I finished Rhythm of War recently and am 300 pages into Wind and Truth at the moment. By the reviews I have seen, book 5 of the Stormlight Archive has not been received so well. The change in tone (the modernization of the language) from book 1, the over-elaboration of thoughts, the tedious emphasis on the characters’ mental health, the ‘softness’ of the magic, and so on have been blamed.
I read the first three books in 2020, so I do not recall the tone. Had the reviewers not pointed this out, I would not have picked up on this point. I have heard Sanderson mention in a podcast (something he might have picked from Tolkien) that in fantasy, all the words are necessarily translations. If a word sounds anachronistic, it is useful to bear in mind that all of the words are. The words, the phrases, etc, are not to be taken entirely literally. Rather, the concepts they evoke are what matter. The goal of the fantasy author is to use words to evoke ideas that would be evoked by equivalent words in the language corresponding to that fantasy world.
In any case, what matters to me more than tone or prose is the consistency of the plot. I have read books with what might be regarded as ‘beautiful’ writing, but they end up having such hollow plots that in the end I felt like I wasted my time. The Stormlight Archive has managed to keep a solid grip on the plot so far. Even when I think the direction in which the story is going strange, I do not see any plot hole.
The repeated exposition of the inner dialogue and struggles of the characters is a valid criticism. This book is over 1400 pages. It could have been shortened.
Regarding Sanderson being in violation of his first law, I get it. There are plot armor ex machina moments, and the magic system has expanded so far that I do not quite grasp what is and is not possible. But that is a situation I find myself with in other stories too. (I am thinking of The Lord of Mysteries on this point.) Whether this is a real criticism can only be ascertained when the series ends. Right now, we are only at book 5 out of 10.
This brings me to the concern I have regarding the series, or Sanderson’s Cosmere books in general. I signed up for a ten book series. But it turns out, I need to read other books as well in order to fully engage with the story. The scope of the Cosmere is expanding so much. The magic is no longer the strongly tethered magic we saw in Mistborn Era One (which, by the way, was a lot of fun. well written, and structurally perfect.) Events in later books seem to be undermining the sacrifices of earlier books (Kelsier being alive as Thaidakar makes his sacrifice in The Final Empire less meaningful.) My biggest concern is with the expansion of scope, it might become extremely difficult to wrap things up. At Sanderson’s current pace of publication, I believe the next five books will be out in another fifteen years, but I don’t believe that the story will be sufficiently wrapped up. I do not want to have to keep on reading his books indefinitely to feel the sense of closure. Will the story I am interested in ever end? This is starting to give GRRM vibes.
The overall magic system has become complicated enough, with all the different combinations of power, that it is becoming a softer magic system. Hard magic, with definite and clear rules were one of the selling points for Sanderson. I am curious to see how Sanderson deals with the magic complications in the rest of the series.