Review: Wind and Truth, by Brandon Sanderson
by
Stuart Holland
I haven’t read a book like this since A Memory of Light. That was the last time I remember reading a book where the entire book felt like the end of a book. I say the entire book, it actually really took off at the first interlude (which is after the first of the 10 days that make up the story). That moment, where , was where I knew we were in for a wild ride.
And that impression that everything is ending, that there’s a new revelation every few pages, that every chapter really counts, is a hard thing to do with a normal length novel. Wind and Truth is enormous. At first I thought the physical book was a different height (which was going to mess up my shelves) but it was actually just so thick that it looked like it wasn’t as tall. Keeping all of that momentum going would be hard work for a shardbearer in full plate.
Wind and Truth is the end of The Stormlight Archive’s era 1. And, obviously, you can tell. The journey we’ve been on with all of these people really pays off here. Plot threads get wrapped up, and some show you where the futures might go. People love, people die, people take vengeance, and people become more than themselves.
There are loads of great Cosmere nuggets in this book, and at its best you can enjoy it even without them. I drew a few connections to the Secret Projects books particularly: Tress and The Sunlit Man have little nods.
The journey of discovery these characters have as they grow is fascinating. The way that they start discovering a language to talk about mental health makes them more real, the same way they have been inventing new technology with a Stormlight twist over the course of the series. ()
I’ll leave you with a quote, that I enjoyed enough to take a picture of when I saw it. Towers is the name of an in-universe strategy card game.
“The fool will, when losing, seek to flip the board and scatter the pieces. This is not an adage for towers.
- Proverbs for Towers and War, Zenaz, date unknown”
