Thoughts on Wind and Truth

Alternate title: Knights of What The Heck???

Okay, guys. It’s been two months. It’s finally time to talk about Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson.

Amazing cover art by Michael Whelan

I realize this book is a behemoth and people are still reading/listening to it. If this describes you, what are you doing reading my Substack? Go finish the book!

(Seriously. though, this post will be full of spoilers. You’ve been warned.)

Overview

Wind and Truth is the fifth book in the Stormlight Archive, a planned ten-book series divided into two five-book arcs. As such, Brandon had an unusual and challenging job—wrapping up the main conflicts of the first half of the series while setting up for the second half. Somehow he had to leave the reader feeling both satisfied (as at the end of a series) and filled with anticipation and unease (as at the end of book two in a trilogy). And honestly, I think he succeeded—I have so many thoughts about the book that I’m going to have to read it again before I can settle on a star rating. But I usually don’t give books five stars unless they evoke strong emotions (and not because they’re so terribly written), and this book still has me lying awake at night thinking, “What the heck?!” So…it’s probably going to be close to five stars.

I did feel like the prose was a little rougher than Brandon’s usual standard. From time to time there were odd or possibly incorrect word choices (I slammed this book in about four days, so I obviously didn’t slow down to mark them or think about them too much). I’m going to chalk this up to Wind and Truth being so enormous that you just can’t catch everything by the deadline.

Character Analyses

There’s a lot going on in this book, so the easiest way to tackle this is to give my impressions for each major character. For reasons that are probably obvious to many, I’m going to give Renarin and Rlain their own post later this week.

Kaladin

Good old Kaladin. I love his character so much. I was really glad we broke out of the whole Kaladin-suffers-an-enormous-setback-in-his-mental-health-and-has-to-overcome-to-swear-the-next-ideal pattern in this book. He’d really reached a good place at the end of Rhythm of War, and I was hoping he’d be able to stay there. It was good to see him applying the lessons he’s learned and using them to help others—which should be the goal of mental health interventions, instead of spending the rest of your life in talk therapy or whatever. It did make him feel like a bit more of a supporting character than in the rest of the series, but after everything our Bridgeboy has been through, I’m okay with that.

Also, that scene where he dances with Syl was maybe the sweetest thing I’ve read in a long time.

On the other hand, the “I’m his therapist” line made me cringe so hard my face still hurts.

Concerning his becoming a herald…it feels right. It feels satisfying. It was pretty clear from the get-go that Kaladin was not going to be the character who got the “there-and-back-again” ending at the end of all this. But I feel personally offended that after everything Kaladin has done for the world, Szeth is the one who gets to get married, settle down, and start a family. Come on, man.

Which brings us to…

Szeth

Okay, I’ll level with you guys—I’ve never been a Szeth fan. Like, at all. So while his emotionally scarring backstory helped us understand why he’s such a messed up dude, I really didn’t enjoy reading those chapters. I’ll probably skim them in my next readthrough.

Also, I thought the way he broke his bond with 12124 was deplorable. Yes, their relationship was dysfunctional, but I thought the whole point of Szeth’s arc was that he needs to learn to be less legalistic. 12124 was in the process of changing and breaking away from the Nale-type skybreakers, just like Szeth did, and it would have been nice to see them work out their issues and develop a healthier bond. Instead, Szeth condemned him to an ultimately pretty grisly fate (if you’ve read The Sunlit Man, you know what I’m talking about). Honestly, I was pretty disturbed by all the characters breaking their bonds and renouncing their oaths left and right, but more on that later.

Credit where it’s due, though—Szeth throwing the spoon at 12124? Hilarious. Except that Szeth is so un-hilarious it felt out of character. Still, good times.

Shallan

Shallan is another character whom I struggle to love. She and I are just morally and temperamentally mismatched, and it’s deeply unpleasant watching her make one bad decision after another. It was refreshing when both Dalinar and Navani expressed their annoyance with Shallan for hiding her Ghostblood involvement from them, and when Kaladin acknowledged that it would have been mutually destructive if they’d gotten romantically involved.

(Kids, it’s great to have things in common with your romantic partner. Mental illness is a huge, glaring exception.)

That said, I thought this was Shallan’s best book so far. She has also fallen into a predictable and irritating pattern, taking one step forward and two steps back in terms of coping with her past and her particular flavor of mental instability. And just like with Kaladin, I was happy to see her finally making progress. As in the other books, Shallan had to confront unpleasant truths about her past, but this time she didn’t curl up into a ball or create new alternate personalities to deal with her discomfort. She held it together, put the whole Formless thing behind her for good, and finally dealt with Mraize. Love to see characters learning and growing.

It was disappointing that we didn’t get to see Shallan and Adolin’s wedding at the end of Oathbreaker, so that was delightful—even if it was just a weird Spiritual Realm flashback. I’d seen enough fan theories floating around that I was pretty sure her mother was Chana, but that was a well-executed twist regardless. I was legitimately heartbroken when Shallan got trapped in the Cognitive Realm at the end, although it’s about time someone (other than Hoid) gave “Thaidakar” a hard time for screwing around on Roshar. Well done, Shallan.

Also, I’m pretty sure she’s pregnant, and I’m super excited for Shadolin babies. Too bad we’ll have to wait until 2031. And I thought my pregnancies lasted forever…

Jasnah

This was a rough book for Jasnah, and I am here for it. I don’t know, she’s a cool character and everything, but having the smartest, prettiest, most logical, most regal, most powerful character in the entire world also be a staunch atheist just rubs me the wrong way. Jasnah is too smart for religion, too smart for God, too smart for relationships, too smart for societal norms, too smart for emotions, too smart for you. Throughout the series, Jasnah seemed to have it all figured out, and her character had nowhere to go. And there was never any indication that living your life this way could possibly backfire on you…until Wind and Truth.

By the end of the book, Jasnah has been outsmarted and outplayed by a god, pressed the self-destruct button on her relationship with Wit, lost her mother (temporarily, we hope), lost her uncle/father figure (permanently), and lost the conflict she worked so hard to prevent/win. Her story ends with her sobbing on her bed, wishing she had someone to hold. And while this is absolutely heart wrenching, it’s also what character development looks like. I have a feeling that when we see Jasnah again in (hopefully) 2031, we’ll see a woman who is a little less self-assured—and her life will be all the better for it.

ALTHOUGH…

It was a massive jerk move for Wit to leave that letter for Jasnah. By nearly every metric, she is an absolutely amazing woman, and you’re not going to fight for her even a little bit? I know you’ve got stuff going on, but come on, man. Do better.

Dalinar

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Guys, I don’t know if I can talk about this. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. And I don’t want to live in a Cosmere where the only version of Dalinar is some garbage cognitive shadow of the Blackthorn.

*sob*

Okay, get it together, Elissa.

I’ve loved Dalinar’s POV chapters since the Way of Kings, and this book was no exception. The Spiritual Realm is very fun, and while I found some of the history of Roshar scenes a little slow, Brandon made up for it with the final confrontation with Odium. I actually read some compelling fan theories about Gavinor being the Champion, so that part wasn’t too big of a surprise…but fully-grown Gavinor who had been stuck in the Spiritual Realm for twenty years, having his mind poisoned by Odium? Yikes forever.

I was a little annoyed by the whole oh-no-Dalinar-solved-a-problem-with-his-fists-again-he-hasn’t-really-changed subplot. Guys, sometimes you just have to slap some sense into people. It’s not an ideal solution, but after reading The Way of Kings, I don’t think anyone could blame him for getting through to Elhokar in the only way he could. We’ve seen enough of Dalinar to know he’s changed and become a better man. We don’t need to be on tenterhooks waiting for him to snap and become the Blackthorn again, or tut tut every time he’s a little more assertive than people would prefer.

I truly expected Dalinar to work things out to where he could take up the Honor shard, and I suspect it will take me another readthrough to understand why he didn’t. But his death, though heartbreaking, was bombastic and cathartic, and I was glad he was able to reconcile with Adolin in some small way.

Speaking of which…

Adolin

Everyone’s favorite boy really shone in this book. Adolin has really matured from a (goodhearted) womanizing frat-boy to a true hero over this half of the series. Throughout Wind and Truth, he stands by his principles and never gives up on the impossible task of defending Azimir from the enemy. We see a more intelligent side of him as he teaches Towers to Yanagawn and navigates tricky politics in a way his father never could. He encourages everyone around him and builds bridges where needed. He never stops fighting, even after he’s lost his shards and even his leg, in the most grueling circumstances. That’s hardcore.

That said, something about the whole Unoathed thing bothers me.

Quick background: Brandon Sanderson and I have something important in common. We’re both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Highly recommend checking it out, by the way.) Despite Brandon’s insistence that he doesn’t directly write his faith into his books, he can’t help letting the truths of the Restored Gospel bleed into his stories. Ask my husband about Dalinar basically being Brigham Young sometime.

One of the things we emphasize in the Church is making and keeping sacred covenants. We make several important covenants throughout our lives, and renew them each week when we take the Sacrament. To quote President Russell M. Nelson:

[A covenant] is a sacred promise with God. He fixes the terms. Each person may choose to accept those terms. If one accepts the terms of the covenant and obeys God’s law, he or she receives the blessings associated with the covenant. We know that “when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

This strikes me as a little like a Nahel bond in the Cosmere. A splinter of a god (a spren) sets the terms. Then a human speaks the required oath, and receives Radiant powers. Just like with covenants, there are serious consequences for oathbreaking: in the Cosmere, a broken oath breaks the bond and kills the spren; in reality, a broken covenant cuts you off from God and endangers your soul.

In Wind and Truth, we learn that among other reasons, Adolin hasn’t become Radiant because he doesn’t think it should be this way. He believes taking oaths is foolish, and if you take one that doesn’t serve you, you should be able to break it, no questions asked. And in the end, with the creation of the Unoathed, reality bends to suit his point of view. Humans and spren can form an arrangement where humans gain access to living shards, but are under no obligations whatsoever, and either party can walk away at any time. It’s a promise, not an oath.

In the context of Brandon’s faith, a system where you can bypass the obligations of a covenant and receive the same blessings raises red flags—and breaks eternal law. as we learn in the Doctrine and Covenants:

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—

And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

-D&C 130:20-21

Why do I need to get baptized when I can just be a good person? Why do my boyfriend and I need to get married, when we can just live together and even have children as part of a long-term, committed relationship? Because, to put it crudely, if you don’t buy the cow, you don’t get the milk. Making sacred covenants protects and elevates us, holding us to standards we wouldn’t (or couldn’t) otherwise live up to—and qualifies us to receive immense blessings from God.

It’s important to point out that not all oaths are created equal. God needs to be the one setting the terms. Jesus warns us:

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:

But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

But in the Stormlight Archive, Radiant oaths are the closest thing the people have to covenants with God. They are good, they are protective, and they are beneficial to both spren and mankind. And for Adolin to bypass them and still receive the benefits—for so many characters to break their oaths and receive minimal repercussions—it makes me concerned about the state of Brandon’s faith, and about the direction the Cosmere is heading.

But I’ll leave that discussion for my next post.

Conclusion

There are so many other things I could talk about—Leyten’s death, Navani experiencing a grandmother’s worst nightmare, Wit and Lift posing as Dalinar and Navani, whatever is going on with the chasmfiends (more like chasmfriends, amirite?)—but I think this is enough to be getting on with. Brandon Sanderson accomplished the task he set for himself with Wind and Truth. And while I have some concerns, I really, really enjoyed reading it.

Now to find something else to do until late 2031…

Pssst…if you’re enjoying my writing, you might like my book! Pick up a copy of Nightwalker on Amazon!