Today I finished Wind and Truth: book 5 of The Stormlight Archive. To say I have a new Favourite author is an understatement. If I know you have an hint of enjoying fantasy or science fiction in you, I’ll make an enthusiastic recommendation.
This book is the half-way point in the series and it’s a large one. Including the two novellas, Edgedancer and Dawnshard there are of 1.8 million words across 4,800 pages.1 Never mind the related books in the Cosmere universe. I read books 1–4, then listened to them as audiobooks before finishing with the audiobook of Wind and Truth.
Across so many pages you would be right to expect significant character development and it’s there in spades. Multiple characters from multiple backgrounds, each with their own interconnections continue go grow and grow throughout the series. People that I didn’t like that much at the start soon join the list of, “Let’s get back to them,” which is hard when another’s story is being told.
The “magic system” is a blend of the magical with a fair amount of mechanical thrown in. There are gods, fairy like figures, and monsters (some of them human). Importantly Sanderson blends it all consistently leaving deus ex machina hidden in the background.
We all have a wait on our hands for book 6. It’s not due until 2031 with the final three The Mistborn Saga novels, two more Elantris novels, and a third Stormlight novella due in between. So, even with a wait, I’ll be busy. I have until 2028 to catch up on Mistborn. It will be quite a different read with knowledge from The Stormlight Archive behind me.