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Wind and Truth Reread: Chapter 147, Epilogue and Postlude
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Wind and Truth Reread
Wind and Truth Reread: Chapter 147, Epilogue and Postlude
Honor is gone; Retribution reigns… and a new, better Oathpact is forged.
By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey
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Published on January 12, 2026
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Well… here we are, Cosmere Chickens: the final article in the Wind and Truth Reread. Paige, Drew, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed this reread as much as we have! We’ll be going over the events of the final few chapters as we usually do, then making some broad comments on the book (and this five-book cycle) as a whole at the end. If you found yourself disappointed by aspects of this book, we highly recommend you check out the final section, where we discuss the overall fan reaction to this book in addition to some of the implications of the ending. And if there’s anything we’ve overlooked or things you’d like us to cover or discuss sometime in the future, please drop a suggestion in the comment section and let us know!
Please note that this series is intended as a reread rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content).
Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs
Chapter 147 is titled “Light Flickering in the Darkness” and we have a Wit POV. He wakes in a bed in a place with skyscrapers and actual dirt. And guns. Helloooo, Scadrial!
It had worked. He would continue to exist.
Interesting that he wasn’t sure if he’d actually survive would when Odium vaporized him. What I’d have given to read his POV in that scene!
He dresses and starts to tell himself that it’s all going to work out, but then he can’t lie to himself. Because Dalinar made the wrong decision. Just… completely wrong.
Wit can feel his Lightweaver powers but Design is still on Roshar, so he can’t really use them. He had set some protections in place for her, but would be unable to summon her as a sword. I’d have been amazed if he could have!
Someone named Ulaam enters and addresses him as Hoid, and he henceforth thinks of himself as Hoid. He’s apparently been recreated from a cell culture. He demands a seon, stating that he needs to find out what’s happening on Roshar, but Ulaam assures him they are already trying. Time is passing slower on Roshar, and communication is unreliable. There’s a “slowness bubble” (??) around the planet and Ulaam speculates that it will be months before they can learn anything.
“Months for us. Hours for them.”
Hoid says he needs to get back to Roshar immediately. Ulaam warns that if he goes back, he’ll be trapped in the bubble and that in the meantime, things are happening. Autonomy is moving, and Ulaam has a message from Taldain, despite the fact that that particular planet should be unreachable.
Ulaam retreats after leaving some broadsheets and a report on what they knew so far from Roshar.
Hoid is extremely worried about Roshar. He really cares about the planet and those on it, especially Jasnah, Sigzil, his spren, dear friends as well as young people he’d mentored. He has previously said he’d sacrifice Roshar if it were what the cosmere needed, but now he’s not so certain—and it seems it might be sacrificed anyway, for no good whatsoever.
He knows that if he goes back, the greater cosmere will suffer because Retribution is something that would rival even Harmony in sheer power. Hoid realizes that he can’t go back; he has to protect Scadrial first; they can’t afford to lose this planet, too.
What had Dalinar been thinking? Why had he …Wait.Hoid’s eyes opened.Could it be…
He takes up his bone and reaches out to the “meditative realm of the dragons” to seek the wisdom of the ancient dead—and in doing so, he comes to a revelation: “Dalinar Kholin had been an absolute storming genius.”
How, Hoid?? HOW was he a genius?? Elaborate!
POV Shift!
Adolin is in Azimir, of course, a month and a half after the contest. It’s been steadily raining, and he’s finally grown used to the sound of rain hitting the metal rooftop. Noura and most of the nine other Unoathed are sitting at a table lit with actual candles. Ugh, so primitive… They have enough Blades and Plate for thirty-seven more people to join them and, fortunately, they work without Stormlight. Radiants can still summon Blades and Plate, though they have no access to Surges.
Adolin is apparently still Connected and can understand Azish, but it slips, and in the mornings, it takes a few minutes before he starts to understand. I’m guessing this Connection given him by his father will fade with time, so Adolin best start learning Azish in earnest! Maya had gone to Urithiru and has just returned; Adolin announces to the others that his father is dead. Poor Adolin. He had wanted to see Dalinar again so badly, to reconcile and forgive… to resolve their issues. It’s so damn sad that he didn’t get that opportunity.
He continues relaying the information that Maya had learned from the spren gathered at the tower. I’m so glad that Maya can travel back and forth; otherwise, they’d have zero information without spanreeds. Jasnah can look into Shadesmar and speak with spren, so they can, in a roundabout way, communicate.
They talk of their spren, the spren of their Blades, who are recovering. Maya mentions that she has eyes again. There are scars, but she has eyes. They think that Renarin and Rlain releasing Mishram has something to do with that.
Adolin thinks of the storm again, how it’s always raining, though the lightning is less. There had been earthquakes—the landscape has apparently been rearranged in places, though Azimir didn’t experience any of the changes. The storm will strangle the world.
No spanreeds for communication. No Oathgates. No…No healing. He looked at the missing portion of his leg, where he wore the single piece of plate that grew a metal kind of leg and foot, with three large toe-like portions.
Don’t accept that this is how things will always be, Adolin! Don’t accept it! Think of it as temporarily missing, and then you can be healed if you can ever get back to Urithiru! Until then, you have the Plate.
He thinks again of his father, who had failed to protect them. (If only Adolin could know what Hoid knows…) Adolin had felt the love and apology of his father but will never be able to look him in the eyes again.
Kushkam says that they are not beaten. They are Shardbearers and can grow their ranks. May also mentions that the Radiants at Urithiru still have their powers, though they can’t leave the tower… so what good are they, really?
Adolin thinks of Shallan. He knows she’s alive, but fears he won’t see her again given that the Oathgates don’t work. He doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to return to the Physical Realm with no Stormlight.
The door slams open and Zabra enters, bidding everyone to come outside. Noura doesn’t like the fact that Zabra and even Gezamal are friends with Yanagawn… but the emperor considers each one of the Unoathed to be of a rank which are allowed to speak directly to him.
Zabra says the rain is ending and they all rush outside to see the sun. Adolin trails behind, picking up a copy of his father’s book, which he’s learning to read. In the coming weeks, we’re told that they’ll discover that the clouds have dissipated only over Azir; the rest of Roshar will remains cloaked in darkness, beset by the Everstorm.
Small though it might seem, a light would remain in Roshar.
Shallan is in Shadesmar, months after Retribution’s rise, and she, along with other spren and humans, approaches what used to be Cultivation’s Perpendicularity. It’s an empty hole. People camp there, awaiting Cultivation’s possible return, and Shallan will stay with them for the sense of community. She doesn’t know if she’ll ever see Adolin again.
At this thought, she touches her belly, and we (or at least I) assume that she’s with child. A child Adolin may never meet. It’s storming heartbreaking!
The part of her that was Radiant assesses the situation. Food and water from offworld, shipping lanes were planned to Urithiru, which still had Towerlight. She would survive, for more than herself.
She figures there has to be a way back into the Physical Realm. Perhaps Jasnah will figure out how to transfer people from Shadesmar. Shallan has hope.
She heads back to where she left Pattern and Testament. There are Fused here, as they ultimately rule, but they allow the “locals” to function independently. Shallan thinks that they might present an opportunity to make a perpendicularity.
I will find my way back to him.
Ow, my feels!
She approaches some tents and Felt stands up. When she takes off her hood, he turns white and looks as though he’ll pass out. She tells him she just wants to talk to Thaidakar if the seons still work. She says she needs to use his; he owes her, and she has news that he might find relevant.
POV Shift
Sigzil is walking in Shadesmar, thirsty, but the power of the Dawnshard he carries has started to sustain him. He doesn’t need to sleep anymore but he’s tired. He’s also set on redeeming himself by protecting and caring for the Dawnshard.
At long last, he encounters a caravan of Iriali. He’d heard about it from some spren who knew they were traveling offworld, so he’s going to tag along.
Travelers of other nationalities are pushed to the back of the caravan and here Sig finds a family that takes pity on him and gives him a ride in their wagon. And then he meets 12124, though he doesn’t want to use that name anymore. Sig realizes he was Szeth’s spren, but the highspren is ashamed of being rejected. But he is eager to talk, and begins telling Kaladin and Szeth’s story to Sigzil as they travel.
POV Shift!
Shallan speaks with Thaidakar, who explains the weird time-slowing bubble that is enveloping Roshar. Apparently, if she were to leave the planet, even if she returned after just a few years, everyone else will have aged a great deal. Thaidakar guesses that the situation will resolve in 70 or 80 years, which would be about 10 years on Roshar. He goes on to say that he has little interest in what’s happening on her world at the time since he has pressing concerns on his own planet to deal with.
Shallan demands that he give her the seon, and amazingly enough, he allows her to take it—provided the seon, Ala, can continue to report back to him about events on Roshar. Shallan returns with the seon to Pattern and Testament, who is looking much better since the final day. Ala tells Shallan that she’s been in communication with another seon on Roshar, and Shallan has plans to get that other seon to go to Azimir so she can speak with Adolin.
Here’s hoping that works out for her.
POV Shift!
Some months later, but years later for the rest of the cosmere, Retribution finally has a moment to turn his eye back to Roshar.
He visits the Spiritual Realm where, as Taravangian, he enters the vision that he’d created of Karbranth. He’d rescued the people of the city rather than destroying them, and tucked them away in the Spiritual Realm, inside a vision. They have no idea what’s happened in the world, and to them, Taravangian never died.
He embraced his grandchildren, weeping, and the power simmered. Hating Dalinar Kholin.For having been right.
The epilogue is titled “Majestic Improvisation.” Hoid is waxing poetic about how art is improvisation, speaking to a group of people waiting to interview to work for House Ladrian, who are doing their best to ignore him.
He thinks of what Dalinar did in encouraging Honor to go to Taravangian.
It had taken Hoid weeks to grasp what that wonderful, belligerent, spectacular man had done.
Dalinar had made Retribution a target of the rest of the Shards in the cosmere who had been ignoring him up to that point, but were forced to pay attention the second he’d taken up a second Shard. And with Retribution in hiding, maybe Roshar had a chance…
When he can make it back to Roshar, Hoid plans to make sure everyone knows of Dalinar’s brilliance in his final act.
As he’s being interviewed for the position of coachman in the Ladrian household, he quips and jests with the very businesslike house steward, playing the fool as only Hoid can.
As he leaves, having somehow gotten himself hired, he thinks to himself that he needs allies who can fight a god and plans to find Valor.
“Brilliant job, my friend,” he said, striding out onto the street. “Brilliant storming job. You’ve given us a chance. Let’s hope we can live up to it.”
And finally, we get to the Postlude, where we find Kalak on a ridge near a beach. He doesn’t know where he is, and then Kaladin is there, explaining. He’s taking Jezrien’s place as king of the Heralds, there is a new Oathpact, and Ishar has protected their minds from the Fused in order to give them all time to heal.
Kalak is skeptical and says that everyone on Roshar is as good as dead.
“Then what harm is there,” Kaladin said, “in trying one more time? If everything is already doomed?”“I…”“One more try,” Kaladin whispered. “Just once more.”“Once more,” Kalak said. “A… final Return?”“We heal,” Kaladin said.
And then Kalak sees Taln. He asks if the Herald they abandoned has said anything, and Kaladin replies that he also needs time to heal but that he has spoken once, to say that he forgives them all.
Taln was back.Taln… forgave them.Kalak reached up and took Kaladin’s hand.
I’m not crying, you’re crying! And thus ends Wind and Truth (though I’ll see you at the end of the article for our final wrap-up).
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs
Overall notes:
Months for us. Hours for them.
I’m certain that Drew will be covering this in-depth below, but I wanted to take note of this in regards to character growth as well. Brandon has stated that we’re going to have a ten-year time-skip between book five and six of Stormlight. Time will be passing for our characters slower than it will be for the rest of the Cosmere, but even so… there’s going to be some unaccounted time here. Time for some characters to come to terms with loss (looking at you, Adolin, Renarin, Jasnah), time for healing (Kaladin and the Heralds), and time for longing to grow (Adolin and Shallan), despite their seon-phone.
Also… Whoa! Is that Herald on the new arch for the epilogue KALADIN? ::looks closer:: OH MY STORMS, IT IS! That’s incredible. Hello, Mr. McHottie-Herald-Face!
Szeth
[…] from the witness of my husband, Szeth […]
I’m sorry, WHAT? Szeth GETS MARRIED?! AMAZING. YES. NO NOTES. (We didn’t get these little snippets in the beta version so this is entirely new to me, apologies for the excitement.)
Hoid
He’d told himself he would sacrifice Roshar for the good of the cosmere, but at the end he hadn’t been so certain. And now it seemed it was going to be sacrificed anyway, just not for the good of anyone or anything.
It can be hard to comment on Hoid in regards to his character arc, because we know so little about him, in comparison with the other characters. He plays things incredibly close to the vest, even when we have access to his POV, and not really knowing his full motivations, plans, or backstory hinders our ability to comment decisively about what he’s up to. However, I will say this: watching him grow closer to the characters on Roshar and come to truly care for them has been very endearing. Despite his bitching about Kaladin, he clearly does care about him. He has a particular soft spot for Shallan, and we all know how his relationship with Jasnah turned out. To see a practically immortal being grow so close to mortals (well, mostly) is… sad, in a way. He knows that their lives are transient—but he can’t help feeling for them anyway. He cares a lot more for people than he lets on, and that’s… incredibly sweet, that the millennia haven’t completely deadened him. (Despite him trying desperately to prove to everyone, including himself, that that’s the case.)
Adolin
“My father is dead.”He braced himself as he said it. The pain was still raw, and anguishspren congregated at his feet.
Having someone die like that without getting closure for the distance between you is hard, even with that last little message that Dalinar sent:
[…] he’d felt a surreal sense of love and apology from his father.
It’s nice to know that Adolin got that, at least. Many people don’t get even that much from estranged family before they pass.
Book snug under his arm, he felt like somewhere his father was smiling at him.
Aww. Well… Adolin’s arc in regards to his father is over with, or so it seems. He still has a way to go, and several different paths his character might take—he’s a husband, separated from his wife. A soon-to-be father, who has no prospect of meeting his child or even knowing that they exist. A warrior, a leader, a friend, and a mentor.
No healing. He looked at the missing portion of his leg, where he wore the single piece of Plate that grew a metal kind of leg and foot, with three large toe-like portions. He was getting quite proficient with it, but still had been hoping to have his actual foot back.
I’m… actually happy to see this.
Let me explain.
I’m not disabled in this way, but I try to pay a lot of attention to disabled folx and how they feel about being portrayed in fiction. (I have a blind character in a book I’m working on, and want to be sure I’m portraying them as sensitively and as accurately as possible.) As such, I see a lot of discourse around the dislike of disabled people being “fixed” magically. This is a sensitive subject and it’s worth noting that there’s not one perspective that’s universally accepted. But one viewpoint that comes up quite often is that people don’t see their disabilities as something that needs fixing. They are a part of that person, and having those things magically taken away so often in books is frustrating. Especially when that’s not an option for most people in real life.
Seeing people in books (or other media) who rely on disability aids (like the one Adolin has here) is a type of representation that’s just as important as the “wish fulfillment fantasy” of having a disability magically healed or removed. Both have their places, and I think Sanderson does a great job of showing both. Characters like Adolin and Rysn are perfectly capable of being amazing while relying on their disability aids. Characters like Lopen have had their disabilities magically healed, because they never came to view that disability as a part of their personality and identity, and so the Stormlight returned them to “factory settings.” It’s a nice way to acknowledge that both things can be valid, and I know that Sanderson has reached out to disabled folx to get their opinions on this matter as well.
If you’re disabled and have an opinion on this one way or the other, we’d love to listen. Please chime in in the comments below!
Shallan
She might never see Adolin again.Her hands went to her stomach, cradling it. Oh… oh storms.
It’s subtle, but if this isn’t telling us that she’s pregnant, I’ll eat all of Wayne’s hats.
She could survive. She had to. Not just for herself.
I’m telling you…
Anyway. We’re leaving Shallan in a bad place physically, but mentally, she’s probably the best she’s been since the trauma of killing her mother and father. She’s somewhat stable for the first time in a long time, and she’s one of the most capable and resilient of the main characters thanks to everything she’s gone through. She’ll be all right… and her reaching out to Kelsier means we might be seeing her sooner than everyone else…
“Yes, if you left and traveled to another world, decades might pass for you. I don’t recommend it, unless there is nobody you care about—because when you return, you will be much older than they are.”
…Or will we?
[…] if this worked, she’d at least be able to talk to Adolin.
Well, at least there’s that! A long-distance relationship is certainly better than no communication at all.
Sigzil / Vienta / 12124
He’d consigned her—both had believed—to a painful half existence. He had done it to save her, and the note she’d sent acknowledged that, but she still didn’t want to see him.
You know what? That’s valid. I’m glad to see that she acknowledged the reasoning, but I can’t entirely blame her for not wanting to see him again, either.
“I’m a failure,” the spren confessed.
I’m happy to see these two find one another. We know where they end up, of course (if you don’t, go and pick up a copy of The Sunlit Man to find out) but it’s nice to see that the spren who was rejected and the man who rejected his spren in order to save her have managed to find one another, and can work together to heal.
Kaladin
I’d like to point at Brandon’s quote here to sort of sum up my thoughts on Kaladin’s arc. The relevant part, as I see it, is thus:
I am pretty proud across the entire five books of what I did with Kaladin. Kaladin’s arc across the five books is when I was building it—you know you are never quite sure when something is going to work. And I am like: is it right, like, if i am going to have Kaladin in book four be PTSD Kaladin and book five be recovery Kaladin, is that actually [going to] work in the book? You only get a couple of books of Kaladin being on his A-game before it crushes him and as a writer, the way the arc looks and comes together and having a book where he is dealing with it and recovering, was really satisfying to write. You don’t get to do that as a writer very often. You usually have to have someone go through an arc in a book and then kinda come to a catharsis by the end of the book and that is their arc. What you don’t get to do is spend fifteen years, you know, cracking a person and then having them figure out how to put themselves back together and it is something I have never really done before.
“Then what harm is there,” Kaladin said, “in trying one more time? If everything is already doomed?”
Gods, I love this man. Kaladin is such a great character. His growth is one of the most fascinating character arcs I’ve seen in all my time reading fantasy (which is not an inconsiderable bit, as I’m 43). Usually, we’d see the character growing more and more badass, learning more cool fight skills and getting more powerful until they can eventually face off against gods. This evolution of warrior to healer is pretty revolutionary. While Rand al’Thor in The Wheel of Time had some PTSD to work through, he still spends the last book a fighter. Usually we see this shift once the battle is done—having a main character step back into a support role partway through the series is pretty rare. I’m having trouble thinking of any other instances… sound off in the comments if you know of any I’ve forgotten, or maybe have never heard of! (I need to add to my TBR anyway.)
Retribution/Odium/Taravangian
How many names is this guy going to collect? Ugh. Anyway.
Kharbranth was dead, but in the moment that Cultivation had looked away, Taravangian had summoned his power and taken the people.
Lovely. I mean, we knew this, and we’ve commented on it before in this reread, but it still annoys me that he played all high and mighty and “Oh, look at me, I’m willing to sacrifice all I hold most dear” when he was really just a huge hypocrite.
He embraced his grandchildren, weeping, and the power simmered. Hating Dalinar Kholin.For having been right.
HA! Well… at least he admits it, not that it did poor Dalinar any good. Still, a small part of me is happy to see that Dalinar was right.
So far as she now remembered, he had not died.
There are so many troubling implications here regarding consent and the ethics of literally changing someone’s memories, but I mean…
He is the bad guy.
Kalak
He was a wretch, and always would be.
That word choice has to be deliberate. It’s the same word that Kaladin always used to refer to himself in his worst moments, thinking of himself as “the wretch.”
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
Wit woke in a bed somewhere far from Roshar. A place with soil, budding skyscrapers, and firearms.
When I look back at the progression of the Cosmere as an institution, I realize I’ve said on a few different occasions that “this is where the gloves come off.” I said it way back in 2014, when Nightblood showed up at the end of Words of Radiance. I said it when I first read The Lost Metal, and again when I read Tress of the Emerald Sea a short while later.
There are pretty clear stages to how Sanderson has rolled out the interconnectedness of things. The early books—Mistborn Era 1, Elantris, Warbreaker—had Hoid puttering around in the background and that was pretty much it. The Way of Kings dropped in some other worldhoppers, but there was very little context to figure out who they were. Words of Radiance was the first overt crossover (with another, less overt crossover in Vasher/Zahel).
That felt like a demarcation to me. Subsequent releases, like Oathbringer and The Bands of Mourning, also had obvious worldhoppers show up. It’s hard to miss Khriss at the New Seran party or Riino in the Shadesmar lighthouse, especially if you’ve read everything else up to that point.
The Lost Metal and the secret projects again marked a new stage, with worldhoppers and off-world Invested Arts playing key roles in the climaxes of different stories. So what was the new threshold going to be for a book as massive as Wind and Truth? This is, after all, essentially the halfway point of the Cosmere.
Well, this scene is it. For the first time in a Cosmere book, we get a scene set on a different mainline Cosmere world. Hoid wakes up on Scadrial, has a conversation with a kandra, ruminates over Shardic fallout, and then uses a tamukek to contact the minds of long-dead dragons.
I mean, what?
It’s no wonder that this book got the reception it did, especially from the readers who are Stormlight-only. If you’ve never read Mistborn or Elantris or Arcanum Unbounded or… well, pretty much everything else in the Cosmere? This scene probably feels like a fever dream. Like Brandon completely jumped the shark.
Now I’m obviously a big fan of the interconnected nature of the Cosmere, and I’ve been on board from basically the very start. I’ve known where this is heading since the mid-2000s. I love this kind of stuff. But I totally get why so many people were frustrated with this book.
I’ll talk more about the reception later on in this article, but for now we have to talk about some other developments in the story.
Her hands went to her stomach, cradling it. Oh… oh storms.
She could survive. She had to. Not just for herself.
Sanderson doesn’t come straight out and say it, but as both Paige and Lyn have noted above, these two lines are plenty for implication: Shallan is pregnant.
She’s also stuck in Shadesmar, and while she says she plans on hanging around near Cultivation’s old perpendicularity, I have to wonder how far she’ll end up traveling and how much the time dilation will affect her.
It’s very possible that the next book will open with a young child or even teen in Shallan’s company. I know I’m not alone in thinking that we may get a sort of “next generation” cast going on, with Lift, Gavinor, Oroden, and Shallan and Adolin’s child.
“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Sigzil said, leaning back. And he listened to the spren’s story, sitting in a daze and trying not to be frightened of the way his very body seemed to be changing to adapt to the power he held.
And so we see the beginning of a new bond for Sigzil and Aux, one which will have a bittersweet ending in The Sunlit Man.
I do wonder about the timeline, though. Does Sigzil bond Aux before he gives the Dawnshard back to Hoid? I hope we see more from their adventures, and get more details about what the Dawnshard does to Sigzil, how it interacts with a potential Nahel bond, and how/when Hoid comes to get it back.
“We’ve been calculating. Seems like the time dilation is slowing around Roshar, and the worst was at the start, but it’s going to be a while yet. Maybe… seventy or eighty years from now, you’ll realign with cosmere standard? That will seem like a decade or so for you.”
Well, isn’t that convenient? This allows for the ten-year gap between books 5 and 6 and allows for Mistborn Era 3 (presumably) to take place around the same time as the Voidlight Archive. Neatly managed, Brandon. Sneaky. And I’ll leave things off with one final bit of evidence in making my case that the back five books will be the Voidlight Archive:
Closing Discussion
Lyn: The fan reactions over Wind and Truth have been decidedly mixed, with many people seeming to be disappointed that they didn’t get the closure they expected. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the end of the series—just the end of this five-book cycle. I find it helpful to look at this ending like The Empire Strikes Back; things aren’t resolved, we’re left with characters in terrible situations, and the main bad guy is still at large. Han’s encased in carbonite. Luke’s hand has been cut off. Luke’s just learned that Vader is his father, and Cloud City has fallen. The prospects for our characters seem pretty dire! But we all know that Return of the Jedi turns things around. I have every faith that Sanderson will deliver us a Return of the Jedi ending to this series in the back five. He hasn’t let us down yet, in my opinion. The endings to both eras of Mistborn were incredibly satisfying, after all (not to mention the endings to the Reckoners and Skyward series, which take place outside of the Cosmere).
So if you’re one of those who was disappointed by this ending, my advice is to have faith. I know it’s frustrating that we won’t be returning to this world and these characters for quite a long while, but when we do, the ending’s going to be spectacular. I can feel it.
Paige: I can feel it, too! I’m so bummed about the wait but it will be so great to get to the second arc! We’ll get reunions and communication and, in the end, I’m confident that Taravangian is going down! Maybe I’m just too rabid a fan, but I wasn’t beset with doubts and didn’t find myself getting frustrated or annoyed with parts of this book as many of the more vocal critics seemed to be. I enjoyed the journey for what it was. I also didn’t feel that the book was overlong, though the beta read certainly was. Oi.
Drew: I have tried throughout this read-along to just stick to analyzing the lore/Investiture/magic revelations and theorizing about where things might be going, but I’m sure some slip-ups happened along the way. That is to say: I don’t really like this book.
I mentioned in my lore section about how crazy the crossovers got in this novel, and while I like them, I can understand how Stormlight-only readers would be frustrated by them. As Lyn noted, too, other readers don’t like the down note it ended on. Personally, I have more issues with the pacing of the book; the ten-day structure was really cool in theory, but in execution, it ended up feeling like a lot of characters were just spinning wheels while waiting for the important stuff to happen on Day Ten.
Lyn: You make a good point. This certainly isn’t my favorite Cosmere novel (Shadows of Self), or even my favorite Stormlight book (Words of Radiance), and part of that is the interconnectedness of things. It’s really cool to have another huge new speculative fiction interconnected world (looking at you, Discworld and The Dark Tower), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe absolutely set the Cosmere up for success in this regard. But in a way, it’s also hard to keep up with everything, and that can result in readers (even readers like us who are very up on their broader Cosmere theories and knowledge) left in the dark. I liken this to comic books or (amusingly) professional wrestling storylines; it can be intimidating to even step into a world like this, knowing how much of a time investment there is to understanding everything!
Paige: Painfully intimidating! But then I’m not as up on the in-depth cosmere lore as some of the other betas, and fans, so I tend to get a little overwhelmed with the stuff that Drew writes so well about. But even with my relatively elementary understanding of the cosmere as a whole, I’ve read everything but White Sand and I didn’t feel like anything was over my head at all during this book. Though I can’t speak to what it might have been like for readers who only show up for the Stormlight books.
Lyn: I’m in agreement with Drew on the pacing, too. It did feel a little… uneven, at times.
Drew: One thing I’ll say that I did like is that Brandon took a shot with the end of this book. I almost wish he’d let things get even darker. In some ways, it feels like he went for the Empire Strikes Back-style ending but also tried to keep it light. I wish Taravangian had actually gotten Dalinar, not this Blackthorn spren deal. I wish Gavinor had actually been a little kid. It’s like if Han Solo got encased in carbonite, but then shows up on the medical frigate in the final scene because *gasp* it was actually a clone that got captured!
I dunno. If we’re gonna go dark, let’s go dark, yeah?
Lyn: You know, usually I like dark stuff. I did read the entirety of A Song of Fire and Ice that’s been released so far, after all! But I’m glad for this ending. In my opinion, this was just the right level of dark for a Stormlight book.
Paige: I’m all for going dark now and then, yes. But I’m super happy that Taravangian didn’t get actual Dalinar. The man died with his honor intact and, for that, I’m thankful to Brandon. And I hope this Blackthorn abomination of Taravangian’s is ineffective and impotent in the long run.
In closing, I want to say what an honor it has been to travel this journey with Lyndsey and Drew, and with all of you, Sanderfans. Thank you for being here, for your support not just of us, but of Brandon. You’re all amazing, Radiants. See you soon.
Please note: We do ask that you remain cordial to your fellow fans. Critical discussion of the work (and this article) are allowed and encouraged, but please keep the tone of the conversation civil and constructive, as always.
We don’t know yet when we’ll be back, but keep an eye out for future articles on other Sanderson-related topics, and we hope that you’re having an absolutely lovely new year. Farewell, chickens![end-mark]
The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapter 147, Epilogue and Postlude appeared first on Reactor.
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