Whenever I have this much to say about a book, it probably doesn't bode well for its score

about 1/4 of the way through: 6.75

So far, it's clear that brando sando learned of the word "ostentatious" shortly before writing this book. It's not a term of endearment b/w characters nor operative word in the lore thus far, though color is, and it's been used about 6 times in favor of any synonym. Pedantry aside, the story is enjoyable thus far. Clear setup for the two sisters to orbit one another and "switch places" with the scrappy one becoming proper, and vice versa. Trying not to spoil my own enjoyment by finding the clear parallels with ASOIAF re: Daenerys + Arya/Sansa, but they're also present.

Unimpressed by the lack of regality of the so-called-gods so far. Only about 200 pages in but so far none of the gods seem godly, and none of their powers seem impressive enough to have a grip over whole kingdoms. Deus in nomine solum. I'm sure that'll change.

My persistent complaint for Sanderson books is the immersion-breaking dialogue where everyone is quipping, conversations are often dull. Maybe I'm just a slut for a commanding soliloquy. Nothing bad about this dialogue (yet) but it's not impressing me whereas Dalinar and Saddeus are both larger than life (human) characters which eek leap off the pages with their words. Everyone so far is an NPC by comparison.

Ostensity is part of one of the 5 prophecies, so I retract my previous rhetorical crit. And substitute a new one. Mundane words as vernacular swears. "Storms" in SA makes sense since it's like cursing mother nature, but the exclamatory "colors" as a curse is just stupid lol. Also some heavy handed exposition of culture being explained to/by characters to one another for the reader's benefit even though they should def know this shit about one another is a bit lazy but not terrible

50% checking in – being highly critical of Sando because I want to hold him to a higher standard.

Tropes: I enjoy conspiracy. I do NOT enjoy characters without agency, or men writing helpless women (or women writing helpless women tbh). So far, we've got a bit of both

I do not care for aimless worldbuilding. Much of the descriptions of the world thus far have been highly repetitive without progressing the plot or revealing anything to the reader; just padding the page count. The characters keep making the same realizations every day, like it's mf groundhog day "oh wow, these two cultures are very different in the same way that they were different yesterday too" – makes them seem like fucking idiots which is not compelling from a narrative standpoint.

The epistemology of the pantheons is logically inconsistent and also boring :( Like, I get that all the priests are in the same kibosh to control their populace and even the gods themselves, but it doesn't add up that even the gods themselves don't understand the concept of deification. They're literally still just gods in name only because they hold a lot of the breath currency.

The godking Susebron is the most offending character of poor story telling so far. He doesn't understand the notion of "godhood" despite having other "gods" in his court. Can't wrap his head around the idea of other theologies despite being "a god," and not for egotistic reasons, but in a "I exist on a higher plane where that doesn't make sense to me" way. This might make sense by his own admissions since he's being imprisoned in the palace by the priests, but at the same time, he claims to understand how other people (non-gods, and lesser gods) perceive the world without as many breaths as him, but doesn't understand an intellectal issue? It's just not consistent, and unfortunately undermines the entire "world" that's built around these breaths and deification in this world.

So far: the book is moving rather slowly, (most of) the characters are annoying, helpless, stupid, an the storytelling mechanisms are weak :-( 6.25

Final review: barely better than average

I have zero sympathy for Vivenna throughout the whole book for coming to Halindron and, again by her own admission, larping as a poor to really understand their dilemma lmao. Her crisis of identity midway through her stint as a hobo jeopardizes her desire to like save the kingdom, maybe start a revolution maybe not, which speaks more to her privileged upbringing and desire to “matter” more than any actual political machinations.

Killing the Aphrodite analog was cool. Payment due for the sandostorm, but it came like 100 pages too late imo? Like my mind is already more or less made up on this book – no payoff can justify the dreadfully telegraphed and slow progression. (Slow progression is not inherently a bad thing, but the book isn’t good enough to justify the pace - the climax is just okay. See Anathem for an example of where the payoff and rich story is good enough)

The itty bitty aside about the fisherman who retrieves Nightblood is the best part of the whole novel. Show, don’t tell. It’s not even a mystery per-se, but come to think of it, none of the rest of the “reveals” in this story are discernible without hamfisted or, at the very least, overt explanations. The reader is kept in the dark (specifically, Blue Fingers’ motivations which checkout i.e. that Vivenna would understand his motivations as part of her political training, but we mustn’t share those with the reader as part of the FIVE FUCKING HUNDRED AND FIFTY PAGES of exposition about the same repetitive cultural characteristics (color vs. no color ooooo), instead we’ll connect the dots for the idiot reader during the sandostorm), enjoyable in the moment, but weak :-(.

The villains, Blue Fingers and Denth are the characters demonstrating the most executive function and also the most sympathetic? Like Vashar apparently killed Denth’s sister with an evil blasphemous weapon, and Blue Fingers’ is starting a revolution against the people who worship goats and his people were historically enslaved by Halindrons? Based, like actually though. I don’t give a fuck about the rest of the characters all of whom live incredibly pampered lives, and their equally facetious plans in the court just weren’t working until (calling it now deus ex machine (sword) intervention).

Self-critique: my reading of this book has been elitist and contrarian (“boo stupid characters, they deserve death” is a bad take, all else equal.)

Even amidst the sandolanche, I am rolling my eyes:

• Bluefingers laying out his plan bar for bar is shitty story telling
• Even the “cool” sword fight scene in the last few chapters doesn’t make any fucking sense. Denth stabs Vivenna “through” the shoulder (she’s not mortally wounded though). Then, the sword fight is rather prolonged, despite the two dudes being injured. The entire time, they’re bantering with one another, and we have to experience it through Vivenna’s dumbass narration. She’s obviously not a fighter, so we don’t get much good detail which I guess is understandable, she doesn’t know what’s going on (and should be DEAD), but her descriptions (which are really Sanderson’s) are so lame. But then Vasher steps up onto a table “for high ground” ???? in a goddamn 1:1 close-quarters sword fight???? like this is fucking star wars, like the other guy isn’t going to stab him in the back or slash his ankles??? What kind of fucking strategy is that. And then he finds Nightblood and uses it mores as a vehicle than as a weapon, oooooo.

Roughly on-par with “A Darker Shade of Magic.” To his credit, Sanderson’s world building in this story is mostly unique, though the cookie cutter characters are overreliant on tropes. It doesn’t seem to draw too heavily on other source material (other than his own), whereas a lot of other fantasy of similar caliber is obviously derivative.

I think I would prefer Sanderson’s Ars Arcanum up front rather than at the end of his novels. Stephenson does this, and we’ve all griped about the prologue reading like an encyclopedia, but I prefer having that knowledge going into the book (something to look forward to, even if a bit of a spoiler), rather than afterwards. “aaaah” reveal moments shouldn’t (and haven’t) happened because of Ars Arcanum.

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