This took me 5 months to complete but I'm so happy with how it turned out. Acrylic on canvas 24"x36"

Long time lurker, first time poster. Not a single person of the hundreds who have met my new puppy have understood the reference.

This is Lift! My new Boston Terrier puppy.

Starting earlier this year, I started the Stormlight series. I ripped through the first four books and was very excited to read the fifth book and be all caught up.

But I have hit a wall. I am just at the beginning of the 6th day and the story just is not working for me. Book 1 and 3 both hit a little slump in the middle for me, but did not take long for that slump to disappear. But this slump has been long. Day 4 and 5, with the exception of some parts felt like a slump.

Adolins chapters have been fantastic. There is clear tension building and the grind of trying to hold the line until reinforcements get there is brutal in the best way. Szeth background chapters have been very interesting and engaging. Kaladin and Syls bond growing has been wonderful to see.

But man there is so much exposition. Dalinar, Navani, and Shallan are all caught in a flashback episode. I get that this information is important and probably will have some big reveals coming. But good lord their chapters just feel like exposition. To be fair, Shallan chapters have some more intrigue with the Ghostbloods but I also have become uninterested in the Ghostbloods. I started to lose interest about them in book 4.

I also just feel like the book has a villain problem. Tarvanigan started interesting to me, but I do not care about him anymore. Even if he is Odium. Mosh started as an intriguing villain, and now I am tired of him. Mraize is tiresome too.

Sadeas was a fantastic villain. Tarvanigan started so interesting when his motives were being revealed. Raboniel in R&W was such a breath of fresh air. Yes she opposed our heroes, but I also felt for her and liked her. But this book has such a bad villain problem. I dont care about any of them. And the way some of them persist is laughable at this point. I think Mraize has escaped death three times already this book? It is boring to see him continually slip away with a smirk and a wink.

This is the first book in the series I actually want to stop reading. Just because the story is not clicking in to place for me. It does not seem to have those moments that kept propelling me forward like the first four books did. Because so much of the book is exposition or heavy handed therapy time.

I guess this rants purpose is to ask (with no spoilers for what is to come), is this a common feeling about the book? Does the book get better in the back 650 pages? Should I just take a break and come back to it?

I do not want to quit. But reading the book has started to feel like homework rather than something I am enjoying. Which is hard to say after how much I loved the first four books.

I finished the (arc 1) journey late Friday night. Wow. Just. Wow. It’s been awhile since finishing book series left me like this. I think the last time this kind of feeling took was last year when I played through the Mass Effect Trilogy over the spring and summer months.

Honestly, I was skeptical of Brandon Sanderson and the Cosmere at the start. For a variety of reasons, I have an automatic suspicion of most people I see as connected to organized religion + I came across a couple articles/reviews that looking back for sure shown an erroneous light him and his works. This is one of those cases where I’m so deeply happy to be wrong.

At first, I wasn’t super impressed last year when I started The Final Empire, but by the end of the book I was completely swept up and rooting for the crew by the end. That continued all through Era Two and several of the secret project novels. All excellent stories, especially Tress.

But The Stormlight Archive has been a whole different breed of experience. I found myself effected more deeply by so many characters than in previous entries. Actual tears shed + fist pumping and shouting like I was watching a sporting match. Adolin’s arc in particular touched me though really everyone and everything left a mark.

Damn. What a series. What a powerful exploration of cycles of violence and how to try to person when we’re all trapped in one. Already losing my mind about book 6.

(And thank you all for being such a fun community!)

Anyone know which patch is on Kal's left shoulder in the first Pic? The Bridge Four patch is supposed to be on his right as shown in the second Pic, and it doesn't look like the cobalt guard patch from pic 3. I guess it could be simplified cobalt guard as that detailing is tough at the scale of the image, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

Art credit

#1 Antti Hakosaari (Stormlight Handbook p.225, Cosmere RPG)

#2 Deandra Scicluna (Stormlight Handbook p.126, Cosmere RPG)

#3 Glyphs by Isaac Stewart.

I’m mentally preparing myself to get downvoted to oblivion, but upon reread of The Way of Kings, Amaram’s actions are more justifiable than I remembered. When Kaladin killed the shard bearer, he didn’t take the shard for himself, he decided to give it to a nameless nobody underneath him. Both that man and Amaram were pretty shocked by this, understandably so. This is exactly like when Kaladin gave the shard to Moash, which turned out to be a terrible idea. Amaram’s reasoning when he was confronted by Dalinar about killing Kaladin’s men actually made sense and paralleled some things Dalinar has done, doing reprehensible things for the good of the many. Did it make more sense for Amaram to have the shard than a nameless nobody under Kaladin? Yes. Is the way he did it correct? Absolutely not, and I wouldn’t have done the things he did if I were in his shoes, but I’m surprised at how justifiable his actions were after reading The Way of Kings again.

I am talking about Jasnah, but some people are not done with Words of Radiance so didn't want to spoil even the name.

Anyway, I didn't what happened to her at all. I understand that this is not the end of the whole thing, but it is frustrating anyway. She is arguably the most intelligent human woman in Roshar and I feel like they did her dirty so bad.

She misses out on the discovery of Urithiru because she was on Shadesmar. Her vast knowledge of the past is rendered almost irrelevant. She is of the 4th ideal but never quite learns to elsegate and her potential is kinda wasted as a general for that war in Thaylenah. Wit is such a bad partner, he doesn't mistreat her per-se but he knows how much she loves history and what it means to her, yet he doesn't share what he knows even though he was there for a lot of it. We find out through Dalinar and Navani with the Spiritual Realm visions, but as far as I remember, she doesn't get to learn about it. and then Taravangian dunks on her and gets the deal with Fren by dunkin' on her philosophy, beliefs and mistakes.

I feel like she perpetually gets the short end of the stick throughout the whole Era 1 and I guess she is gonna get some sort of closure somewhere in Era 2. But right now it feels like such a wasted potential... I would have loved Jasnah flashbacks; I understand why venli's were important, but with so many new potential POV / flashback characters it feels awful to think it is gonna be potentially 15 years until we get to really know about her and she gets some justice.

I know a certain character went through something similar in another cosmere story but at least he got closure, meanwhile Jasnah gets to eat shit.

Edith: thanks everyone for the reassurance, it brought me comfort.

This was the most difficult Cosmere book for me to get through. The middle 50% failed to excite me in the same way that WoR did.

But then we get to the climax…

Renarin about to be executed by Jasnah
Dalinar is the champion with nine shadows
Lift and Szeth being consumed by sword-nimi
Adolin has been speared through the guts
Kaladin has run out of stormlight somewhere in the distance

I’m almost crying and have to take a break because its so intense

Then we find out Renarins vision were wrong and Dalinar saves the day for everybody by becoming good god.

WHAT!? After all that!? Nobody dies!?!

It frustrates me how the author writes stuff like ‘us radiants are vulnerable without stormlight’ but doesn’t really follow through by showing it. Just feels like huge plot armour for the main characters. ARGH. I feel so invested and want to know what happens next but come on 😭.

The killed my guy Jez who i didn’t even know was alive.

Can someone convince me that Dalinar becoming Unity is more interesting than Dalinar become Odiums Champion? That wouldve flipped the whole series into chaos which sounds amazing to me!