2.5 rounded up

Pretty much the same thoughts as the first one, except that I expected more from this after the initial worldbuilding and character introductions were done. But yet again the aspects I find intriguing, ie: the overarching story rather than the myopic perspectives of the characters and the lore and magic system stuff, move at an even more glacial pace. Some of it is dropped at the start to bait the hook and then rationed out.

I was happy to get more time with Shan and I really like Pattern. But then the narrative brought all the characters together to the least interesting aspect of the setting for me: the castle. Assassins are as common as candy in this thing as well. You are right an assassin or are an assassin. I wish this was far more sprawling.

This combined with Kaladin being an absolute bitchy teenager for much of it so he can learn a lesson made his parts genuinely annoying to read. The culmination of the arc is only slightly satisfying and when his power is rooted in this Arthurian power fantasy reimagining with honourspren, I actually am pretty disenchanted with the magical aspects as well.

Obviously Sanderson is trying to make relatable protagonists that are rooted in past trauma that they have to process and reconcile. Both of them have very overt things they need to confront and the Spren are there as hopeful little coaches that perceive the world through a different lens. The problem is that in a normal book half this size their entire arc would be like a sub plot. It can be truncated and it could have cut back and forth where each character is much more dynamic. It feels like it’s the same drumbeat over and over and over.

The prose remain sterile and serviceable, but the entire title feels again like a YA novel. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it does feel like Sanderson has bitten off more than he can chew. The sentence structure and prose are basically commercial fiction, and therefore pretty consumable - but it’s also so long that it gets very boring to look at. The characters become pretty samey and the dialogue that works are straight up YA interactions you see in Skyward.

I appreciate that eventually this will build up to something more epic in scope—and hell, they did leave their little castle at the end—but the pacing is so, so slow on both fronts and Sanderson clearly is more interested in writing about these things at a granular level, and focuses on the things that just usually do not interest me. So, I am just pulling the ripcord on this series here and now.