I love fantasy books, and these books are usually long. I have read a lot of very long books. I also enjoyed a lot the previous books in The Stormlight Archive (except the small one named part 2.5). I did recommend to a lot of friends the first book, Way of the Kings, because I loved it.
I just thought this book was just too long (1200 pages), and not much happens. The book could easily be half its length without losing much detail or feeling rushed. There are two interesting sections, right at the end, and also half-way through, which are action packed. Everything else fills like a filler. People would say it is world-building or character-building, but when you are 75% over the third book, over 3000 pages read considering also the previous ones, there should be content with more value. In my opinion, a third act shouldn’t have off topic chapters where some character building is done. There is also a lot of stories which are not that well connected. A lot of “enigmatic” stuff. Too many characters not properly introduced, or it is not clear what their point is. This kind of enigmatic background makes sense on a first book, but not after 3000 pages. Pacing seems just wrong.
The way the action is resolved at the end is also very disappointing. It is the third time it happens (it also happened at the end of book 1 and 2) that near the end, everything seems lost for the main characters, and suddenly you have an “deus ex machina” event that saves the day. I was reading through the book, seeing how everything got darker and darker, and I just kept thinking “ok let’s see which unexpected and abrupt event is going to solve it”. And then it happened. It feels lazy.
Overall, I was mostly bored. The last 10% was very good, but I am not going to forget about the rest of the book.
I can see that the fourth book is also 1200 pages. It also has very good ratings in GoodReads, but this means nothing today.
It is incredible to think that I am thinking about abandoning this saga. Especially considering how much I enjoyed book 1.
by the_phet