods along until around the mid-90s. If you were hoping to see the Coalition's war against Odium and the Fused, you will be disappointed. Sanderson instead deals with two of the main characters retreading their personal issues despite the outcomes being forgone conclusions to anyone who has stuck with the series thus far. New main PoV characters Venli and Navani are a mixed bag. While they shine early on, they quickly turn into delivery systems for Sanderson to info dump about the past, present, and potential future of the series. I think both of these character's arcs would have been more interesting if they did not share the same present day setting/situation of several other PoV characters.

Sanderson has a habit of packing an incredible amount of content into the climaxes of his books, and RoW is no exception. The difference is that in RoW he uses this to pull of a case of storytelling legerdemain; what you've spent 50 hours listening to thus far was all in service of distracting you from one singular moment. I would compare it to the last season of the Game of Thrones series, in which scenes are delivered for shock and awe, rather than in service of the story. It is not what happens nor when, but how, and the lead up (or almost lack there of) that disappoints. Worst of all is the epilogue in which a character, who may as well be acting as an author insert, gloats about misdirection, story telling, and dirty tricks.

I would have taken a star off for Performance because while Kate Reading and Michael Kramer themselves are fantastic, what ever recording equipment Michael was using was not. The audio on his voice is notably bad when he used several "stressed/intense" voices. However this could easily due to the pandemic and RoW is a massive undertaking, so I will give them 5/5.

In conclusion, while I will certainly read the next book in the Stormlight series, Rhythm of War feels like a massive red flag about what is to come in terms of storytelling quality. Hopefully Sanderson returns to form, because looking back RoW feels like only the destination mattered, not the journey.

Why is the artwork not included!?

I love these books and I loved how they included a pdf version of the artwork with the audio book for the previous books but for some reason they didn’t include it this time

I'm Done

Really should have stopped at "The Way of Kings" but I didn't.

I get it, Sanderson really likes damaged characters. But, if I wanted to be confronted with dysfunctional people beating the dead horse of their crappy childhoods for endless hours I'd go to work. SooOOoo .. . . Long. SooOOoo .. . . Whiny.

I'm just done.

Too beholden to the Cosmere

Upsides: for once there’s a few somewhat big action scenes and deaths in part one... a departure from Sanderson’s love of keeping the big reveals, actions, deaths for the last 10%. Also, no more Dalinar flashbacks. I enjoyed the stories for Adalin, Rilayne, and Dabbid (probably spelling these wrong).

Downsides: Missing a lot of Bridge 4 (no Lopin or Roc, boo!). Big chunks focus on Shallan, Navani, and Venli, and all three have long, angst filled storylines where no one progresses until the last 10% (Yep, the leopard can’t completely change his spots). Kaladin is present throughout, but with the same retreads of his self flagellation and father-son conflict.

Worst-side: What could have been a great series leading to a climactic world-wide conclusion in book 5 instead undoes much of the series progress here by switching to a universe-wide series... and forecasting entirely new plots, heroes, villains, and Cosmere tie-ins. I feel like I’ve invested 200 hrs in a series, only for Wit/Hoyt to inform me that it was just a story he was telling within the real book... and that book only begins in the final hour of book 4 (I know how much Sanderson and his fans love Wit, but I just find him to be a sanctimonious cheat of a plot device). This book is for fan boys / girls to geek out over the callbacks and connections to Sanderson’s other series. I wish Sanderson would stop trying to impress me with the size of his Cosmere and stick to the fantastic story of Roshar.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills

How are the reviews for this book so good? I'm a huge Brando Sando homer and I don't understand all the 5 star reviews. This was EASILY the worst book of his that I have ever read and I've read them all. Even White Sand. I read Way of Kings and Words of Radiance 4 times. I read Oathbringer 3 times... I don't see myself reading this again. Maybe part 1 and 5 but there's no way I'm wading through parts 2-4 ever again. Because 2 out of 5 parts were actually readable, I'm giving it 2 out of 5 stars.

1. I realize it's a long series, but whenever you think there's a pivotal character development moment, it just gets erased. Let me preface this by saying I'm a pharmacist who's spent a whole lot of extra time in psychiatric care post graduation. Mental health is an under-served population but I'd like to think heroes from my book would embody the best virtues of broken people. I know plenty of real people who deal with chronic depression and some of them have learned to deal with it in a very healthy way. I used to love Kaladin. Now he just drives me crazy... Kaladin restores bridge 4's will to live. Kaladin saves Dalinar et al in book 1. Kaladin does cool wall jumping and flying in the caverns in book 2 and feels free. Kaladin realizes other people have hurts but persevere from Shallan in book 2. Kaladin does what's right and swears the 3rd ideal at the end of book 2. Kaladin wants to give up, gets saved by Dalinar, but still picks himself up and guards Dalinar while fighting Amaram at the end of book 3..... Kaladin's sad and mopey and whiny and JUST SO TIRED for the billionth time in book 4. In the finale, Kaladin again just felt so tired and I literally screamed in my car. Shouldn't he be improving? Gaining perspective? Keeping the here and now in view? If he's developed completely and the only way to develop him more is to un-develop him so he can redevelop, maybe it's time for a new viewpoint character. Or kill him. Or shorten the series by a book. Or don't use him as a viewpoint character for a book so you don't have to deal with a fully developed protagonist. This doesn't feel like development anymore. This feels like a revolving door of the same issues. Maybe a more appropriate title would have been "Rhythm of Recurring Mental Illnesses"

2. As previously mentioned, I'm a pharmacist. Occasionally I read scientific studies. They. Are. Boring. Necessary, but boring. READING the studies is boring. Doing the actual studying? More boring. READING A FANTASY NOVEL WHERE ONE OF THE MAIN PLOT LINES IS FOLLOWING SOMEONE DOING SCIENTIFIC STUDIES ON CONCEPTS RELATED TO PHYSICS?!?!?!?!?!??! KILL ME NOW. "Rhythm of scientific studies and the publication of said literature utilizing a Cox Regression Model" sounds a lot less cool than Rhythm of War but it's a lot more accurate.

3. I just passed the AZ-MPJE, also known as the Arizona Pharmacy Law Exam. Studying for it? Boring. 20 hours of studying, 0 hours of fun. Boring, mind numbing, and tedious. Another major plot line of this novel? STUDYING FOR THE HONOR SPREN BAR EXAM!? Are. You. Freaking. Kidding. Me. The actual bar exam itself felt like there was this cool idea where we'll put So and So (spoiler free, because maybe some people are into this crap?) into a situation that they're not competent in to put them off balance! What will be the arguments brought against him? Just one. Couldn't think of more. So lets just make that one argument like 20 different times from a few different people. Also, Honor Spren and Ink Spren REALLY don't like each other. Because reasons. But they really don't like each other. It'd take too much time to get into the why so you'll just have to take our word for it. 57 hours of audio book and 15 minutes couldn't be spared to explain this.

4. *****SPOILER ALERT*****. Big spoiler. Spoilers from here on out Though if you're reading this you're one of the 4% who, like me, are trying to find at least a few people who don't get all the love this book is getting so you're probably already aware.... Taravangian becomes Odium and continues to perpetuate Odium's war? I thought he wanted to save everyone. Easy way to save everyone would be to order a cease to all hostilities and appoint a chicken (actual, not a parrot like most chickens are) with cancer to be his champion. Boom. Everyone saved.

5. As soon as Navani suggested Rlain to bond with the sibling, I knew it wouldn't happen. It was my theory that that's what would bring the singers and humans together. A 50/50 split of bondsmiths? That would show that the singers can be equal to humans moving forward! Nope. Instead, the Kholin's just became the Kennedy/Bush/Clinton family of Roshar. They have a monopoly of Bondsmiths, 2 out of the 4 monarchs in the coalition, and a high prince. The lowest of their family is a radiant. My friend had a theory that Dabbid would be the one to bond the sibling. I thought that could be cool too. Fix his brain and maybe his uniting instead of dividing would be the minds of things. Then he could fix up crazy fused and they'd be like "whoa, now that I'm rational, maybe murdering each other sucks and we should work towards a peace accord." But no. Instead we get the geopolitical super family and Navani's bonded to a giant fabrial -_-

I should probably move on with my life so I'll stop now. I didn't like it. I won't read it again. It's shattered my trust in Brandon Sanderson as an author. A year of anticipation that ended in frustration, annoyance, and disappointment

missing Accompanying PDF images

100% best narration!
Phenomenal story.
The Accompanying PDF is missing (book #3) had one. Fix for 5 stars

High Expectations, Unfulfilled.

Not in the same league as past Stormlight novels. The plot is incoherent, there’s very little action, and absolutely no resolution to the overall plot line. This is a 2.5-star book, despite the myriad positive reviews written by BS fanboys/girls.
If you’re already invested in the story, then it’s worth a listen; however, do not go into it with high expectations. Also note: approximately 26 hours is focused on Chalon’s multiple multiple multiple personalities — Boring and annoying.
The entire book is worthy of only 2.5/3-stars. The narration is superb, 5-stars.