Finished the Series
I finished listening to Wind and Truth this evening, and wanted to reflect on the series as a whole. I listened to the entire series on Audible so forgive me if I get some names spelled wrong here and there.
I liked the first two novels a lot. Words of Radiance was probably my favorite novel overall. I liked and related to Kaladin quite a bit but never really came to enjoy Dalinar. Dalinar always seemed a bit too self righteous and the more I learned about his backstory the more he just kind of annoyed me more. For this I didn't really care for Oathbringer very much. Another reason I kind of bounced off Oathbringer was the ending; it felt like the end of a comic book movie like the Avengers or something with everyone using their powers to save the city and defeat Amuram.
The fourth book I liked a lot. People on discord kept telling me it was one of the worst but honestly Nevanni's plotline was probably the most interesting in the entire series. Liked that she used science to solve the conflict of the novel. Book four was when I started to get tired of Kaladin though; he seemed to be going backwards as a character.
Book Five was hard at first. The book seemed really slow and ponderous for the first half but then the second half got me on board with all the big revelations and setups for cosmic adventures down the road. I'm honestly at a point with this series where I am genuinely excited for what happens next. Kaladin has ascended and will face new challenges as the war against Odium expands beyond Roshar.
One praise and one critique of the series as a whole but one praise is I like that the main cast has not really expanded beyond a handful of characters. Compared to other fantasy series I've read like Malazan and ASOIAF Stormlight is quite restrained in this regard and it makes it easy to keep track of what role each character plays in the narrative. One critique is the humor. Early on I didn't mind it but once Lift got involved I started to cringe when Sanderson was trying to be funny. A few times with Syl in Wind and Truth I chuckled but usually I just groan.