I don't know how to start this.

I got a pran, a pran of cingles.

Stormlight Archives fucking sucks and the author is worse.

To begin with, an interesting thing I learned about Brandon was that in 2019 he visited Israel, as he was invited to some ‘con. Now, one could argue, for example, that he didn't know what Israel was doing to Palestine. Unfortunately for Brandon, I also learned that his fans had protested and told him not to go, to which Brandon responded with something along the lines of “I don't believe in boycotting” or some shit. “Another lesser-known issue is Sanderson’s visit to Israel in 2019 as a guest of honor for the science fiction and fantasy convention, ICon. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Sanderson expressed that the invitation was one that some asked him to decline, stating, “My general inclination is I don’t generally boycott no matter what. I don’t think it’s an effective way to cause social change. I think there are other and better ways. So I didn’t agree with these requests.” from The Jerusalem Post. He was emailed about the on-going genocide in Palestine in 2017, and ignored it. He knew, and KNOWS what is happening, and he doesn’t fucking care. That’s what he’s saying here. He doesn’t care. He said fuck you to your faces. And you don’t care either.

When googling these things, I found MULTIPLE Reddit posts saying he found “inspiration” for StAr from the Palestinian genocide (he calls it war). I don't know the validity of these claims, but if it's true, that doesn't look too good.

In addition to these problems, his other series, which I cannot remember the name of, apparently has an Israeli character, which in and of itself is not bad; however, ANY time Palestine or Palestinians are mentioned, it's only in a bad context. Terrorist, HAMAS… never in good ways, while Israel is only mentioned in good contexts… And I think it’s in another series he has that I was reading a review of where apparently he has another main character with a personality disorder whose alters say racial slurs LMFAO bro

I'm going to be spoiling all 5 books plus novellas all over the place during this review; this is only suitable to read if you don't care for spoilers or have already read the books.

SOME MATH: The second thing I want to talk about is the classic “it gets good 800 pages in at the 'sanderlanche'" (also known as the climax of a book)." Sure, those last two hundred or so pages are good, but you have to ask yourself if the rest of the book can stand on equal footing. If only the end of a book is the good part, why should you read any of it? This is the entirety of the StAr reading experience. So I did a little bit of fucked-up math. Let’s claim the average reading speed is 200 words a minute, and there are 400 words on a page, so it's 3-4 minutes per page. The average time spent reading a day, according to the top result on Google, is 20 minutes, which is 4500 words a day. There would be 320,000 words in 800 pages, which equals 71 days or 1700 hours of reading. Nobody should spend even half that time reading just waiting for a book to finally get good. It should be good immediately. But his fans are the type of people to eat up whatever slop he puts out, so they don’t care that their time is being fucking wasted.

This godforsaken review has been in the works for a year. I finished the last book on february 7th 2025, started writing the review March 17th 2025, and finished the review on august 25th 2025, and began writing a ‘script’ for a video since then. Then every time I tried to film the video new problems came up. My phones audio was dogshit. The lighting was so bad I wouldn’t force anybody to look at it. Bought a whole camera, camera also looked like fucking shit. Learned I needed lighting instead. Bought a light. Lighting looks great. Still need audio. Found a mic. Had to figure out how to make it work so it didn’t take in a fly buzzing. One time I even filmed a ‘draft’ I want to call it. Lost the whole fuckin video halfway into editing. Now my voice is weak as fuck. I sound like a sickly 12 year old boy. Start trying to follow voice training videos so I don’t sound like that. Then needed to find a good time to film it because I do not live alone. Now here I am, on (insert date when i can finally film), a full year and a bit after the beginning of the review.

Lets begin with GENUINELY PROBLEMATIC THINGS:

The racism/classism dropped plotline was the worst blow. You start the series off with the main focus being a slave who fights against an oppressive system. Can you imagine just two books later you have him fully assimilated INTO the very system that enslaved him, and he doesn’t even care? You'd imagine with the slaveform natives gone, darkeye oppression and slavery would be expanded greatly, but Kaladin just doesn’t really care, and neither does the narrative. When Moash gets shardplate and then Kaladin becomes a full Surgebinder, they both have their eyes lighten. It appears Brandon is giving credence to the misguided class system. And nobody gives a shit. Do you have any idea of the implications of this??? It's like if in this world there was some legit honest-to-god proof of white superiority, what the fuck would happen? It would be fucking chaos. It'd probably be WAR!!! But these people just don't care that there seems to be legitimate validity to light eyes being better.

Also... man writing women syndrome galore lol. Really none of the women in this series are likeable and written badly... just this quote from Jasnah: "Using a fetching face to make men do as you wish is no different from a man using muscle to force a woman to his will." Brandon compares a man using force to rape to a woman using looks to seduce. Let that sink in. I think Shallan's entire character is men writing women, which is probably why people dislike her so much. and then manipulative Navani. People always like, "Why do people hate Shallan? Why do people hate Navani?" because they are written like shit. Imagine one big pile of shit. That's the writing in general. Scrape off 1 cm. That's the woman. Scrape off another 1 cm. That's the men.

Stormlight healing disabilities: why… why is this a thing?? and nobody ever talks about it… yeah, sure, it's a society where they don't care about people with disabilities, but idk, I was hoping for some commentary on this? Maybe the people in question are thinking, "Hmm... stormlight healed my seizures. Was I not worthy of being a radiant knight with seizures and having to wear glasses?" (As much as having to wear glasses is a disability, it's never explained how badly Renarin actually needed his glasses, and when he suddenly stops wearing them, NEITHER HIS FATHER NOR HIS BROTHER gives a shit and never asks about it.) You know what's sad? When Renarin was revealed to have seizures, I thought, "Oh cool, I've only read one other book with a character with seizures." Oh, never fucking mind, it's healed. I remember someone who I was in a buddy read with saying that it was cool Renarin wore glasses. Well, that's healed too lmao. In wind and truth Dabbid is followed around by a windspren before Kaladin leaves. The guy near Kaladin is like, "Yeah, Dabbid had that for a while; he hasn't noticed." then proceeds to say, "You think it'll fix his problem?" What is this trying to insinuate? He has a speech impediment; that's the only “problem” he has. And why was he singled out with Rlain at the beginning to not be a squire anyway? Because of the speech impediment? And wtf does that mean? The spren ignore Rlain out of racism that is never commented on. Why is Dabbid ignored? It never goes anywhere, and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like constantly, this shit that seems like everybody has to be healed by stormlight from their disabilities and everybody agrees is really disturbing. People are like, "OMG, Rysn!!!" disabled rep!!!! Girl, did you read the other fucking books? And she's such a background side character that doesn't even matter in the first 5 books that I don't understand what the fuck there is to be praised anyway. You're just getting in line to suck Brandon's dick for having ONE disabled character that wasn’t healed by magic. NO CRITICAL THINKING. Healing disabilities is also cringe because it can be very interesting and good (if done well) when the character with the disability can overcome the obstacles and do what they want to do despite the disability. Renarin wants to be a soldier to get validation from his abusive child-killing father? Let him figure out how to do it WITH the seizures instead of healing them. Or have him realize how fucking dogshit his father is, realize he doesn't need validation, and have him embrace the healer role that he can despite the seizures. guy lost his legs to a shard sword and can't walk? Let him, like Rysn, figure out how to fucking fly or some shit. I think I said it before, but shard sword injuries were supposed to be fucking unhealable, but they are easily healed. Again, Brandon wrote himself into so many dead ends and didn't know how to get himself out of it because he's a fucking dogshit writer.

In Rhythm of War, the sibling constantly dislikes Navani for imprisoning spren to be used in fabrials. Navani says that the other spren have said that the fabrial spren are mindless, and therefore it is fine to use them in fabrials. That's funny. That is also the exact same argument they used for the slave-form natives, that they were mindless and therefore it was ok to use them as slaves... (This goes nowhere.)

While the prejudice against people with differently colored eyes is a mildly interesting concept, it kind of crashes when it seems the only people with eyes considered "dark" are brown only. So I did some bare minimum googling, and pretend the the top page's first answer is accurate, 20-30% of Caucasians have brown eyes, 70-80% of Black people have brown eyes, 80-90% of Asians have brown eyes, and 60-80% of Hispanics/Latinos have brown eyes. (give or take in accuracy). Why do I bring this up? Because I remember distinctly that Renarin in Oathbringer was described as having "sapphire eyes." I would argue most, if not everybody, who knows of the existence of sapphires immediately thinks of dark blue, with some exceptions (and also pink sapphires exist, apparently). But he is considered light-eyed, so do dark green and dark blue not count as DARK eyes? If only brown eyes are considered dark eyes, it kind of just falls back on racism toward brown and Black people again. GRANTED, I know Moash and Teft in particular were white, but again, 20-30% of white people have brown eyes.

bad rep with Shallan's personality disorder… Now I don't have a lot I can say about this, as I know next to nothing about personality disorders. However, one thing I can say is that one “stereotype” of people with these disorders is that they always have a personality/personalities that are violent and aggressive. And of course, Shallan has a violent personality that murdered Ialai without her knowing. Disability representation everyone.

Why are victims forgiving their abusers? Again, something I can't say too much on, but in Oathbringer, Dalinar claims he hears Evi's voice saying she forgives him. Excuse the fuck out of me? She was verbally abused and therefore a victim of domestic abuse… Why are we writing her forgiving him? especially after her noticing Dalinar actively pretending Renarin doesn't exist (WHICH NEVER STOPS), and then, you know, the part where he burned her alive ALONG WITH CHILDREN AND WOMEN??? On that note, in Wind and Truth, Renarin has a fleeting thought that he has some “resentment” for his father but doesn't expand on what. Explain to me, please, the resentment. the neglect part? the part where he murdered your mother, who was the only one in your family apparently to give a shit about you? Do pray tell what the resentment is for. This is never brought up again. This is the moronism coming out with the forgiveness is mandatory bullshit. FORGIVENESS IS NOT MANDATORY.

Okay done with the most interesting shit. I will move on to filler.

Let's be real, The Way of Kings is just a giant prologue... 1k pages of setup. I'd argue someone could start the series at Words of Radiance and treat Way of Kings as a prequel and they'd be completely fine tbh. There's an insane amount of filler in these books that, if removed, would still be 500-700+ page books. I don’t understand why people seem to think that epic fantasies need to be extremely long. The length of the book is =/ epic... compared to LOTR: it's considered the greatest epic fantasy of all time and Tolkien achieved that in... about 1500 pages. or The Hobbit, which is barely 300 pages. And, if you remove all the filler from THOSE books, they become even shorter. Examples: I can't remember when this particular interlude happened—interludes are random and completely unrelated to the current story chapters that are crammed into the book; there are usually multiple interlude chapters, all completely unrelated to each other—in either Radiance or Oathbringer, we get a random POV from some Herdazian man who is about to get executed, and the judge or whatever gives him the option to get beheaded or catch "the hog" while oiled up. The hog turns out to be some giant sea creature or something. The interlude chapter ends. It never comes up again... at first I thought Lopen, being Herdazian, would make some sort of joke about the hog, and we'd be like, "Ahh, I saw that." but no. And it's like, are you fucking serious? This book is 1k pages long, and we still get this random-ass filler??? I'm so confused…

Because why the fuck are we missing giant, pivotal moments that we should've seen? For example, in Oathbringer, Jasnah just. coming back. People thought she was dead for months, and we don't get any scenes with her reuniting with her family and Shallan???? What lol??? When her death is revealed by Shallan to Navani and Dalinar, Navani mopes for a bit, then forgets when Shallan almost dies (doesn't unfortunately), but her death goes strangely unmentioned for the rest of the book...Elhokar literally started a war over the murder of his father, yet when his sister is murdered, he doesn't give a shit? Oh I know why, because if her family had a normal reaction to her literal assassination and retaliated, Brandon wouldn’t be able to figure out how to fix that mess. In Wind and Truth, there is even more filler, "balanced" by completely ignoring massive events that happen in the book. Kaladin finally getting his Bridge Four tattoo which was supposed to be a big thing because of that brand finally fell off: like one sentence. Taln waking up and fighting his way through multiple fused to defend people and dying: literally off-screen. Fuck, even Dalinar's death is off-screen. And I really would've loved to see him die. He didn't burn alive like he deserved to, but I DESERVED TO WATCH HIM FUCKING DIE!!! Also: Shallan's mom being Chana—oh, who cares? I didn't either... Gavinor being 20 years older—nobody cares about that; he kind of just disappears at the end. You'd think he’d be hanging around Dalinar's body, and people would be like, "Who the fuck is this guy?" but nah. I guess he threw himself off the tower after because thats the only explanation that makes sense.

In rhythm, I kept wondering how many more chapters filled with science experiments I could endure before I would officially give up. There's no way anybody, even die-hard fans, gives enough of a shit about the science of this world to read multiple-page-long chapters that go on and on about the fucking fabrials. Like, it's great that you have this information as a writer of fantasy. Have it in a document that you, the writer, can reference from time to time. However, WE DON'T NEED ALL THE FUCKING DETAILS!!!! If I wanted to read about this many goddamn experiments, I would have majored in a fucking science. The only good part of those chapters was Raboniel, and of course the manipulative Navani kills her, giving me another reason to hate her.

In wind and truth, I cannot figure out why every single Adolin chapter has to rehash his feelings towards his father. We heard about them 30 pages ago; we don't need it again. I have a memory. The worst part of this book is just how little of a real story is present. For each of the ten "days," very little actually happens. Adolin, for instance, starts the book making a forlorn last stand at a fortress. By day eight, 900 pages later, he's still there doing the same thing. Kaladin starts off on an epic fetch quest, in which he visits about a dozen essentially identical locations (including recursive versions in flashbacks) with no sense of unraveling mystery or significance. By the end of the book, he's still doing the same thing. This book would’ve benefitted from not being crammed in 10 days and rather, I don’t know, 10 months. 10 weeks. Or being written by someone who isn’t a moron.

And of course Brandon claiming he’s “earned the right” to write such long books… nobody earns that right. You write the exact amount of pages you need—no more, no less. Pushing yourself to write 1k pages because you think you earned the right to, or you think you’re supposed to, it will show.

The "romance" has its own category

The romance… Ha ha ha ha ha. When I was buddy reading this book, someone said that Brandon said that he hates writing romance. If this is true, and no, I’m not going through interviews just to find out, then it fucking shows. I'm going to say it: if Navani were a man, you would hate her. IF NAVANI WAS A MAN, YOU'D HATE HER!!! She literally coerces Dalinar into getting with her like 3 times, and he constantly says no every single time, practically begging her to leave him alone until he finally gives in and gets with her. How do y'all like her? If their roles were swapped, you would fucking hate Dalinar for constantly harassing Navani, but since the woman did it, I guess it's fine... The hypocrisy is fucking crazy.

the fucking betrothal... apparently this is an unpopular opinion, but if you used your brain, it wouldn’t be. Frankly, I don't give a fuck if your book takes place in a fantasy world with 0 concept of pedophilia*...it's like when I read a classic from the 1800s and it's racist as fuck, and I go, "I don't like this book; it's racist as fuck," then every fucker and his mother comes to tell me, "Noooo, it's from the 1800s; it was ok to be racist then." Ok? I don't give a fuck; racism is bad now, and it was bad then… I don't care what was normal for the time lol. I'm going to dislike it; there was no need for this straight-up fucking pedophilia for absolutely no reason or no commentary on it. As the author, you have the choice to make your characters' ages the way they are... why the fuck is Shallan 17 and Adolin a 25-year-old grown-ass man? and it's supposed to be romantic... his CONTINUED SEXISM!!! which Shallan literally notices but AGAIN is not mentioned or confronted. wtf? I mildly rooted for Shallan and Kal to get together, because they are at least closer in age... but frankly, she should've stayed single. Why are there so many forced relationships in this book? Why are authors obsessed with slamming their characters together like barbie dolls while trying to figure out how sex works? NOT TO MENTION... despite Shallan spending more time in Oathbringer thinking about Kaladin and how hot he is (we spend time in Adolin and Shallan's POV, and they hardly think about each other??), somehow she and Adolin "love" each other after 3 months of meeting. Why? Why the fuck? Not to mention AGAIN Adolin's BLATANT SEXISM at the end where he says, "I'll let him have you." Shallan repeats it like she couldn't believe he said that, then Adolin is like, "Don't make this harder :(((" then Shallan goes on an unbelievable speech about how she loves and wants to fuck Adolin. Wow. It turns out sexism works when you use it on a 17-year-old girl who has no self-worth to fall back on. TAKE NOTES, GUYS!!!! No wonder he DOESN'T FUCKING GROW!!

I seriously feel like a lot of authors write fantasy like they're writing historical fiction. You're writing fantasy... you've created your own religions, cultures, etc., just for them to have the exact same problems we have/had in medieval times. sexism? Child marriage, with the girl Kaladin had a crush on getting forcibly married at 14/15 to a man who had to be 45+ for her money, who was originally intended to marry his 20-year-old son, but since the son died, the 40-year-old man wants her money, he forces her to marry him, and nobody gives a shit. Then in oathbringer its revealed that Brandon did the very cool thing where they apparently learned to love each other and were quite happy in the end… girl, no, she's a fucking victim of pedophilia and forced child marriage FOR MONEY. We're not doing this fucking Noooo, they learned to truly love each other 💖 Why did Brandon just straight endorse child marriage? Because hes a mormon i guess…

It was extremely funny to read reviews of Wind and Truth because of all the morons/Mormons being angry at the “woke agenda” being pushed in this book because of Rlain and Renarin. Buddy, the only thing being pushed is my dick down your dad's throat; he loves my woke agenda. Like, where the fuck is the woke? I’d love to find it actually. Rlain and Renarin’s relationship is written like such fucking dogshit it's actually homophobic. It’s partially the fault of the fact that Brandon didn’t know what to do with Renarin’s character and partially the fault of the fact that Sanderson has positioned Rlain as the token Parshendi. Rlain and Renarin get so little screen time that when they get together, no one could possibly give a shit... we’ve SEEN them interact like 3 times, so we never see any sort of friendship grow at all. On God, I think they only interacted on page once… in Oathbringer when Renarin goes to sit by Rlain, but we don’t even follow either of them. So I couldn't give less of a fuck about their relationship because I don't know or care about these fucking people. Yay, gay, written by a Mormon. Guys, look, he's not homophobic... This literally would've been fixed by giving Renarin or Rlain or both a fucking POV in earlier books, but nah. "I'm worried to write gay characters because I'm scared to mess it up." Here's a hint, Sanderson. WRITE THEM AS PEOPLE WHO HAPPEN TO BE GAY!!!! But you know what? Don't even do that, because you can’t fucking write even straight people.

DEUS EX MACHINA GALORE:

Dalinar bonding with Stormfather by just saying random words. I thought the whole point of becoming radiant was the spren in question had to really pick and choose who their knight would be, and it would be about genuine intent and shit, and they had to choose to possibly sacrifice themself and die, but apparently you can just say some words accidentally, as shown in Dawnshard with Lopen, and the spren will go, "Ah, fuck, we bonded now." Not to mention, wind and truth completely just abolished knights radiant, so we go from a spren picking and choosing and potentially sacrificing themselves all the way to... you don't even have to be bonded to have third and fourth ideals (which are apparently very difficult to achieve), swords, and armor, all because Adolin just talked to his fucking armor and sword sometimes. Are you serious? So what's the point of radiants…probably thinking, "Oh, what about their powers?" Well, fuck, what about them? truthwatcher? I don't even know what those fuckers do. elsecaller portals? Who gives a shit? It seems everyone can accidentally themselves into Shadesmar anyway. Windrunners and Skybreakers seem the exact same fucking radiant with flight, Edgedancers are … slippery..? I can't even remember what the others are. They seriously seem obsolete.

Everything just conveniently good happens to the characters... In Words of Radiance, Shallan somehow manages to go into Shadesmar just enough to set the ship on fire and survives drowning because of a FUCKING SANTHID, which is NEVER EXPLAINED???? Like, they know nothing about santhids. If we actually knew things about santhids, Brandon could say they are like dolphins, in that dolphins sometimes will randomly save a drowning person. deus ex machina? Sure. believable? Yes. A random nanthid that nobody knows anything about, much less what they even look like? She should’ve died… and make the books slightly better! manages to persuade all those bandits or whatever into keeping her alive, and they're just like, "Aight." The only one who tries to kill her is Tyn, who manages to get herself killed by a 17 year old girl who has zero combat training. Also, she becomes a master con artist so fucking fast, especially considering how limited Tyn's lessons were.

No stakes: nobody can fucking die. Not even an (important) minor character dies or takes a lasting injury. In Oathbringer, Adolin gets stabbed, and there's no way anybody worried he was going to die. No, Dalinar becomes a god and miraculously frees them from Shadesmar right where Renarin is so he can heal Adolin. Cool. When characters are constantly healing and battling off insurmountable odds without any failure, I just lose interest. Stormlight should've never been this powerful, tbh. That was a horrible decision, which could've been solved by just not having it heal at all. Or maybe keeping the cleric-like radiants (Truthwatcher and Edgedancer) as the healers of the group, and only they could heal other people and themselves, but nobody else can do that. (Good to know a character can just pause the game Skyrim-style and eat cheese and be fine lol.)

In wind and truth, Adolin thinks about how weird it is that stormlight will only heal you scarless if you "don't think about it too much." Girl, what the fuck are you talking about? Kaladin’s brand falls off in book four only after he accepts he can’t save everybody. Why? HOW is the stormlight able to understand someone's mind and how they think about themselves, and then it thinks to itself, "Ok, this guy still hates himself, so I won't heal his brand." How the fuck does that make sense? “This guy is thinking too hard about his wound; I’m going to make it scar.” Why not just have everybody's wounds scar? Because we can’t have “ugly” protagonists with scars? All of them would frankly be horribly scarred, but they are protagonists and cannot be marred; that would be horrible, so we need the stormlight, with its own fucking conscience, to heal it without scarring, EXCEPT when they “think about it too much."

CHARACTERS

Dalinar… hahaha This guy is the worst written character I’ve ever read in my life and readers fucking love him. I saw a bitch call him morally grey. If burning children alive is morally grey, you are fucked in the head and need to admit yourself to a mental hospital.

Why do people suck Dalinar's cock so much, calling him a holy man when he's murdered children via fire and his wife and abused/neglected his own children? (granted, this part nobody knows or can accept) If HE's holy, am I God? I mean seriously, even in this shitty society where they glorify murder, how the fuck are they okay with the burning of a city and the direct murder of children and his wife, which, btw, he had zero remorse for throughout the entire series? Perhaps he left the remorselessness out of his little book, but in the real thing he couldn't have given less of a shit... he just felt, "Ah damn, Gavilar is going to beat my ass for this :." Also, the end of part one of Rhythm, where he's "lamenting" those murdered children, that horns Navani up so much they fuck? Holy shit, that child killer cock must go crazy. That power-hungry vagina must be hungry. Holy shit. If I fucked for power, I would at least not be so goddamn obvious or have a lack of morals. If the guy I was fucking for power was revealed to be a child murderer and wife killer, I would be like, "Damn, that power doesn't taste that good anymore."

Dalinar is as bad as the rapists in the army. In Oathbringer, Dalinar comes up to Sadeas, and there is a group of women who are 100% going to be given to soldiers for rape, as that's the only thing soldiers are good at in every reality, apparently. I called Dalinar a rapist, and someone said they don't think he was. Ok, I’ll hold your hands. As commander (I think he was… correct me if I'm wrong) (or at least a brother to the KING), he should be able to tell his soldiers to not be fucking horrible, he is the role model for these assholes. He does not do this. When Sadeas makes a remark about “looking forward to tonight," Dalinar doesn't even fucking blink. Let me explain something to you guys. Let's make a Venn diagram. On the left side, there is a big circle; this circle is the normal people circle. On the right side, there is another big circle. This circle is the creatures who are rapists. These circles don't overlap. There is another smaller circle. This circle is people who are silent and do not speak up or stop things that are in their power to do so. Where does this circle go? I'll give you a hint. NOT IN THE NORMAL PEOPLE CIRCLE!!! You cannot be fucking neutral on shit like that. Therefore, Dalinar is just as bad as his rapist soldiers.

I love him not being able to handle his war crimes, but I love even more manipulative Navani ENABLING his alcohol addiction is insane LMFAO. Can we get a wife of the year award? She has the audacity to think, "Why are men allowed to be sad and drink, and I have to do all the work?" What the fuck are you talking about? YOU'RE GIVING HIM THE ALCOHOL TO GET DRUNK ON!!! WHAT!?!?!?!? This bitch's audacity fucking pisses me off the whole book. My blood pressure rises, and I get dizzy with hate. I never liked her. At least she went into a coma; people can get a break from her manipulations. On that note, Gavilar was a piece of shit. But when he calls her out for marrying him for the power and wealth, she has the audacity to get mad at him? Wahhh, my husband doesn't love and respect me. You literally married him for power and then married his brother, who is just as bad or arguably worse… for the power and wealth again. I like how it tried to tell me otherwise in Rhythm, where Navani thinks to herself she doesn't want power or wealth and yet married Gavinor. So did you marry him because you loved him? because you didn't and that is extremely clear in rhythm… (also the part where she considers herself a good wife and mother when its clear she let Gavilar abuse Jasnah lmao classic

Dalinar goes on all this bullshit about not being king because he almost killed his own brother out of pure lust for a manipulative bitch, then becomes king of Unpronounceable and doesn't even think anything of it.

Him claiming in Rhythm of War or whichever book that although he's done horrible shit "At least he's never broken an oath”?? Please tell me that sanderson actually intended this character to be a bad guy and its everyone else who are stupid thinking he’s a good guy.

He had one job, and he fucked it up astronomically. When faced with Adult Gav, Dalinar proves he has learned nothing from his journey of the past five books, he has absolutely zero character growth that it’s almost impressive. He does not even TRY to save his grandson or to reconcile with him. not even when adult Gav is frozen by Odiom, even when he is visibly weeping because he knows he was deceived. Danilar doesn't even fucking try. No apologies, no "I love you's," no nothing. The only options he sees are "Kill grandson" or "Let grandson kill me." He doesn't even fucking try to find a third option. Had he been able to get through to Gav and, in turn, persuade Gav to surrender, he could have so easily won everything. Note, of course, this isn't surprising—how shit he treats his entire family—considering he hated, verbally abused, and eventually murdered his wife (who nobody forced him to marry, btw) and also neglected his sons, and even when he got "better," he still had a clear favorite in Adolin and continued to pretend Renarin didn't exist because… reasons (the reason is brandon also forgot renarin existed) Anyway, he decides to pass the entire problem on to everyone else instead, but not before making the absolutely batshit decision to abandon his oaths, allowing Odium to kill the Stormfather and assume true supervillain status. And, through killing the Stormfather, he has also allowed the planet to be stripped of its most important resource, not just for the Radiants, but for the world economy. Dalinar has single-handedly undone centuries of societal progress. He makes the most self-centered decision he can possibly make and fucks everyone else in the process. And everyone is going to get in line to suck his cock. Go on, I’m sure something will still come out after all this time. (See: Wit going, "Holy shit, he's a genius," just so people can continue to dick-ride him is insane, bruv.) It's literally like, "Wow! He made the situation worse 100x, kills himself, and leaves it for everyone else! What a hero!”?????

Jasnah somehow survives a fucking knife to the chest (can claim she used stormlight, I guess), manages to teleport herself into Shadesmar, and proceeds to survive there for multiple months. A lot of the characters are inconsistent, but I think Jasnah was the worst written. For example, Jasnah seems to be a feminist, perhaps, or whatever their version of that is. She's independent and single in her 30s, doesn't want/have kids, and fucks around before marriage (which people either somehow know (she is open about it?) or they are just being sexist when calling her a whore for no reason), and is an atheist, and yet she wears the glove despite not liking it? All these things she does CLEARLY indicate she does not care what other people think about her. Why would she continue to wear the glove? In Radiance, when she's revealed to be alive, it's noted that she’s apparently created a makeshift glove while in Shadesmar. WHY LMFAO. She should've felt some freedom not needing to wear it where people don't give a flying fuck about it, but she creates one herself to cover up… for who???? She doesn't follow the religion!!! She hates wearing it!!! WHY IS SHE WEARING THE GLOVE!!!!!!!!!!! Why do authors put certain topics in their book, only to never actually make any commentary on them? The racism in these books is crazy; slavery abounds, with no commentary. the sexism, women not allowed to do shit, no commentary. I want to mention specifically the hand covering. Either I can't remember, or I don't think this was explained at fucking all: why did they have to cover their left hand?? and not only cover it, I believe they weren't even allowed to use it; they just had to hang it limply by their side. Like, you can't say, "Oh, they can't do things because of religion." Explain lol. WHAT exactly is it in their religion that says this? wtf is it about the LEFT hand and not the right? Why can't they use it? And why does nobody, especially Jasnah, seem to care that their bodies are so fucking sexualized to the point where if they show a fucking finger on their left hand, they are disgusting, a slut, and a whore? All Jasnah thinks is "I don't like wearing gloves," but never, like, any actual thoughts on how disturbing it is that they have to wear it, are FORCED to wear it. Why not have Jasnah be a super popular woman who blatantly and proudly refuses to wear the glove? See, a good example is Islam. Idiots think that Muslim women are FORCED to cover up; however, in Islam, it is a choice if they wish to cover up or not. Any country or person that forces them to cover up or to take it off GOES AGAINST ISLAM! and yet in this religion they ARE genuinely forced to cover their hand, and nobody gives a flying fuck. Why? Why is there sexism abound, racism, slavery, war, etc.? There is just no commentary on these topics at all. Then why have them in the book?? Yes, I believe I am saying that if you're going to put such a topic in your book, you need to have some sort of commentary, defending or rejecting it. I don't care, but just cramming it into the book and having nobody or the narrative care about it just seems cheap.

Kaladin: The only thing I can remember is that goddamn Shardblade wound, which is literally supposed to be unrecoverable, but JK, he drinks a healing potion from Skyrim, and it doesn't fucking matter. I was like, "Holy shit, his fucking arm is fucking gone. What is he going to do???? Oh jk. Kaladin is depressed? Sure do hope he snaps out of it before the big finale… (Hint: that's not how depression works… Source: I'm depressed.) Kaladin becoming a "therapist" felt extremely strange to me for the entire book. There might have been much better ways to develop this aspect of his character, but straight up calling him a therapist and then having him "cure" Szeth and his spren after a few days of conversation. I mean, Szeth literally, after like day 4, is like, "Ok, Kaladin, you're right... I'm going to kill myself instead," :D and then two days later somehow is convinced that Kaladin is right and actually he's not going to kill himself? Ok... And then curing Nale by literally playing a tune on a flute. It was so wildly far-fetched for me that I couldn't help but feel myself cringing. NOBODY—seriously, nobody—lives through the kinds of things that Szeth lived through and then finds healing and peace after a few days of therapy. Yet not only does Szeth—a 7,000-year-old Herald—overcome his mental obstacles just as quickly? Buddy, I haven't even had half the traumas of those two, had 2 years of therapy (searching for a new therapist), and I'm still depressed AND I'm on antidepressants. I understand that it says multiple times that it takes time, but still that Nale is able to snap out of his "fog" so quickly is insane. Then there's Ishar. Well, at least the flute playing didn't work on him, but saying an idea did...somehow lol. Despite Szeth's 5th ideal not working, Kaladin says the 5th ideal and blasts Ishar back with a "burst of power," and when Ishar wakes up, he's like, "Holy shit, I'm a bad person." Interesting to note that either in the beginning or the back of the book, brandon says he apparently worked with multiple therapists and psychiatrists or whatever the fucks in order to write this. All of those people need to have their licenses revoked, because if they thought this all that was a perfectly fine depiction of depression and PTSD they are actually DANGEROUS and need to stay away from patients.

I'm not convinced that Renarin and Adolin give a shit about each other. There are MULTIPLE instances where Renarin is COMPLETELY forgotten, and it's like, Brandon, why the fuck did you even bother writing this character? In Way of Kings, when Adolin and Dalinar come back from almost being fucking massacred, Renarin gives Adolin the good old clap on the shoulder. WHAT???? BUDDY, YOUR BROTHER WAS ALMOST KILLED. HUG HIM???? In rhythm, Adolin is going to leave for Shadesmar for who knows how long, and who knows what dangers lie ahead. His shitty father talks to him and gives some speech and fucks off. Renarin is NOT mentioned and nowhere to be found. Why wouldn't he say goodbye to his brother that we’re told he cares about? Again, in wind and truth, Adolin goes off to Azir to fight again unknowable dangers and can possibly die. Renarin is nowhere to be found and never says goodbye. In Wind and Truth, or Rhythm, Dalinar is playing with Gavinor and lamenting he didn't witness more of Adolin's childhood. Renarin is NOT mentioned. This is a huge tell, not show, thing because I think it's mentioned a few times how Adolin cares about Renarin and vice versa, but I don't see any goddamn proof of this. Where the hell were the beta readers, editors? Fucking anybody? Hello? Brandon surrounds himself with yes men so he never has to change a thing because he thinks hes perfect i guess

Moash = Marsh? except Marsh was much more interesting as a character and forced villain. Also, their names are strikingly similar, considering how at the end, he gets the same eye things as Marsh... Moash had so much potential and completely dropped like a nuclear bomb on the US in about 5 years. I mean, he's the only character who understands just how shit the place he lives in is—they enslaved him, and he never assimilates into the society that enslaved him (COUGH COUGH KALADIN), and he's supposed to be the villain for it lol. Sure, he killed Elhokar, but let's be honest, he was a dogshit king like his daddy. Someone was going to assassinate him. I just feel like he was so fumbled, the opposite of Kaladin, going his own way after being freed. We can understand his anger and hate, but he just kind of becomes a blind (haha, get it?) dumb villain.

Elhokar: He is dead. His death had no effect on the story nor the development of any of the characters. Kaladin mopes for a bit, then his little depressive episode clears up after about (checks watch) 24 hours. He is almost practically forgotten about in the same chapter he is killed in. Navani cries for, like, a sentence when she hears the news, but swiftly moves on; he is never brought up again. No other characters brood over his death in a meaningful capacity; we don’t even get to see any kind of funeral rite for him.

Other shit:

Writing in-world swear words is all well and good, but I don't understand what type of swear "storms" (and other storm words) is supposed to be when everybody and their mother will say it for anything and everything, so it makes me think it's a "mild" swear word like "crap" or "frick," but then there are times when it sounds more like "fuck." Like, for example, in Rhythm of War, when Lirin is trying to stop Kaladin from fighting and possibly getting his family killed, Kaladin says, "Storm you" (which, first of all, is kind of cringe; I ain't even gonna lie). which SOUNDS like a "fuck you" moment, but again, everybody uses "storm" for everything and everyone, so I just don't understand what type of swear word it is. Take it from someone who swears like a sailor—in books (and other media), swears should only be used when they could have a real impact OR if you establish a character who just likes to swear often, but it doesn’t work if EVERY character swears often. If "storm," etc., was replaced with "fuck" and "shit," etc., I imagine there might even be complaints about how, perhaps, immature the characters sound when they are swearing all the time.

No animals? Just random, but I was like, where tf are the flora and animals? I mean, you can probably count the amount of animals on two hands: pigs, sheep, chickens/birds, chasmfiends, cremlings (bugs, but no flying bugs/cremlings), horses, minks, and rats. Literally can't think of more, but you get the point. plants? Nothing, just grass and some trees. no idea what they eat, besides bread (wheat). Do they have bees? Do their plants need pollination? They have no dirt and walk on stone, cool. Tell us how the fuck they grow food. Does their food not require dirt? Do they have to import dirt from somewhere else? What do they grow? Do they have special plants that just grow through stone? Who gives a shit apparently. Guys brandon is so good with world building.

Emotion spren are fucking stupid. I likethe idea of spren of all living things, but spren for emotions is so fucking stupid.

None of the women pass the Bechdel test. Fun fact. Regardless of your opinion on it, lemme get my point across. The Bechdel test has three rules. 1. The women must be friends. 2. They must have names (but for modern books, this can be changed to "they must be important to the plot"), and 3. They must talk about anything other than a man. All of them fail this constantly. None of the women protagonists, Shallan, Jasnah, or Aunt Navani, have any female friends. Shallan and Jasnah are not friends. When they break off their mentor/apprenticeship, they literally stop talking to each other completely. Shallan has 0 female friends, only random women she talks to sometimes. Cunt Navani has no female friends, only random women she talks to sometimes.

The names of things in this series are fucking stupid. Maybe some fantasy name syndrome. Chasmfiends? Straight to the point, but dumb to say out loud. And why do the natives also call them chasmfiends and not their own name for the creatures? The "oathpact." The oath oath. The pact pact. The trouser pants. Literally just the same exact word twice, lmfao. Why not just The Oath or some shit? You're the writer; it's been 10 years in the making, and yet? Truthwatcher I have personal beef with. You don’t watch for truth. Truthseeker. 10 years in the making.

There is a frustrating lack of gravitas in many scenes. Lift appears at the tail end of what was set to be one of the better chapters in Oathbringer, when Dalinar first meets Odium, only to deflate any tension by making comments about his butt and how she dislikes old people. Szeth now has a sword that talks in the same particularly childish, quippy way as Syl, who already talked in the same particularly childish, quippy way as Shallan. It's like a gd Marvel movie; a moment can't go by without a stupid joke. Please... shut... On that note, Nightblood, I believe, is an insanely old consciousness. Why is it so childish? I understand why Syl was childish at the beginning, but she never grows, changes, or matures in any way whatsoever as she gets her memories back.

Sadeas got killed by Adolin at the end of Words, and nothing comes of it ever. There's a cursory investigation, but when the copycat killings are revealed to be the work of one of the Unmade, it's forgotten until Dalinar wants to make Adolin king. So Adolin admits to killing Sedeas. And then nobody cares still. I was hoping for some real complications to arise from that. Adolin had some guilt, for some reason, but it was barely a factor. Also, it never comes up again. Did Sadeas deserve to die? Yeah. But why does nobody care about finding the murderer? The copycat killings had to be based on the original murder of Sadeas; therefore, to everyone's knowledge, the murderer is still at large. But we can’t have adolin bear the consequences of his actions because if it came out that he was a murderer he wouldn’t be loved by everyone like the unique blue eyed white boy he is. Because brandon wrote himself into another corner.

This is more of a personal opinion lol… but Shadesmar is so boring!! Why are the spren just humans? It's like reading a fairy book, and they are just hot humans. Give me weird shit. I don't want humanoid beings with a strange "pattern" for a head. Give me fucking weird little imps and shit. Nah, not only do the spren take on human forms, but they are just Alethi most of the time. ?? It's so boring… for example, I was imagining the honor spren being like translucent spriggans from Skyrim. Cryptic spren incomprehensible shit and everyone sees something different. Inkspren is some sort of squid-like thing. Like, wtf, get creative. YOU'RE WRITING A FANTASY, PLEASE!!!!!!!!! Why are they all humanoid? I'm bored.

In wind and truth, our next big disappointment was the spiritual realm. We were, again, led to believe that this realm is extremely dangerous: Wit and the gods were supposedly afraid of the Spiritual Realm because it was difficult to navigate, time was easy to lose, and you couldn’t know what to expect. It turned out, however, that the Spiritual Realm is just a mindscape-style place that was rather easy to navigate when you actually try for more than 2 seconds. The most difficult part of being in the Spiritual Realm is, apparently, confronting yourself/your history. And every character who goes into the realm faces absolutely no time loss except for the kid. What a god can do in the spiritual realm is so confusing. What Tara can't do: find radiants when their spren is hiding them. What he can do: recreate a fucking simulation of an entire city and its people

There's also a problem I noticed in this book, especially of strange modern language being used a lot, making me think perhaps an editor does not exist…? Examples: "literally" (I never saw that used before), "therapy/therapist"—you can claim Wit introduced them to these words, but idk... "alcohol" instead of wine like previous books. Randomly mentioned is "200 proof alcohol," huh? When the fuck did they start doing that? Lift using the word "hot" to say attractive, again, has never been used in this way before. Kaladin randomly says "okay"; nobody has ever said "okay" before. There can be something said for the word “awesome” being used (100% by Lyft) the way it is. The first version of "awesome" was used to indicate horror or fear, as opposed to our modern use to indicate amazement. Lift uses this modern version, and compared with nobody else using the word "awesome" ever, it's very jarring.

In Wind and Truth, both Sigzil and the child killer break their oaths and kill their spren for some greater good; (?) however, in the same book and literally the same day, Szeth casually releases his spren from their bond, and his spren does not go dead-eyed and is perfectly fine. Are you telling me this entire time the Radiants could've just said, "I release you from your oaths," and the spren would've been fine? Nobody tried that ever? They just immediately jumped to "I renounce my oaths" rather than a kinder "I release you from your bond." Granted, the radiants from 4k years ago didn't know the spren would go deadeyed, but I still don't understand why they never tried that out of curiosity. Not to mention, renouncing your oaths required you to genuinely believe that. Also, Szeth easily releasing his spren from the bond and not killing him makes Sigzil and Dalinar's decision more stupid.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure May Aladar isn't among the women Adolin was sexist to in the first few books, so as far as I can remember, she's introduced in Wind and Truth. Why the fuck is her name May when we already have an established character whose nickname is Maya??? No joke, I literally got confused multiple times about which May/Maya was talking. You are writing a fantasy book and have 74 billion options for names, and you pick one that's one letter off from an established character. And more bechdel test things: May aladar exists only to say how good adolin and shallan are for each other because brandon has to convince any readers with a working brain that their relationship is so good and not predatory and hateful at all.

Why does Mayalaran talk so modernly? The last time she was alive was 4 thousand years ago; she should be speaking the equivalent of ye olde English (hell, the language the people spoke 4k years ago was described as a whole different language) and people should be having a hard time understanding her and vice versa, but for some reason she speaks their modern common tongue extremely well, even calling Adolin a slut at some point. Where did she learn to speak their modern language? She's been practically unconscious for 4 thousand years with no one teaching her that. On that note, why does everyone in the visions speak, again, in the perfect modern common tongue? apparently with child killers' bonds With powers he can understand them, but this doesn't explain why in other POVs they also understand them perfectly.

This is a little nitpick, but the pursuer was written kinda shittily. So you're telling me this guy has made a tradition of hunting down humans that killed him? ...So he's been killed by humans multiple times before, enough for him to make it a tradition? It doesn't make him seem competent or scary at all if he's so easily killed… Instead, it would've been better if Kaladin had been the first human that killed him, and it enraged him so much that he demanded to be the only one to kill him, thus turning him into the pursuer. Otherwise, I feel like I can take on this guy with a kitchen knife lol.

END: I'm going to end this essay by quoting a review I saw on StoryGraph (who then quoted it from Reddit), which pretty much summarises the main problem with these books: "A book needs to be able to stand on its own, not just be a vehicle to provide context for previous novels and propel future novels."