Ok here's the thing... I was under the impression that this book would be more of a closing chapter on the first arc of Stormlight Archive and when that's NOT what this book was I was left feeling a bit... underwhelmed? or I supposed unmoored in the right word.

Obviously this series is insanely good, and Brandon's a genius for being able to write it. But WAT was the slowest pacing of the 5 books so far imo. Especially since it's slightly longer than the others, I felt a lot of the time that we were just treading water? Like, do I appreciate the depth of detail and history for this world? yes! But do I also feel like it slowed down the book? yes.

SPOILERS FR:

I love Szeth as a character so I was very happy to get his backstory and more in general from his character. I was also happy Adolin got a bigger role in this book cause I've felt in past books he wasn't as big of a character so it was nice to spend time with him. Rlain and Renarin *heart eye emoji* 4 eva! (though I hope we continue to see more queer relationships as the series continues!). I was delulu about Dalinar making it out alive, but this whole Blackthorn thing is interesting.

Idk maybe if I had gone into the book knowing it was just the 5th book in a 10 book series I'd have approached it differently, but to me it definitely has middle-series-book-syndrome. I do feel that inevitably when I reread books 1-5 in preparation for the next books, I might enjoy this better on a re-read.