I was very impressed by Sanderson’s Mistborn series. In fact, I liked it so much that I bought gift copies of the series for two of my friends. I found the sequel Wax & Wayne series as good as its predecessor, but some strange stuff started happening in the story, especially in the final book. When I looked into it, I discovered that Sanderson was weaving a meta-narrative called Cosmere tying his story worlds together. I liked his work and was interested in what he was trying to do with Cosmere, so I purchased the Stormlight Archive collection.

On the positive side, Stormlight Archive once again demonstrates Sanderson’s masterful world building. The setting is unique, creative, and internally consistent. You may have to wait for it, but he does a great job of tying up loose ends and explaining the world as the story unfolds. By the time he is done, his fantasy world feels real and all of the pieces fit. And once again, his plot twists are usually excellent. Surprising, but consistent with the story events. They don’t feel “cheap”. They feel rewarding.

I don't think this 4 book collection can be reviewed without first discussing its length. This series weighs in at an intimidating 6705 pages and will take approximately 200 hours to read. Is that bad on its own? Absolutely not. But it does color almost every complaint I have about it. By the final book, I wasn’t feeling that the dozens of hours I was devoting to reading it were paying off. I just wanted to finish it and move on.

Somehow, this four book monster is missing pieces. There are two novellas (not included) which take place between books in the main plotline. By the series standard of 1200 page books, the two 200 page novellas are barely a footnote, however these two novellas are NOT completely disconnected from the main series. Side characters are developed and events occurring in these stories are referred to within the main story. You are missing something if you do not seek them out and read them between books. It is frustrating that, with almost 7000 pages to work with, Sanderson couldn't fit the entire plot in the main series. It is more frustrating that the collection does not include these.

Then there is Shallan. In books one and two (less so in books three and four), Shallan uses “regency humor", an antiquated style of humor that tries to demonstrate wittiness through wordplay, puns, and childish insults. In fact, this is the main way she communicates. In every interaction. In two of four 1200 page books. Where she is a major character. I literally did a Google search for "Does Shallan get less insufferable" mid-way through book two because I couldn't tolerate any more of her dialog. Remember how long the series is. You are literally reading several novels worth of this dialog. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of it. If you don’t like it (and many don’t), it is not fun reading.

Mental health issues and trauma play a major role in this story. Almost every character has one or more serious issues. Depression, multiple personalities, suppressed memories, PTSD, senility, addiction, etc. Even the most well-adjusted characters suffer from extreme social awkwardness, survivor's guilt, impostor syndrome, or low IQ. This is clearly a deliberate choice and, with a few exceptions, fairly well handled. This presents a pacing problem. If Sanderson gave the characters and easy way out or a facile "fix" for their issues, he would no longer have that motif to explore and it would be undermining the seriousness of these issues. On the other hand, as a reader, it can feel like you're making no progress. Characters will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again and don’t grow or change. Again, the length of the book series is hurting it here. You could get away with this in a tighter story with more frequent highs to go with the persistent lows. But it’s just exhausting in such a long series.

Overall, I think Sanderson is a victim of his own success. He’s a great author, but he still needs an editor. The plotlines are epic and good quality, but the complete package is rambling and slow. These books could have been edited down substantially and not suffered an appreciable loss. It’s not low quality writing, but it is too much writing.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.8 (483 ratings)
Price	$30.37
Category	Action & Adventure

The Stormlight Archive, Books 1-4: The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Oathbringer, Rhythm of War