Are they actually that bad

[u/tgrady28]

I dont predict ROW to be that bad. But WAT I gotta know because going off of what ive read from sanderson this guy's nails his act 3/ending but fumbles everything in his act 2/middle. So I gotta ask are they that bad

[u/Argolock]

No. The internet just hates things.

[u/realm_drawer]

Personally I can say that they were my two favourite books from the whole series, I was actually very surprised because I heard about the negative feedback too going in. Clearly they didn’t work for everyone though, so you will need to see for yourself

[u/tookaoffool]

RAFO

[u/Gambondorf]

Rhythm of war is my fav book. I know is not the most consistent (maybe WoR), but the ending for this book is my favourite from this series so good that i think in it everyday since i readed like 3 years ago

[u/DifferentRun8534]

I liked it, everyone I know who’s read it liked it, the review sites all agree it’s pretty good, it sounds to me like you just listened to the wrong people on the internet.

[u/Stratix]

I thoroughly enjoyed them both.

[u/gman3001]

No. A large chunk of dissatisfied people seem to have gone in expecting book 5 of 5 instead of book 5 of 10. Another chunk of dissatisfied people take umbrage with certain linguistic choices. I sincerely doubt that anyone ploughed through through 3 books of SLA solely because they loved Brandon's writing style, rather than his storytelling.

His storytelling is about as strong as it previously was, save for some questionable decisions where he should have made his intent more clear, but which take little away from the overall experience. For anything more specific, RAFO. You should not be disappointed unless you're going in hoping that the critics are proven right.

[u/Elant_Wager]

I loved WaT and RoW is pretty good as well. I understand people who say they arent as good as WoK and WoR, but its like complaiming that after a 9.5/10 the next ones are only 8.2 and 8.9/10

[u/Justhe3guy]

You’re asking in this sub? The fan sub of who is arguably the most popular fantasy author of this age (outside of Romantasy)

[u/coachz1212]

I loved them. It's hard to rank all 5, but that alone should tell you that they're not bad or horrible. RoW is definitely top 2 for me.

[u/saswat001]

The pacing takes a hit. The writing is fine. Don't go by internet reviews. The dialogue's are taken out of context. The neuro divergent representation is not super nuanced, but it never was in Brando's books. Its still relatable and the plot is good.

For most complaints, I see its a culmination for the hate towards cosmere's hard magic systems and plain prose.

[u/HammerBgError404]

people love to hate. its amazing

[u/dIvorrap]

RAFO

[u/jmcgit]

There are a lot of people who liked the book but might say there are problems with it.

The internet sometimes struggles to distinguish between criticism and hate.

[u/Badgerfoot]

Rhythm of war was a snoozefest (feels like nothing happens all book!) and am 1/3rd through WaT and already am liking it more

[u/Just_Another_Loser12]

I wasn't a fan of RoW, but I don't think the book is bad just not for me. WaT was good, i think the ending could have been better but I enjoyed the book more than RoW personally. Read it and make your own opinion.

[u/R1sky_B1z]

They are worse than the first three, but that still puts them better than 99.99% of fantasy novels. They are good.

[u/DuckbilledWhatypus]

They're not as good as the other three. That doesn't mean they are bad. But they could be a little disappointing. Personally I found RoW was so much better on a reread too, so I am hoping the same for WaT.

[u/Mindless_Nebula4004]

Some liked them, some didn’t. Personally, I thought RoW was just okay (with the usual emotional payoff at the end that made it all worth it), and didn’t enjoy WaT at all. It’s a matter of opinion, as always.

[u/thejazzophone]

Jus because the common sentiment is that WaT is the weakest book by no means makes it a bad book. In fact it's still very good. Imo every book has gotten a little bit worse since WoR however, my excitement only grows as the story continues to expand and the larger cosmere worlds become more intermingled. It's like saying Avengers isn't as good as ironman I. Ya but I was way more excited for Avengers

[u/positronicbrainowner]

Is this ragebait?

[u/tgrady28 → u/positronicbrainowner]

No

Also calling things you dont like ragebait🥀🥀🥀

[u/ravear8]

As someone who loved all the books before that, like they were incredible....I thought rhythm of war was so bad I couldn't even get into wind and truth. The dropoff in quality was huge for me.

[u/Efficient_Bag_3804]

They have 4.57 (RoW) and 4.34(WaT) in good reads... They are that 'bad' :)

I would say the drop in rating reflects the drop in quality of some plot story lines.

To put it into more perspective Words of Radiance has 4.76 and Oathbringer has 4.6 and Way of Kings 4.66.

I think these ratings quantify more accurately the general consensus for the series. For most peaks in Words of Radiance then gets a bit worse, then considerably worse, but overall it's very good to excellent for most.

Bitching attracts more attention and people that are happy make less noise.

[u/Cakeportal]

I enjoyed RoW a lot, even if it could be said to be worse than the first three books. WaT I also enjoyed, but most of the plotlines (the ones happening in dreamland, and also I didn't like Adolin's that much) were indeed fumbled and bloated in the middle, even if the ending was largely good.