If you follow epic fantasy book news, you’ve probably heard a thing or two about Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth. This is the partial finale, a rest stop halfway through his longest and most epic series yet, so the pressure has been high for him to deliver something monumental and amazing. I have yet to finish the book (which I am enjoying), but here are five things other readers love about Wind and Truth, along with my perspective.
My analysis comes from 200 voluntary, positive reader reviews, which I regard as primary data on what they really think. There’s plenty that fans are liking. Numerous reviews (I didn’t count on this front) mention losing sleep to finish this volume, for instance. Others bemoaned having to wait several more years before The Stormlight Archive continues. All in all, it’s an earnest, grateful response.
Here’s the data, broken down.
1. Readers love the world-building in Wind and Truth
Out of 200 reviews, 181 eagerly mentioned Sanderson’s world-building. This will surprise…no one.
Fans have noted Sanderson’s interesting world-building since his debut, 20 years ago. He gives readers plenty of world-building detail. He shows interesting settings and set pieces. He draws from a well-thought out lore. His larger works also delve into multiple distinctive cultures and humanoid/intelligent races. Wind and Truth, for instance, features prominent characters of at least three (and possibly more) unique biological origins. And none of them are elves, goblins, or dwarves.
Most notably, Sanderson has a) created settings that don’t fully parallel earth (which is rare in mainstream fantasy), and b) has come up with numerous complex magic systems that readers love. And to cap it off, Sanderson has built and interconnected series of worlds, joining multiple settings, multiple stories (of multiple volumes), with easter eggs and rewards for the readers who pick up on these connections.
This is a different flavor of world-building than fans find with Robert Jordan or N. K. Jemisin, but it works for so many epic fantasy readers. While my analysis doesn’t make it possible to truly weight this against the other top reasons, this is clearly the most common cause that readers tip their hats to Sanderson’s storytelling skill.
My thoughts: I particularly appreciate Sanderson’s willingness to depart from earth-analog settings. There’s so much space to do this in fantasy (as he has often commented), but not many writers try it seriously. I rarely get excited over world-building, but Sanderson is one writer who has really made it work for me.
2. Sanderson fans rave about his characters
From the 200 analyzed reviews, 170 praise Sanderson’s characters. Readers have a lot to say on this front.
They enjoy the sense of character growth. Or they get angry and excited alike about messy relationships. Fans also comment on the top moments for their favorite characters (Kaladin, Dalinar, Syl, and Lift are some of the ones mentioned most often in these reviews). They share a sense of catharsis for the internal struggles these characters endure. And readers generally applaud the journeys characters take to reach the end of this story.
Characterization, particularly where growth arcs are concerned, clearly carries more weight with most readers than worldbuilding does. Readers have long shared unique appreciation for Sanderson’s inclusion of neurodivergent characters, as one example. His characters confronting their own mental health are also recurring favorites. And reviewers also tend to love the relatability of Sanderson’s characters, particularly the ones who get point of view (POV) attention.
My thoughts: Sanderson stays close to his characters. He gets in their heads, dwells on their concerns, lets the reader see how they perceive the world. Their internal dialogue is an active participant in the story. This adds to total word count, no doubt. But it’s a sure fire way to engage readers, and I’m always here for that side of his writing.
3. Sanderson’s plotting continues to impress
As with most of his fans’ favorites, Sanderson has delivered a plot that readers really buy into. 152 of 200 Wind and Truth reviews commented on this.
Most report enjoying the pacing—regardless of the book’s length—and being surprised (if not SHOCKED), relieved, and hooked by the trajectory the story takes. There’s also something to be said for the clarity of the plot. Readers report understanding the impact of big twists, remembering key information they needed to follow, and generally feeling fairly well anchored as the plot progresses.
And yes, for any readers wondering, it sounds as if there’s plenty of Sanderlanche to go around in Wind and Truth.
My thoughts: Sanderson consistently builds in reminders of details previously shared. This adds to the length but lowers the learning curve for his books, particular where plot is concerned. It also makes his plots less labyrinthine, letting readers tease out key events beforehand and enjoy the rewards of figuring things out in advance. I don’t always love this, personally, but I might just be in the minority based on these reviews.
4. Readers love Sanderson’s magic systems
Interesting uses of and rules for magic were some of the first things readers noted about Sanderson’s early writing. And he has leaned into it more and more through the years. 144 reviews shared their appreciation for Sanderson’s unique and graspable magic systems.
One of the interesting threads here is the influence of magic on plot and character. Many reviews make the case that Sanderson has connected his character journeys, settings, and plot threads to his magic systems, ensuring that magic is an integral part of the story (and not just ornamentation for it).
My thoughts: This is one of the areas Sanderson most shines and most merits his hype. I think about it like Broadway shows where the music is just there for fun and has no bearing on the story. Plenty of fantasy authors bake magic in this way. But then there are musicals where the songs are the story. If Sanderson ever wrote a musical (and no one should be startled if he someday does), I’m betting he’ll write this second kind. He has been consistently good at tying magical events and rules into the actual heart of his stories, and fantasy needs more of this.
5. Readers find a lot to love in the book’s core themes
Sanderson has always been a hopeful writer, especially when compared to peer authors (think Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, Richard Morgan, and Brian Ruckley, all who debuted around the same time as Sanderson). 20 years later, readers continue to appreciate his increasingly introspective approach to core themes. 130 of 200 reviews mentioned depth, thematic complexity, or Sanderson’s internal philosophizing as a winning point for them.
My thoughts: With perhaps the exception of his first Mistborn novel, I see Stormlight as Sanderson’s most philosophical work. But I’ve found Wind and Truth to be less subtle than the past four books (and there are plenty of fantasy authors with more subtlety to begin with). So I was encouraged to see how many readers praised this side of Sanderson’s finale. My worry was that it would be more like Memory of Light ***potential Wheel of Time spoilers ahead *** in which the scope of the conflict handily drowns out some of the series’ most interesting introspection. *** end of spoilers ***
Fingers crossed that reviewers are not just baiting me here.
My perspective overall
Well, I’m only halfway through Wind and Truth. The Way of Kings has long been my favorite book in the series, and I don’t see that changing here. But perhaps in another few weeks I’ll have more to say.
So for reference to a book I have finished reading, here’s a quick contrast with a light analysis I did on The Way of Kings last year. The following are the top five items (found in 100 reviews) that other readers loved about The Way of Kings.
- Epic scope and world-building: 85/100
- Interesting and well-drawn characters: 78/100
- Digestible writing style: 70/100
- Engaging plotting: 65/100
- Thematic depth: 53/100
My methods of analysis
As with a few other reader data articles I’ve written, my approach is based on a coded verbal analysis of voluntary reviews. I spell my process out in some depth here. In this case, however, I used ChatGPT to code the data and manually went through a sample of 50 reviews to check the coding schema for accuracy. I’m also showing just the top 5 reasons here, as opposed to the 10 I shared for The Lord of the Rings.
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About the Author
Stephen Taylor is the author of The Witherclaw Trilogy as well as short fiction appearing in The Future Fire, MYTHIC Magazine, The Centropic Oracle, and other publications. His short story “Only an Ocean” won a Silver Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. When he’s not writing, he’s often playing his violin or wandering in the woods.
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