Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson

Published by Gollancz/Dragonsteel, LLC: London, 2024 (2020).
Book 4 of 'The Stormlight Archive.' Preceded by (spinoff) 'Dawnshard' and (main series) 'Oathbringer.' Followed by 'Wind and Truth.'

Remember Black Widow, the MCU movie that finally gave Natasha Romanov her solo feature, but (spoilers for the MCU) waited until after her character had died to do it, and then pitched it as a prequel of sorts? As a result, the movie - though entertaining - felt less 'significant' than most of the MCU movies had until that point, even as it tried to keep itself relevant through it's post-credit scene.

Rhythm of War has some unfortunate parallels to that movie - although by no means is it as 'irrelevant' to the Stormlight Archive series as a whole. These parallels come through the choice to focus this book's flash-backs (a staple of the main books in the series) on the characters of Venli and Eshonai, the latter of whom died all the way back in Book 2 (oh yeah, spoilers for that, I guess. Though if you're reading this review before reading that book... well...). Usually, author Brandon Sanderson is good at making sure the flashbacks tie closely to the ongoing plot, gradually revealing things about one of our protagonists that change the way we see them, and although Venli gets a bit of this, sharing it with her sister undermines the 'immediate relevance' of it all. Throughout the book I found myself thinking that either a) the Eshonai stuff was not all that important to the plot or b) there would be a last-minute reveal that Eshonai was alive, and that either way it took away a bit of the mystery.

I won't spoil here which one of those outcomes was correct.

However, although the flash-backs were not as great as the rest of the series so far, Rhythm of War still has some great aspects to it. We learn more about Listener culture following a raid on Urithiru, we get a bit more from Navani's perspective and get to know her character better, we learn a bit more of the plots of various villainous characters, and of course, our main characters develop their skills and personalities further.

It's a hard one to review, really, because it is Book 4 of 10 planned ones. I mentioned in my review for Book 3 that at times it feels like the book could be shorter and still tell the same story - there are times in this book I feel the same, although maybe not to the same degree. 

There are also occasions where I find myself forgetting who is who, which is the result of it being Epic Fantasy with a capital E, but also, I am beginning to suspect, Sanderson choosing just to have characters sudden BE prominent who have only been mentioned in passing in previous books.

Or maybe its my own fault for leaving gaps between reading each entry!!

Anyway, all of this makes it sound like I didn't enjoy Rhythms of War, which is wrong. I did. I enjoy this series, and will keep reading it. I even have Wind and Truth sitting on my bookshelf ready to go (it was a Christmas gift). 

However, they are long books that require a lot of time investment, even though Sanderson's prose is easy to get through. I won't rush straight into Book 5.

Time for a breather, first.

Completed 8 December 2025.



(Stormlight Archive Series)

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