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.

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

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.

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'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.

missing Accompanying PDF images

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

Kindle Compatible?

I loved it! Yet I would have liked to have the back and forth between Audible and Kindle that I had in Oathbringer.

Brandon is fantastic, where’s the pdf though?

Another great entry in the cosmere, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading are the best in the business. Where’s the pdf though audible?