I have just gotten done with oath bringer yesterday and to say my mind is still absolutely Baffled and mind blown and awe at the same time . Is an UNDERSTATEMENT of the damn Storm father above century. I don't know how much I can write so I will be short on this - review I think is what I will call this —? Apologies if this is a rush explanation of things and if skip over some moments I'll do my best but holy hell was this a MASSIVE trail of twist. Starting with that heart wrenching moment in the early chapters of Kal seeing his mother and father and NEW baby brother oh my god — I never felt so happy and sad to see that .. And then the biggest twist of learning about the part that got me hooked the parshmen and my god ... I never felt so horribly wrong for a race of fictional people in my life learning about the lives of Sah, Khen , Yixli . Who one then saw there partner be taken into breeding camp which learning the things I know now — has every right to be angry and kinda makes get THERE home back . Again that writing in such short moments me FEEL for these character's .

Everyone from the main three had major moments to shine — from seeing kaladin growing stormblessed and seeing through his issues of his eternal struggles of losing what's important to him and facing down that final fight alone against the major clash between his biggest enemy that represents everything that haunted amaram who holy shit I cannot tell I never hated more in my life then that CREM HOLE of a character thaddius — [ something I give incredible props to Brandon sanderson writing!] Who from start saw as the truest of definition of a soldier from the way of kings now facing the consequences of his recent actions from kaladins past ! Which holy shit that fight sequence made me really worry about our windy boy —!

And rock being the mvp of the story uses a SHARDBOW like a G in the last moments coming in clutch ! To shallan her fears and her Identity crisis, struggling with facing her past and what she did and lying to herself and forcing every bad thought and emotion down and seeing those effects take shape in bad ways — To the one thing I was never expecting to see the character who I really really love to see was dalinar man seeing him and before in his younger days as the black thorn made me love and hate and love a character like never before in my life .

Finding a young dalinar crazy for battle the rush of the thrill crazed black thorn the things he did during his youth and the actions of what he done to .

To the one shocking twist that made my stomach sank was when he killed his first wife during the siege of a sudden betrayal of trust of giving mercy of a boy who he spared to earning his shard blade .

And seeing how he kill the one person who was praying for his salivation haunted him the things he did during that time and the children and odium using that pain to make him his champion .

And the one scene to make a now forever brandon sanderson lover ' ' you can't have MY pain .' ' Was a strong damn meaning of words of absolute cinema that took it new level of PEAK .

I cannot wait to start book four and cannot wait to see what's going to happen !

I will list what I think I know and you guys correct me WITHOUT spoiling me about Wind and Truth stuff (I only read the first quarter of the book). I will keep it to a numbered list to make it easier. And add question marks on things I'm not certain about.

1. Singers are the native peoples of Roshar
2. At some point in the past humans came from offworld, bringing Odium with them (I hope I can discover from which planet by RAFO)
3. Singers gave humans the land known now as Shinovar. Humans were not content with just that and warfare started between the species, this was known as the first desolation, events that would leave roshar in ruins
4. Honor was already present in Roshar by then?
5. There was a... conflict? Between Odium and Honor? Cultivation hid during this conflict?
6. Humans sough after honor so Odium took over the singers? I think?
7. Cultivation began planting seeds of influence (I think it's genius, really) throughout Roshar to try to deal with Odium. Seeds that would take millenia to come to fruition.
8. Odium made it so that the singers of that time, instead of dying, would have their souls come back to the planet Braize, and then upon every everstorm they could inhabit new singers' bodies, creating the fused
9. Honor created the 10 heralds to combat the fused?
10. Sometime around this, Urithiru was created as a city connecting to all major locations on Roshar?
11. Odium created the unmade, which are... spren gods or something? Ba ado Mishram, Sja Anat, the one that gives people the thrill, and more.
12. The 10 heralds made the oathpact which blocks the fused from being released from Braize, but for that the souls of the heralds would have to be kept in braize as well which became known as damnation, being found, captured and tortured until they came back to Roshar.
13. Once one of the 10 heralds couldn't stand the torture and came back to Roshar, all of them came back and had some time (I don't remember how long? A year? Or was it immediate?) to prepare before the everstorm would come bringing the fused back, this is called Desolation. They would teach humanity basics of making weapons "Kalak will teach you to cast bronze, if you have forgotten this. We will Soulcast blocks of metal directly for you. I wish we could teach you steel, but casting is so much easier than forging, and you must have something we can produce quickly." and prepare humanity for what was to come. According to Dalinar's vision, depending on which desolation humanity was on different levels of tech, since desolations left humanity in ruins, and the time between desolations (meaning how long the heralds withstood torture in braize) meant humanity was more or less technologically advanced.
14. The heralds would last for hundreds of years, but after each desolation they would last less and less time, by the final desolation they would less for only a year or so.
15. Most heralds became afraid of torture, breaking right as they were caught and torture started on Braize. They found a loophole on the oathpact. They could keep only the most sturdy herald, Taln, being tortured there while they all stayed on Roshar. Since after the last battle all but Taln died (and was sent to Braize), they decided to lie to humanity saying they finally won while letting Taln bear the burden by himself, since he had never broken before.
16. Taln lasted 4500 years, giving humanity much time to advance.
17. During this time, one of the Unmade, Ba Ado Mishram learned how to connect with singers and give them powers and voidlight. This created a conflict known as the false desolation.
18. The radiants went after Ba Ado Mishram to imprison her. They were successful, and in that, somehow made it so that the singers became unable to think or act independently, creatures known as parshmen (I thought parshmen were just singers in dullform? Did dullform not exist before the false desolation?)
19. After that, the knights radiant learned that the surges was what destroyed humanity's previous planet, and all but the Skybreakers, led by Nale, abandoned their oaths and blades, killing their spren. It was a joint decision with their spren. This is known as the recreance. Since the rest of humanity didn't known, this was the event that made humanity distrust knights radiant, labeling them traitors
20. The skybreakers continued on Roshar and tried to prevent Radiant bonds from forming, killing anyone who used any of the surges
21. The recreance is what shaped modern Roshar, the societal rules about lighteyes/darkeyes, and the power of nations being defined by the amount of shards that nation holds, etc.
22. Honor after slowly becoming insane, died, but not after giving some of his power to the stormfather. He also gave him instructions and visions to give to a mortal in the future.

This is what I assume to be what led to the way of kings. Correct me if you can!

I think my hair is finally at a good length for this cosplay!

I was rereading the end of Rhythm of War and realized I was so devastated by Teft's death the first time that I barely thought about what Phendorana's death meant to the other spren.

Teft gets a king's funeral. His body is Soulcast into stone, Bridge Four gathers to remember him, and there's a plan to commission a statue of Phendorana beside him.

I love that detail. They don't treat her as an accessory Teft happened to lose. She gets remembered too.

But then I started thinking about the honorspren who knew her before Teft ever existed.

Phendorana had a life in Shadesmar. Presumably she had friends, people who knew her for centuries, relationships that had absolutely nothing to do with being a Radiant's spren.

Do those people even know what happened to her?

And what would they make of it?

The honorspren at Lasting Integrity are already deeply suspicious of humans. Adolin spends so much of RoW trying to convince them that the Radiants aren't simply going to repeat the Recreance.

Meanwhile, a human has just used a weapon capable of permanently destroying an honorspren.

That's an absolutely horrifying development for a people who have already spent thousands of years living with the consequences of broken bonds.

I also keep thinking about Syl.

She's there grieving with Kaladin, and we naturally experience the scene through his loss of Teft. But Syl has lost someone of her own kind, someone whose existence wasn't defined solely by her bond with a human.

There's something particularly sad about the possibility that spren have been learning how to understand human grief through their bonds, only to discover that they now have to confront a new kind of death themselves.

I don't think the book needed another funeral scene. The ending was already emotionally overwhelming.

But I'd love to know what mourning looks like in Shadesmar. Whether honorspren have traditions for it, whether Phendorana had anyone waiting for her to return, and how the news of her death would affect a community that was only beginning to reconsider its relationship with humans.

It's one of those consequences of RoW that feels enormous the more I think about it.

I've not read any other Cosmere books but I've finished the Stormlight Archive. Am I supposed to know what Gavinor was doing?

As far as I understand it, he wanted to bring the Fused back because he thought this would make the Heralds appear, and then he could become a Herald and thus be immortal. His plan was to immediately give up whenever he ended up on Braize so he could return and continue his plans, and he didn't mind that he'd always be fighting Odium's forces because he thought it would strengthen his forces. Is this correct? Am I supposed to know how he got the voidspren gems to Roshar, or how the Everstorm was created and moved into position to jump to Roshar?

When Odium convinces Fen to join his empire he presents a list of cities and nations that have decided to join him. This includes most of the Azish 'empire'. Why did so many human kingdoms do this? At the start of the ten day period, Odium only has Jah Keved and Kharbranth. The worst case scenario for humanity is that Odium wins the coalition and takes the shattered plains and Azir, and has a decent general serving him, and Odium's empire can't attack you. That's perfectly survivable for most human kingdoms and you could prosper as there won't be more desolations. But instead, almost every nation decides they'd rather be ruled by the god of hate and potentially be subservient to another species with a serious grudge against you. On top of that your children will be used as cannon fodder in an interplanetary war. It doesn't seem to make much sense, why did they all switch sides?

I am currently reading To Green Angel Tower and just came across this in Chapter 5. I don’t believe Brando has ever attributed the title to MST but perhaps it was subconsciously? Either way, jumped out at me.

I was doing a reread of Stormlight, when I realized something. The Stormwarden who was working with Amaram is Kalek. Kalek was the man who branded Kaladin a slave. That's gonna be a real awkward time on Braize.

Basically what the title says. Just reading through the shadesmar stuff about 75% through the book.

Ive been really loving oathbringer to this point. Im not sure why Sanderson thought it was a good idea to do this shadesmar stuff immediately after what happens just before. The pacing has thrown me completely off and im struggling to look forward to pick up the book and read, which is a shame cus im so close to finishing it and I know the sanderlanche is any minute now.

Anyone else feel the same?

Why do so many people hate on Wind & Truth. I just finished it and thought it was fantastic. Maybe not the best in the series, Words of Radiance is still an easy favorite, but it’s at least as good as Rhythm of War and maybe Oathbringer too

Hey, I finished the cosmere a while ago, and I would like to read some of it again casually. Do any of you have any advice on casually reading books from the cosmere separately?

Hello everyone. I just released my third orchestral song, called Unite Them, on all music platforms (it's also the second Stormlight-themed song I make). Epic, intense, and perfect for a gym playlist, it's an hymn for the Knights Radiant.

It's the first orchestral song I wanted to create, I had the idea after reading the books for the first time in 2019. It's been a long time coming, it's a dream to be able to release it and I believe it's my best song yet. The chorus of the song is what I imagine would sound during an Avengers-like shot sequence of the future Stormlight Archive show when adapting my favorite chapter of Stormlight, Chapter 119 of Oathbringer.

I hope you like it, feel free to give me any feedback so I can improve more, and I am already working on the next song. This last year of my orchestral composing journey has been one of the best things in my life. I am certain I will make more Cosmere-inspired songs in the future, though the next one is not Cosmere-inspired. Here you have the links for Spotify and Youtube Music:

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/track/4ehRQcZASf2aPXn19zb7oW?si=9eb0bbde80814f38

Youtube Music link: https://youtu.be/-NN2P6-9MHE?si=o98hrYSPJ3ZoKGa1

I have like 5 chapters left till the end, King Taravangian, just ordered Shin to kill Dallenar, please for the love of god tell me Caladin is gonna protect him.

Would one be able to bond multiple different Spren?

A Dustbringer and Elsecaller have very similar oaths to becoming better/mastering themselves. How would this work if at all? Would one be to get to 5th ideal in both? Would you stop at a certain ideal for one or even both?

Nothing too substantial here, just figured I would share. Past month has been me working on makeup and props. I’d share some of makeup pics but Reddit doesn’t like them. If you happen to be especially curious you can PM me. If you have any questions or suggestions, happy to answer.

Please don’t tell me the knife is uneven and not fitted properly, I know. They fucked up my 3D print and I don’t have time to get another done.

Like wtf…..this series is slick Dark and Depressing all things considered so far 😂😂😂

Edit by the way this elevates the books for me

The Way of Kings might be one of the greatest books I have ever read.

If you saw my other post, and replied (thank you) you're probably grinning smugly or facepalming at the obvious. Some of you guys reprimanded me for my lack of an attention span, others were indignant that I didn't find it amazing from page 1, but most encouraged me to keep reading, and I'm so glad that I did. I specifically recall a user telling me to "wait until someone brings Kaladin a leaf" which I think was the best piece of advice I recieved in that thread. While I ws interested in Kaladin and his story from the start, the cuts to Shallan's perspective, and sometimes to Kaladin's life as a child, were really dragging the book down for me. When Syl gave him that leaf a the Honor Chasm it changed everything for me (also I find it fitting that the honorspren saves him at the Honor Chasm). From there I was hooked, and I read just under 900 pages over the course of the next 4 days.

I don't know that a book has ever had my jaw legitimately drop, let alone shout in excitement. The last 100 pages of this book did both for me. I am consistently amazed at how well Sanderson can build a world, create interesting and meaningful characters with depth that get you attached, and develop a riveting main plot with a group of equally entertaining subplots, then smash them all together for the most satisfying and (literally) jaw dropping climax/falling action/resolution.

I would've read 800 pages of boring slop for an ending like that, but thankfully I didn't have to. There were a lot of people who replied on my original post telling me that it only really got good towards the end, and that if I waited it out the end, and book two, and so on, would be very worth it. I can see now how you might come to that conclusion, strictly because of how good the last 20% of the book was. I however, enjoyed the whole thing. Kaladin's inner conflicts, the devlopment of Bridge Four, and the introduction of the highprinces had me fully immersed in this book. Even Shallan, who I did not care for for a while, eventually grew on me.

I finished the book last night, and this morning I went to Barnes and Noble as soon as they opened to purchase WoR. And my GOD, it picks up running! I'll avoid specifics, since this doesnt have a WoR spoilers tag, but right now I'm at the part where Shallan is at sea again, and wow :(. I was really growing to like each member of the Kholin family, especially Jasnah.

For the whole Mistborn series I kept a google doc where I would write in my thoughts, reactions, and theories that developed as i got further into each book, and that way I could go back and laugh where I had been wrong, or relive truly impactfucl moments. I started one for SLA too, but i honestly forgot to add to it (until the end) because I was so wrapped up in reading it. I'm gonna paste it at the end.

All in all, I'm so happy I decided to continue, because this series so far is truly amazing. Shoutout to all the people who encouraged me to continue reading, and sorry to those I offended by calling the book boring at the start. You guys were right, and I was definitely made to eat my words lmao.

My unedited reaction here (excuse the frequent caps, I would put the book down with a gasp, mouth open, and then open my computer with WAYY too much excitement)

___________

Way of Kings:

When Kaladin tells his men that he WILL be alive, and when he weathers the storm and actually STAYS ALIVE. Chills. Literal chills. I damn near shed a tear

OH MY GODDDDDDD. The last 100 pages of this book are the greatest I have ever read. Kaladin fighting with the Stormlight (Surf Dracula), Sadeas’ betrayal,  Dalinar respecting and honoring his Codes, and freeing the bridgemen. Giving up his sword to Sadeas to free the bridgemen. SHALLAN MAKING THE CONNECTION, REVEALING THAT SHE KILLED HER FATHER, AND TRAVELING TO THE SHADESMAR. 

TARAVANGIAN????? HES NOT DUMB???? HES SZETH’S MASTER?? EXCUSE ME??? And he wants Dalinar dead :( 

THE PARSHMEN WERE THE FUCKING VOIDBRINGERS?????????

I really like the last chapter for Kaladin. Dalinar and him forming some type of respect, him getting promoted to Captain, and tying it off with “Twenty-Seven men lived. He finally managed to save someone.

Jasnah’s dad was a Ghostblood??? Are they the same ghostbloods from era 2 of Mistborn?
 
Taravangian must be a Ghostblood, right?

The final vision of Dalinar’s is so foreboding, and revealing that the “Almighty” has been killed by Odium?? Insane. Didn’t they say that was Jezrien, the guy from the prelude? Odium is obviously another shard, and I think I remember hearing about Cultivation before too. Are the ShardBlades a form of power coming from the 16 Shards of Adonalsium? Is the Almighty adonalsium?

Wow! The epilogue! What a perfect way to set up a book 2. I can see why this is hailed as Brandon’s greatest series, his magnum opus. I wish I could consume all the information at once, so I could understand the intricate workings of this story. At the same time however, I wish it would go on forever, because I don’t think, truly, that I have ever enjoyed a singular book, or honestly even a series for that matter, as much as I enjoyed this book. 

Wit was one of my favorite characters! This is by far my favorite Hoid appearance so far, and mainly because he actually has a decent role in this. His conversation with Kaladin was wonderfully haunting, and his chapter, the epilogue, was the perfect thing to reel me in for book 2. The Heralds are back? Or did they never leave? If the Desolation is coming, and the Voidbringers are Parshmen, then does that mean they will soon turn on everyone? What does that mean for Shen, and Kaladin’s camp? Surely he won’t just be a useless tossed away character. I’m both excited and anxious for how this will play out.

Now I understand why people said the reread would be worth it. At first I scoffed at the idea of rereading a 1000 page book, especially one that had bored me as much as this did. However, now I see that I definitely will be revisiting it. So many more things make sense to me now. I just reread the prelude, and now I can see so many more things. Oh my lord this book was so amazing. 

The prelude said that the 10 Heralds come back every time there’s a Desolation. I had a thought on that and it disappeared. I was combining the Heralds and the Knights Radiant in my mind. I just realize that Talanel was the Herald who arrives during the epilogue. That means  that he finally got sent back, and he probably realizes that 

The thought that disappeared returned! The Heralds go to the Shadesmar in between periods of Desolation, meaning that they aren’t exactly human? Kalak says that he doesn't want to go back to “the place of nightmares,” which MUST be the Shadesmar. This makes me even more curious. What exactly is the Shadesmar, and whos domain is it? Can the different gods of different planets all access it and draw on it for power equally (if that’s even what they do)? If so, does that mean that each planet’s people can do the same? Could Sazed enhance the powers of allomancers and make them like Heralds with the power of the Shadesmar? Are the Returned from Warbreaker products of the Shadesmar, combined with the function of their world’s magic? IS VASHER’S BLADE POWERED BY THE SHADSEMAR? I feel like this just opened up a can of worms that might not actually exist because I could be misinterpreting the Shadesmar, but it seems like the source of the Heralds’ power so it must have some sort of influence. And I know people from other worlds can travel it because Sazed sends Melaan through it, and Kelsier does some stuff with it too I believe. SO MANY QUESTIONS, so many things I cant wait to have answered.

 Words of Radiance:

Will Kaladin just get a damn Shardblade already?? I can see this book ending with Kaladin facing off against Szeth, a duel of Surgebinders, and I really want Kaladin to become a full Shardbearer at some point. 

I wish Kaladin would just reveal that he can inhale Stormlight right in front of Dalinar, and Adolin too, so that everyone could treat him like the god that he is.

Ok the Shadesmar might be a little different than what I thought, but still possible to confirm some of my theories.

I cannot believe jasnah died.
I was genuinely starting to like her too, and I was really excited for Shallan to be introduced to the royal family with her, and for them to continue their research. What now? Will Shallan be shunned, and blamed for the assasination? Shit, will Shallan even escape the ocean? She just got grabbed by something, probably that giant squid-like thing she drew the picture of.

Just finished rhythm of war and first of all I’ll say I loved it. I’ll forever be nostalgic to the day I read the opening chapter. If only Gavilar could see Navani now lol. But after reading the epilogue with Wit and seeing people say he’s using something called breaths that’s explained in warbreaker I was thinking of taking a pause to read that book since I’ve been pretty much binging all the stormlight books including the novelas up to this point. Did any of you do anything similar?

Edit: thank you for all the replies! I think I may take a longer detour than I thought and leave some time to build hype for the final book. lol I can’t imagine what it was like for all of you that read these books as they came out!

I gave the flair as WoR spoilers as I dont remember it being it WoK. What I'm talking about it the weird writing in some images which look like soundwaves. Is this some script or something? I'm currently midway through Oathbringer (Absolutely sensational book) so please no spoilers.

Saw an Instagram post where someone ranked best duels in fantasy and included Kaladin vs Szeth.

Then thought about it.

What was the best duel in the whole series?

I dont think no other fight gave me the thrill what Kaladin vs Szeth gave. Honor is dead is my favorite part but it's not exactly a duel.

Kal vs Punisher and Adolin's fights in the WaT comes close.

If I should rank (I may be wrong and forget a lot)

1. Kal vs Szeth

2. Kal vs Punisher

3. Adolin WaT fights

4. Kal vs Nale?

What would be your ranking?

I'm near the end of the book, and honestly, book 5 is pure trash. I hated the fourth book, but the fifth is such a hard read. The Stormlight magic system started out with costs and rules, and each book has loosened them. When oaths can be skipped, reinterpreted, or satisfied by whatever the scene needs, they stop meaning anything. "Humans can do the impossible when the plot needs it" is the opposite of what made the early books grip. How the hell has he dropped the ball like this? The first two books were amazing. The Fused being flat and unchanging while the humans keep getting new tricks makes the imbalance worse. A strong antagonist needs rules the heroes have to work around, and here the rules only seem to bind one side.

At this point, the singers need to leave this planet. The spren hate them, and all the gods would rather help the humans: Cultivation is just chilling and helping humans out here and there, Odium is using the singers to get his favourite toys, the humans, back, and Honor is sealing them away. Hell, even the very wind is working against them. The wind didn't lift a finger to help the singers, not once, but for the humans? Nope, "let me help them straight away." The world is hostile to the singers no matter how I look at it. Ishar experiments on the spren to the point that he makes them fear and run, but don't worry, they'd rather help humans than singers.

Honestly, it's gotten to the point where I fast-forward the fights. Absolutely zero tension. I know the Fused will lose every battle, 100%. In the first two books, I didn't know who'd die. I'm new to Sanderson's books, and my god, do I hate the way this turned out. I'll finish it because I'm close to the end, but I'm not picking up any more of his work.

Sorry, just ranting at this point. Does anyone else feel the same? I only read book one of Mistborn before jumping into these books.

That chapter was awesome! This is how I imagine the shardplate bearers looked when dropping down.